Transit labour

I had lots of time to think on the bus and streetcar today since the Bloor subway line was shut down between St. George and Keele, putting major pressure on the Dufferin bus and College streetcar. So I got thinking about transit workers. Like the ones in Montreal, who seem to be back to work now.

Being a diehard lefty, I tend to side with unions whenever there's a labour dispute. So it's no surprise that, even when there's a transit strike and that means I have to scramble to get to work some other way, I support the transit workers. Not in a mindless or knee-jerk way, though. I consider my support to be quite thoughtful.

Everyone has stories about idiot drivers and ticket agents who have made their lives miserable. It's not too hard to get me started on that after being jostled around by a driver who thinks he's in the Indy. Everyone's got a story. But...the fact is, the job is long, tiring and often thankless, and they get a lot of idiot passengers, too. Sometimes dangerous ones. Like this example of God's Gift To Humanity, who decided that stabbing a TTC ticket-taker wasn't quite enough, so he set the booth on fire while he was at it.

So anyhow, back to transit strikes. I don't believe in legislating transit workers back to work, as they considered doing in Montreal. I don't believe the rhetoric that politicians use to try to set the public against transit workers when they strike. If the service they provide is so essential, then bloody well pay them what they're worth, give them more funding and better working conditions, and stop forcing them to be on the receiving end of front line abuse because of your sucky transit underfunding policies.

That said, I think a great way for transit workers to undercut the politicians when they try to play this demonization game during labour disputes would be to just keep providing the service - but stop collecting the fare. Remember back when the Toronto transit workers did that for a day, to protest dangerous working conditions brought on by increasing passenger hostility? (And I'm convinced that this increasing hostility is created by more and more overcrowding and inadequate service - raises tensions on both sides of the fare box.) If they did that for a while before striking (or being locked out!) then the public would be immune to that manipulation of their frustration at being stranded. Heck, we might even see some solidarity happening between the working class behind the wheel and the (mostly) working class in the seats and aisles. Wouldn't that be awesome?