Comment 70345

By GO Platform Schmatform (anonymous) | Posted October 05, 2011 at 17:22:15

On Wednesday, the union accused the government of deliberately sabotaging its members’ right to strike by delaying its original mid-September GO bus strike date, using an 11th hour delay tactic at the Ontario Labour Relations Board to stall a no-board report, a prerequisite for legal strike.

A Monday ruling by the labour board appears to support the union’s assertion. It calls “the timing of this late blooming employer objection … inherently suspect.”

On Aug. 30 Metrolinx went to the labour board, claiming the essential services agreement it had signed with the union in March — the same agreement that had been in place since 1996 — was not legal. That delayed the no-board report that basically begins the countdown to a strike.

Metrolinx told the labour board and union that it needed a new essential services agreement, one that would designate some GO bus drivers as essential so they would be available in the event of a disaster. Hypothetical and real examples cited by Metrolinx included “a serious nuclear problem at Pickering or Darlington, a 9/11 terrorist event, the Mississauga train derailment, the Superior propane explosion, the 2003 hydro black-out,” according to the labour board ruling.

“This was a blatant attempt to circumvent the law of the land by the McGuinty government to prevent a potentially embarrassing strike during the election,” said Ray Doyle, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1587.

http://www.thestar.com/news/transportation/article/1065062--union-accuses-liberals-of-playing-politics-with-go-workers?bn=1

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