The 2006 Toronto Transit Commission wildcat strike was an illegal strike in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on May 29, 2006. It was initiated by 800 Toronto Transit Commission mechanical and janitorial workers who were protesting proposed changes in work schedules, including permanent re-assignment of 100 workers to night shifts. The strike began between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. EDT, and quickly resulted in a large scale disruption of service when transit drivers honoured the picket line, effectively shutting down the Toronto transit system. The shutdown left over a million commuters searching for alternative means of transport.
By 7 a.m. the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) issued a cease-and-desist order to pickets; this order was ignored. A further back-to-work directive was forwarded by the OLRB, and eventually Amalgamated Transit Union officials requested the workers to comply, the call coming just before 3 p.m. EDT. Given the logistical difficulties, limited service slowly increased, with full service later in the evening.
At the time, the union disputed management's claim to an illegal job action, stating that workers had instead been locked out. There has also been considerable discussion about the reasons and details behind the strike.
Read more about 2006 Toronto Transit Commission Wildcat Strike: General Synopsis, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the words wildcat strike, transit, commission, wildcat and/or strike:
“The worker can unionize, go out on strike; mothers are divided from each other in homes, tied to their children by compassionate bonds; our wildcat strikes have most often taken the form of physical or mental breakdown.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“We only seem to learn from Life that Life doesn’t matter so much as it seemed to do—it’s not so burningly important, after all, what happens. We crawl, like blinking sea-creatures, out of the Ocean onto a spur of rock, we creep over the promontory bewildered and dazzled and hurting ourselves, then we drop in the ocean on the other side: and the little transit doesn’t matter so much.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“The worker can unionize, go out on strike; mothers are divided from each other in homes, tied to their children by compassionate bonds; our wildcat strikes have most often taken the form of physical or mental breakdown.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“The first to strike will gain the upper hand.”
—Chinese proverb.