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The Law of Work
Law of Work Archive

TTC Supports the Right to Strike!

by David Doorey August 22, 2008
written by David Doorey August 22, 2008

Well, here’s something you don’t see all that often anymore.  While the City of Toronto explores the idea of designating the TTC (public transit authority) an “essential service”, the employer involved joined with the union recently in arguing that the workers should have a right to strike.
Of course, the TTC executives are not taking this position out of a sudden enlightenment of the International Labour Organization’s claims that the right to strike is a fundamental human right, and that Canada’s record of supporting this right is abysmal.  The TTC has more pragmatic reasons for resisting an “essential services” designation.  It is that they predict that allowing workers to strike is actually a cheaper method of resolving bargaining disputes.   The Canadian way of dealing with unionized ‘essential workers’ is to send unresolved bargaining matters to Interest Arbitration–a process in which a neutral arbitrator imposes a collective agreement.  And interest arbitrators may not be sympathetic to the routine claims of the TTC that they have no money to match the salaries of transit workers in other regions.
There are studies too that suggest that interest arbitration can discourage real collective bargaining, since both parties know that an award will ultimately be ordered without the need of suffering the harm of a strike or lockout.   And, in any event, it’s still not clear to me what effect a city declaring a service essential will actually have, since it is the province that has jurisdiction over labour relations.
 

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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 ·
2h

Ya, I wrote a blog piece on this, but the sentence itself is ambiguous! Does it mean you CAN join a picket line on your lunch hour, or you CAN’T?

Grammar. But local folks told me they are banning people from picketing at lunch.

🫡 @andreaharrington@mastodon.social @angrycrank

@JohnSandlos @TheLawofWork

Reply on Twitter 1621293270956392452 Retweet on Twitter 1621293270956392452 Like on Twitter 1621293270956392452 1 Twitter 1621293270956392452
thelawofwork David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to @thelawofwork ·
3h

Put together a quick blog post on a subject we've been discussing on Twitter.

"Is Memorial University Illegally Preventing Workers from Joining Picket Lines?"

What do you think?

https://lawofwork.ca/memorialpicketing/

#MemorialStrike #LabourLaw #FreedomofAssociation #CanLab

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thelawofwork David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to @thelawofwork ·
6h

STOP MAKING SENSE!

Anthony Francis Dale @anthonyfdale

@TheLawofWork @MemorialU If there is a right to support other employees during non-working time, starting point must be the irrelevance of the fact that lunch is "paid". As Ontario Board said in 1982 Adams Mine case, employer otherwise could prevent exercise of a right by paying money.

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