Queen's Park has outlawed Toronto transit strikes by making the TTC an essential service after members voted to pass the bill by a wide margin.
The Essential Service Bill passed Wednesday afternoon after the Liberal dominated legislature voted 68 to 9 in favour, CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss reports.
The essential service designation takes away transit workers' right to legally strike amid a contract dispute. Instead, negotiations could be subject to binding arbitration by a third party.
In January, Toronto City Council voted 28-17 in favour of asking Premier Dalton McGuinty to introduce legislation to declare the TTC essential.
Ontario's governing Liberals and the city wanted the legislation passed before the first labour contracts with transit workers expired Thursday.
New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos was unimpressed with the move, calling the decision a "full-frontal attack" on working women and men in Ontario.
Bob Kinnear, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, said the decision smelled of political gamesmanship, as McGuinty nestles up to Mayor Rob Ford ahead of a provincial election.
Kinnear said McGuinty was violating workers' rights to save a few Toronto seats.
"Bill 150 is all about trying to save Liberal seats in Toronto in the next provincial election, everyone knows that," Kinnear said in a statement. "McGuinty is being a lapdog for a union-hating right wing mayor because he is afraid of Ford's political clout, not because he cares about transit in Toronto."
However in a statement Charles Sousa defended the bill, saying is was necessary because so many people rely on the service daily.
He said: "This legislation recognizes the vital importance of the TTC to the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the transit system to go to work, school, medical appointments, and shop. This act takes into account the health and safety of the millions of riders who use the TTC as well as the unique impact that transit service has on the city's economic well-being."
With files from The Canadian Press
