redmarvel
Red, White and Buxom
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- Jun 19, 2002
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There are disagreements over just what this unexpected strike is about.
Amalgamated Transit Union chief Bob Kinnear told CityNews in an exclusive on Saturday that fed up drivers were planning to walk over safety concerns.
Just last week, the union had announced it would no longer be allowing workers to take part in fare disputes over attacks on its members.
But T.T.C. G.M. Rick Ducharme maintains the walkout is actually centered on shift changes for maintenance workers, a long simmering disagreement that has nothing to do with safety.
The Commission is planning to put 53 of 87 janitors and 53 of 91 subway track workers on the night shift as a cost saving measure, a plan bitterly opposed by the A.T.U.
The change was supposed to take place on Monday.
With day positions being eliminated, management is breaking the collective agreement and bargaining by assigning positions for us, the maintenance workers, explains Jason Hackett, one of those affected by the proposed change.
And the key issue more so is the safety for our operators and drivers out there on a daily basis that are being assaulted. And nobody needs that.
Kinnear insists he didnt tell the workers to leave, and that the job action is management's fault.
We believe this is a lockout, he complains. We had the T.T.C. sending some of our members home as early as midnight They were served with some paperwork at 4am this morning, which is long before our operators reports for work. So we do believe this is a lockout.
Ducharme begs to differ.
He can twist it and say its a safety issue for operators. That isnt true. This has all to do with a master sign-up, whereby we look at how we put shifts in our system, how we clean our stations and how we do track work, and our right to put more people on the evening shift.
The strike comes despite the fact a provincial mediator was appointed on Sunday to head off the impasse before it happened.
Mayor David Miller is outraged by the disruption.
The laws very clear, you cant just walk off your job, he notes angrily. Its not acceptable for union leaders to break the law.
http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Story/20060529-001/page.asp
Amalgamated Transit Union chief Bob Kinnear told CityNews in an exclusive on Saturday that fed up drivers were planning to walk over safety concerns.
Just last week, the union had announced it would no longer be allowing workers to take part in fare disputes over attacks on its members.
But T.T.C. G.M. Rick Ducharme maintains the walkout is actually centered on shift changes for maintenance workers, a long simmering disagreement that has nothing to do with safety.
The Commission is planning to put 53 of 87 janitors and 53 of 91 subway track workers on the night shift as a cost saving measure, a plan bitterly opposed by the A.T.U.
The change was supposed to take place on Monday.
With day positions being eliminated, management is breaking the collective agreement and bargaining by assigning positions for us, the maintenance workers, explains Jason Hackett, one of those affected by the proposed change.
And the key issue more so is the safety for our operators and drivers out there on a daily basis that are being assaulted. And nobody needs that.
Kinnear insists he didnt tell the workers to leave, and that the job action is management's fault.
We believe this is a lockout, he complains. We had the T.T.C. sending some of our members home as early as midnight They were served with some paperwork at 4am this morning, which is long before our operators reports for work. So we do believe this is a lockout.
Ducharme begs to differ.
He can twist it and say its a safety issue for operators. That isnt true. This has all to do with a master sign-up, whereby we look at how we put shifts in our system, how we clean our stations and how we do track work, and our right to put more people on the evening shift.
The strike comes despite the fact a provincial mediator was appointed on Sunday to head off the impasse before it happened.
Mayor David Miller is outraged by the disruption.
The laws very clear, you cant just walk off your job, he notes angrily. Its not acceptable for union leaders to break the law.
http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Story/20060529-001/page.asp
I wanted to go to the moofies but I can only get there with the bus... 
