Un. Be. Leavable.

All the way through these latest tortured negotiations, I managed to find a way to empathize with the plight of the TTC's unionized workforce. I've been pro-union all my life, I'm in a public sector union myself, I rely on the TTC every single day of the week, and I know that most of the TTC's foibles cannot rationally be laid at the (supposedly vastly overpaid) union's feet.

Strikes suck, sure, but they're a last resort to which freely associated workers have a legal right in the event that structured negotiations break down. So, my wife got her hands on a servicable bicycle, and I psyched myself up for an hour-and-a-half walk to work if necessary. If my colleagues and I can use the threat of withdrawing our labour to win better wages and working conditions, so can the ATU. Fair's fair, solidarity forever, etc., etc...

I wanted to sing hosannas to the good and helpful angels on high when, as of last Sunday evening, it seemed as though Kinnear et al. managed to bring home the bacon for their members while avoiding both egregious concessions and unconscionable demands from the employer. Things seemed well-settled, especially with the controversial GTA clause in place to keep our transit workers the (marginally) best-paid bunch in the region. The contract was still 'tentative', sure, but at least we've got that genuinely helpful 48-hour good-faith notice period in case the membership rejects the new deal.

But no. As Steve Munro deftly put it:

[ATU] Local 113 has blown its relationship with the most pro-labour Commission and Council they could hope to have across the bargaining table. From here on, who can trust their signature on a contract?

With virtually no notice and well after most reasonable people stop monitoring the news on a Friday evening, it was announced that 65% of voting ATU members torpedoed the contact and that a strike had been called for the next morning. Supposedly the maintenance workers -- a minority of members -- were unhappy with the deal, and apparently enough others voted in sympathy to tip the balance over to rejection.

Yes, it's better for most (non-TTC) workers for this to go down on a Saturday rather than a Monday; and, yes, there's a good chance that Queen's Park can force this to arbitration before the start of the standard work week so long as the pro-union party sees fit to refrain from availing itself of the various applicable procedural delays Still, it absolutely did not have to be this way and I see no one else to blame but ATU 113's leadership.

It now seems that essential service designation and permanent binding arbitration is the only option. On balance this will probably benefit the ATU 113 membership (as such arrangements usually do) but this was a ridiculously self-destructive path to arrive at that result. It's been an awfully long time since the TTC's workers had any sympathy from the wider population of the City, but it now seems that all but the most militantly radical unionists will have to distance themselves from this kind of behaviour in order to salvage whatever credibility the movement might retain going forward. Clumsy, purely self-interested shenanigans such as these are exactly the opposite of what we need with so dire an economic outlook on the horizon.

Photo credit: "Midnight TTC Strike..." by Flickr user Jason Michael.