The 2008 TTC strike was as a legal strike action by Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) unionized employees that began on April 26, 2008 at 12:01 a.m. EDT.[1] All bus, streetcar and subway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was suspended leaving thousands of people stranded across the city.[2] Although the strike action was legal the Amalgamated Transit Union local 113 did not provide 48-hour notice of the service withdrawal as they had previously promised they would do. Instead, the ATU only provided 90 minutes' notice before the service withdrawal.[3] Bob Kinnear president of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113 claimed that the lack of an advance notice was necessary to protect the his TTC employees from "angry and irrational members of the public".[2]
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The strike occurred when the two unions, ATU Local 113 and Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 2, voted 65% to reject the offer made on April 20, 2008.[3] The result of the ratification vote was completed just after 10:00 p.m. on April 25 and Torontonians and TTC employees were given approximately 90 minutes notice before the job action began.
The rejected offer had offered TTC operators a 3% wage increase each year for three years. Some operators and maintenance staff were not pleased with the offer. There were also concerns over the injury compensation package and according to some reports [4] contracting out work. TTC employees voiced their concerns over the week prior to the strike.
At approximately 11:45 p.m. Toronto mayor David Miller held a news conference stating that the strike action was "unacceptable and irresponsible". By the following day the mayor had spoken with Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty to ask him to seek back-to-work legislation. By 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 26, the provincial government had signed an Order in Council allowing for a rare Sunday sitting of the Ontario legislature to consider a bill (Bill 66) to order the union back to work.[5]
On April 27, 2008 a back-to-work law (Bill 66) was unanimously passed by the Ontario Legislature, a process which only took 30 minutes. The law was quickly given Royal Assent by David Onley, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, making it official after 2 p.m. The TTC was given a few hours to ensure the system was ready to operate and to build up service. Most transit service resumed by early evening.[6]
Source: TTC[7]
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