Commuters still marooned as MPPs call for government intervention
Tamara Khandaker
Staff Writer
As the YRT strike drags through its fourth week, three Conservative MPPs in the York Region have appealed to the Ontario government to step in.
Frank Klees of Newmarket-Aurora, Peter Shurman of Thornhill, and Julia Munro of York-Simcoe have asked the Liberal government to legislate all YRT employees back to work if a resolution cannot be found by November 21.
However, according to Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey, the provincial government has not considered or discussed the possibility of enacting back-to-work legislation.
The Conservative MPPs have also asked that all transit services in the GTA be declared essential services, referring to when the TTC was declared an essential service in March 2011, making TTC strikes illegal.
Since the end of October, almost 600 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113 and 1587 have been on strike against York Region Transit’s private contractors—Veolia Transportation, Miller Transit, and First Student.
Veolia and ATU Local 113 met November 9 to discuss and clarify their respective positions. The main concern identified by the union was the out-of-pocket cost of health care benefits.
Veolia has offered to split the cost of health care between the employer and the employee, with the percentage paid by the employee decreasing in the second year, and a five per cent wage increase over the duration of the new contract.
ATU 113 rejected Veolia Transportation’s amended proposal, and there are no further meetings scheduled at this time.
In the meantime, ATU Local 1587 has invited all of the contractors to participate in a binding arbitration process; the employer has not responded to these requests as of yet.
The union has also requested that the York Regional chair, Bill Fisch, step in and encourage the contractors to agree to an arbitration.
According to a poll of over 2,000 York Region residents, 71 per cent expressed that they would like to see the strike end immediately and for both parties to agree to a binding arbitration.
