The day after a last-minute agreement was reached between the Toronto Transit Commission and its union, city officials and residents debated the merits of preventing future strikes by listing transit among the city's essential services.

Declaring the TTC an essential service would make it illegal for workers to strike. The idea has gained momentum with city councillors such as Cliff Jenkins, who say public transit is indispensable for those who use it to get to work.

He plans to bring a motion to council next week requesting the TTC become an essential service.

"People of Toronto have come to depend on the TTC," he told CTV News on Monday. "It's integral to their life."

About 8,900 TTC drivers and maintenance workers belonging to Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 had been poised to walk off the job at 4 a.m. Monday. The union had strongly suggested a strike appeared likely, but it reached a deal with the city about suppertime on Sunday.

The union had said if a deal wasn't reached by 4 p.m., a strike would be called, leaving an estimated 1.5 million people without a ride.

Making the TTC an essential service may sound straightforward, but Chairman Adam Giambrone said its drawbacks include costing taxpayers more money.

"(Municipalities are expected to pay) a premium for people who have given their democratic right... to be part of a union," he told CTV News on Monday.

If the transit union had gone on strike, it would have been the first time since 1999. In that case, the provincial government ordered an end to the strike after a two-day stoppage.

According to Giambrone, the TTC has closed for labour disruptions for only three days in the past 20 years, something he sees as evidence collective bargaining works.

Transit workers are considered an essential service in Montreal and New York City, but according to some labour experts, that doesn't necessarily guarantee easy relations.

"If you prevent them from striking and there are real issues within the relationship it is more likely they work to rule," said University of Toronto industrial relations professor Anil Verma. "Conflicts tend to be longer."

Commuters interviewed by CTV News on Monday seemed to be on board for the paradigm shift.

"People like myself that don't have a car... if you're on a limited income, you can't take a taxi everywhere," said one rider.

Contract meets union demands

The proposed three-year deal meets several key union demands:

  • Its members' wage would rise to $29.05 per hour by the contract's end, the highest in the GTA;
  • Workers injured on the job will receive full pay if unable to work; and
  • No two-tiered wage system for new hires

The deal also includes improvements in life insurance and dental coverage benefits. Wages are set to go up by three per cent per year for the next three years.

There is also a clause that guarantees a boost in salary for TTC workers if employees at another transit operator earn more money for the same work.

"I think this is an agreement that all parties can live with and therefore our executive board will be recommending ratification of this agreement," Bob Kinnear, the local's president, said Sunday.

"We did go sometime beyond the expiration of that (4 p.m.) deadline. The reason for that was because we were so close to a tentative deal," he said. "I would say that this has probably been the toughest negotiations that our local has been through in as long as I've been around, and that's been 20 years."

Toronto's Mayor David Miller also welcomed the tentative deal.

"They've achieved a reasonable settlement that we can live with financially. That was our goal all along," he said at a Sunday evening news conference.

Miller denied Kinnear's earlier suggestion that someone from City Hall intervened in the talks in order to reach a last-minute agreement.

Last week, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty mused about declaring transit to be an essential service. Following Sunday's deal, Miller said that debate would have to wait for another day.

The ATU is expected to hold its ratification vote on Thursday or Friday.

Brad Ross, the TTC's director of communications, told ctvtoronto.ca that the TTC would hold its ratification vote on Wednesday.

"Once all of that happens, we'll be able to discuss publicly some of the details people are asking about with respects to costs," he said.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Matet Nebres and John Musselman