There was a threat of a transit strike in Toronto as of June 7, 2024, but a tentative agreement (called a framework agreement) was established near midnight on June 6. There will be a vote on June 20 to see if the members of the union will ratify (agree to) the proposed collective agreement.
In the June 8 Toronto Star. there is an article by Ben Spur, City Hall bureau chief, titled “TTC [Toronto Transit Commission] seals deal with 13% wage hike.”
Marvin Alfred is the presdident of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU).
Part of the article reads:
Alfred said the union wouldn’t have been able to win significant concessions if it hadn’t regained its right to strike. Last year, the Ontario Supreme Court overturned 2011 provincial legislation that deemed the TTC an essential service, and banned employees from walking off the job.
…
“The right to strike allowed us to have equality at the bargaining table [my emphasis], which the TTC is not used to when relating to Local 113. They have for too long been able to dictate how things go,” Alfred said.
Equality at the bargaining table? What does that mean? That both sides have equal power to determine the conditions of work and pay? Who has to work for TTC (the employer) after the collective agreement is signed? Who must follow the dictates of management–subject to the limitations imposed on management by the collective agreement (better than no limitations)? What does equality at the bargaining table even mean?
After a collective agreement is signed, which side, the union or the employer, generally grieves (makes a formal complaint that the collective agreement has been breached)? It is the union–because management has the general right (management rights) to manage the business organization (whether private or public) subject to the limtiations of the collective agreement.
This idea that there is equality at the bargaining table because of the right to strike is likely one of the myths accepted by many union reps. Of course, it is better to have the right to strike since it is a major means by which workers not only put pressure on employers but also a means by which they can organize themselves and push back against the power of a particular employer. But the right to strike hardly provides workers with ‘equal bargaining power’ at the bargaining table.
The Abolitionary 