Appeal court upholds TTC workers’ right to strike, as potential job action looms
Ontario’s top court has upheld the right of Toronto Transit Commission workers to strike, a decision that comes just days before potential job action.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario today dismissed an appeal by the provincial government of a lower court ruling that declared a law eliminating the workers’ right to strike unconstitutional.
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The Ontario government in 2011, under the Liberals, enacted a law banning unionized TTC workers from striking, which government lawyers in this appeal said came after “unusually frequent strike action and immediate ad-hoc back-to-work legislation.”
A Superior Court judge found last year that the law interfered with workers’ collective bargaining rights, and the Appeal Court today agreed.
The decision was a split one, with two out of the three Appeal Court judges siding with the union.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 – which represents about 12,000 operators and other front-life staff at the TTC – could go on strike as early as June 7 in a current bargaining dispute and says the court decision is a historic win for working people.