Photo courtesy of mellyjean on Flickr
The transit strike is (almost) over! The City of Ottawa and the OC Transpo workers union have reached a tentative deal to end one of the longest transit strikes in Canada. Both city council and union membership need to make things official before the buses start running again. It was announced that all issues that have not been settled like wages, benefits and scheduling will be sent to a process of binding arbitration.
The threat that the House of Commons could have passed a legislation forcing the drivers and mechanics to go back to work may have been enough to persuade both sides to negotiate a bit harder and reach an agreement. When the deal between the city and the union was announced, the emergency debate at Parliament was cancelled.
While all transit users will surely be happy that OC Transpo will be back on the road, don’t expect the buses up and rolling tomorrow…But when they do come back, be nice to your bus driver, they’ve gone through enough already!
As for Mayor O’brien, I’m not sure we should be so kind. Seems like this 51 day strike could have been a whole lot shorter.
Stay tuned for more.
