Tamara Khandaker
Contributor
An anticipated GO Transit employee strike has been postponed until further notice, leaving its ridership unsure about future service status.
The strike deadline, which was set for September 19 after failed contract negotiations, has been extended until the Ontario Labour Relations Board rules on whether or not there is a legal strike agreement between the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1587 and Metrolinx, which owns GO Transit.
If ATU Local 1587, which represents over 1,500 employees including GO bus drivers, decides to strike, it would only affect bus services. GO trains would continue to operate normally.
According to Ray Doyle, president of ATU Local 1587, the agreement with GO has always stated that there are no essential services within the bargaining unit, and therefore all members have the right to go on strike.
Doyle says GO Transit wants to refute their signature for an agreement the two parties previously made, and that the issue must be resolved before a legal strike date can be determined again.
“The negotiations at this moment are going very slow because [GO Transit] now feels they have all kinds of time, and they are no longer under pressure to get this done,” he says.
Thus far, the union has been unsatisfied with the wage increase proposal made by GO Transit, which takes the increase out of existing benefit costs. Other issues include the two-tiered pension plan, which gives employees hired prior to 2001 different benefits from employees hired thereafter.
Third-year social science student Robyn Freitas, who uses the GO bus to commute from Newmarket, is concerned about the additional time it would take for her to get to Keele campus.
“If they did go on strike, I would have no dependable way of getting here,” she says. “I’d have to ask my mom to give me a ride.”
She points out that the drive takes around an hour and 40 minutes; sometimes more.
Ritujeev Ghotra, a second-year chemistry major, depends on the GO bus to commute from Brampton. Her alternative, she says, makes too many stops.
“I’d have to take the [Brampton] Züm buses, and I don’t like doing that,” she says. “It takes very long and it makes way too many stops.”
Drew Davidson of Metrolinx expressed optimism that an agreement will be reached, but declined to discuss negotiations publicly.
During its 45-year history, GO Transit has never yet experienced a strike.
