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Can Toronto Declare the TTC an "essential service"?

by David Doorey May 8, 2008
written by David Doorey May 8, 2008

You might have seen the flurry of articles recently on a motion put to Toronto city council that the TTC be declared an essential service.   The provincial government would have to actually pass the law making the TTC “essential” for the purposes of labour relations, and I’m not sure that the Liberals would want to take that on.  For one thing, banning strikes can actually increase costs to the public employer since bargaining disputes  will be settled by interest arbitration.  Secondly, legislating TTC employees as “essential” in order to prevent them from striking will almost certainly result in yet another rebuke from the International Labour Organization, which has time and time again ruled that Canada’s obsession with back-to-work legislation violates Canada’s international law obligations.   Canada’s abysmal record of compliance with ILO Convention 87 (on freedom of association) is already an embarrassment.   And, thirdly, the labour movement is waiting in the wings for a good test case to bring to the Supreme Court challenging back-to-work legislation as a violation the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Section 2(d)).  That issue is alive again after the  Court’s ruling last summer in Health Services, where the Court said that Section 2(d) should provide at least as much protection as ILO Convention 87.   ILO Convention 87 clearly does prevent back-to-work legislation for transit workers.  So we wait to see how all this plays out…

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David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is Academic Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. Professor Doorey is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B., Ph.D), London School of Economics (LLM Labour Law), and the University of Toronto (B.A., M.I.R.).

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David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to Follow

Law Prof. Talking #labor & #employment #law to the masses. @YorkUniversity @OsgoodeNews @LSELaw @CLJEHarvard @Jacobin @OnLaborBlog https://t.co/5V9r8VPHsh

TheLawofWork
thelawofwork David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to @thelawofwork ·
9h

I can’t believe that Almost Famous came out 23 years ago.

Time is flying by.

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thelawofwork David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to @thelawofwork ·
10h

I had an LLM student who had a part-time job phantom writing labor arbitration decisions based on arbitrator’s notes and instructions.

Like law clerks do for judges (except parties don’t know about the phantom arb writer).

Is using a machine different? Interesting debate.

Valerio De Stefano @valeriodeste

The crucial part starts on p. 5, where the Court reports the answers to the legal questions they posed to ChatGPT. Then, at the end of p. 6, the Court adopts the arguments given in these answers as grounds for its decision.

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thelawofwork David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to @thelawofwork ·
11h

Quebec passed anti-scab legislation in 1977, BC in 1993, & Ontario 1993-95.

Hysterical claims that these laws cause job losses & loss of investment aren't supported by evidence. Businesses just don't like them.

Short 🧵

1/

Seamus O'Regan Jr @SeamusORegan

We’re banning replacement workers, as we said on Oct. 19th.

We’re working with unions and employers to get the balance right.

As agreed, government will introduce legislation by the end of this year.

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