The union for the 2,200 or so GO Transit bus drivers, station attendants, and other employees has announced that the strike will begin at 12:01 a.m. on Monday.
Despite weekend negotiations, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1587 claims it was unable to reach a deal with GO operator Metrolinx.
“Negotiations have failed because Metrolinx failed to come to the table with a reasonable offer to address any of our key issues,” Local 1587 President Rob Cormier said in a statement Sunday evening.
In order to ensure that skilled people are on the job managing GO Transit safely and effectively, projections against contracting out are essential. Without these safeguards, Metrolinx may enter into contracts with outside businesses that would hire inexperienced workers for unstable, non-union jobs, the man claimed.
The union has said key issues include job security and job safety relating to hiring contract workers from outside companies.
It asserts that Metrolinx refused to compromise on those points during the most recent round of negotiations.
The union claims that the members’ 81% vote against a previous contract offer prompted Monday’s job action.
Metrolinx has already stated that if a strike occurs on Monday, bus service will be interrupted but trains will continue to run. Metrolinx did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the impending walkout.
In order to prevent a transit strike, we have been bargaining for more than seven months, but I can’t say the same for Metrolinx’s negotiators, Cormier added.
Even in these last moments, the corporation made no sincere suggestions on pressing problems. We only use force as a last resort, but the firm’s stalling strategies have given us no other option,” he said.
Three days after 55,000 CUPE education workers also went on strike on Friday, the ATU went on strike.
The same government that is taking away the Charter rights of CUPE employees has given this union-busting royal company its privatisation mandate, according to ATU International President John Costa in a statement released on Sunday.
“Our Union and our members at Local 1587 are fed up with the disrespect Metrolinx has shown them.
For our riders, we had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but our Union has already experienced this with strikes. Until we succeed, we will stand beside our brothers and sisters on the picket lines, he declared.
The website for Go Transit states that in the event of a strike, there will be no GO bus service.
Train service will nevertheless resume.
Buses that leave before 12 a.m. on November 6 will arrive at their destination, “in the event of a strike,” according to GO Transit.
However, buses that were supposed to start running after midnight on November 7 won’t.
According to GO Transit’s website, its trains and buses provide services to the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area over an area of more than 11,000 square kilometres.
There are more than 70 million passengers carried annually since it was opened in 1907.
In 2009, GO Transit combined with Metrolinx, a company that also runs UP Express and PRESTO.
The post-secondary institution McMaster University in Hamilton has advised its students, instructors, and staff to make “alternative arrangements” if they typically travel the GO bus because many Canadians are likely to be impacted.
The university issued a news release on Sunday evening with the following message: “Everyone is encouraged to be polite to others, flexible, and sensitive of the impact this will have on our students, professors, and staff who use the GO bus to commute to campus.”
A same update was also distributed to students at the University of Guelph.
In a tweet on Sunday, York Region Transit (YRT) assured its customers that they won’t be impacted.
“In the event of a potential GO Transit bus strike on Nov. 7, all YRT services will continue to operate as normal,” the transit operator said.
— Including documents from The Canadian Press
GO Transit employees will walk out on Monday in excess of 2,000 despite weekend negotiations.
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