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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

#GOstrike2014

From an email:

Metrolinx is currently in contract negotiations with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1587, which represents our bus drivers, maintenance personnel, transit safety, and some office staff.

We are committed to negotiating a collective agreement with the ATU and are hopeful that a negotiated settlement can be reached. While there has never been a service disruption to GO Transit because of a work stoppage in the organization's 47-year history, the union will be in a strike position as early as June 2, 2014.

We are hopeful that a settlement will be reached, but if there is a disruption we have put in place a contingency plan to maximize our services so that any inconvenience to our passengers is kept to a minimum.

We are committed to keeping you in the know and will update you through our website (gotransit.com), Social Media channels, our "On the GO Alerts", and via our Contact Centre. We also ask that you monitor local news media for updates on this situation.

13 comments:

Outburst said...

Thanks. As someone who subscribes to GO service alerts and someone who reads the news regularly, I haven't heard anything about this until now.

Bicky said...

I got a text message and an email today. I also saw this on FB and the GO Transit website.

Hope they settle.

C.J. Smith said...

This was the only official notice I got. Before that, I was informed unofficially.

Anonymous said...

No service interruption in 47 years??
Funny but I recall having to take buses due to a GO train strike in the 1970s.

Squiggles said...

Received the emails, but no other word.

Hopefully it will be dealt with quickly with no service disruptions.

George said...

IIRC the only time GO Trains were stopped it was because of a strike at Bombardier and another time the train facilities were picketed by another transit union branch.

Maybe this will be the first time ever a strike by GO stops the trains and buses. Hope not.

Bicky said...

There was a GO Train service disruption years ago (when I saw CATS, can't remember the year). But that was a CN labour strike, when CN ran the trains.

I believe GO is only considering their direct employees, not workers who are part of another union.

And yes, let's hope for a quick settlement.

Anonymous said...

Train service won't be disrupted. Train operators are with the teamsters union... And their contract has been expired for 1.5 years. Pretty soon they're going to be walking off the job and ten thousand people will be stranded. Metrolinx needs to settle that contract ASAP.

Taylor said...

Of course train services would be disrupted. Do you think that union will cross their union brother's picket lines?

TomW said...

I would be very surprised if thee was a strike. GO is just making sure that if a strike were to happen, then no-one could say they weren't warned it might.

George said...

it's not the train operators that would only affect a strike vote. There are maintenance and rail workers too who could picket and really disturpt traffic.

The ATU could simply set up picket lines at any station, terminal or facility and cause all kinds of disruptions. No other union involved with transit would cross them.

But they don't want to do that.

Jules said...

I'd hate to see public reaction if there were any service disruptions, I already feel like all hell is going to break loose half the time when there are delays, this could take bitch to a whole new level for some customers. Yikes.

Bicky said...

JulieBean, I looked for the "like" button for this comment. Too much Facebook!