Though there's a good chance GO Transit workers will go on strike, it's not likely to happen before Christmas, according to the Amalgamated Transit Union.
The president of the union is arranging a meeting of its executives to discuss what their next move will be. The soonest they could meet is Saturday.
"Job actions are a real possibility, but we are waiting for the union to give us notice of their intent," GO Transit chairman Peter Smith said in a press release on Wednesday afternoon.
Go Transit has asked the union for 48 hours' notice before any planned strike to give commuters a chance to make other arrangements.
The workers have been without a contract since June 1 but on Dec. 6, the two sides reached a tentative agreement.
However, that deal was rejected. The two sides sat at the negotiating table Wednesday but talks broke down after the union rejected a second tentative agreement by 70 per cent.
Smith told CTV Toronto Thursday the union now holds all the cards.
"I think the members will begin to realize that this is generous and that GO can't go any further and it is not a negotiating ploy on our part at all," he said.
Wages and job security are the two main points of contention between the two sides.
If workers walk off the job, there will be no GO bus service. The strike won't directly affect GO train operators, but the union has said the workers will set up pickets at GO Transit stations and disrupt service.
GO Transit moves about 165,000 commuters every day, with its 1,800 buses transporting about 30,000 passengers. About 75 per cent of riders travel to and from Toronto.
One commuter told CTV Toronto driving down to the city is a big headache.
"It would be a difficult ride downtown and expensive parking," said the woman. 'It's a big convenience to get there without having to deal with traffic and parking problems once I'm down there."
With a report from CTV's Austin Delaney
