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Gwalgen Dent — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:56:17 +0000

London transit workers on strike

LONDON, Ont. — Workers of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 741 went on strike at midnight Nov. 16, when the deadline for a new contract passed unheeded by their employer, the London Transit Commission (LTC). ATU-741 represents 450 bus drivers, maintenance workers and support staff, and the strike has effectively paralyzed London’s public transit system.

The workers of the LTC have been without a contract since June. Chief among their demands are regularly scheduled lunch breaks, a 12 per cent wage increase over three years and improvements to dental and short-term disability benefits. The union has repeatedly requested arbitration as a means of settling the dispute, but their requests have been blocked by LTC general manager Larry Ducharme and the city’s mayor, Anne Marie DeCicco-Best.

DeCicco-Best slammed the workers’ demands as “irresponsible” at a press conference the day before the deadline was set to expire, citing the fact that London has been particularly hard hit by the current economic downturn. She also vowed to wage a public-relations war to inform Londoners of the “true costs” to the LTC and taxpayers of meeting the union’s demands.

The union responded by pointing to the fact that they are paid significantly less than their counterparts in other municipalities, and their benefit packages trail far behind workers in most other unionized sectors.

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