Miller workers ratify new contract by 80%

The 250 workers at Miller Transit in York Region ended their strike that began last October 24 by ratifying a settlement reached Thursday by a vote of 160 to 40.

The five-year pact calls for annual wage increases totalling 16.55%. By April 2016, a top-rated bus operator will be making just over $26 an hour.

"We recommended this settlement to the members because we felt we were exactly where we would have been if we had taken this dispute to arbitration last November," said ATU Local 1587 President Ray Doyle.

"We fought for what we believed in and we won," said Doyle to a cheering room of Miller workers when he announced the vote result.

"Every day of this strike beyond November 2nd, when we first proposed arbitration, is due to York Region Chairman Bill Fisch's vindictive rejection of a rational solution, which was neutral arbitration. He wanted to punish workers who had the temerity to question his view of what transit workers should be paid."

Fisch, who is Canada's highest-paid municipal politician, at over $250,000 a year in salary and benefits, repeatedly refused to consider neutral arbitration as a means to settle the strike. He falsely claimed throughout the strike that the union had been seeking wage parity with transit workers in the rest of the GTA, who make about seven dollars an hour more than York Region Transit workers.

"We were always very clear that we were not seeking parity with the rest of the GTA," said Doyle. "We simply wanted to keep our heads above water but apparently that was too much for Fisch."

A major remaining issue in the dispute is the fate of 92 striking workers at First Student, which lost the contract with York Region less than two weeks ago. Local 1587 will be taking legal steps to have the new contractor, Tokmajian-Can-Ar, hire the former First Student workers.

"We are brothers and sisters.  We do not leave our wounded on the battlefield."

43% PAY INCREASE for YORK REGION COUNCILLOR

York Region transit workers condemn Regional Councillor Emmerson for "unbelievable hypocrisy" on his 43% pay raise; predict Chairman Fisch will say nothing to avoid examination of his own $200,000 salary.

The unions representing 600 striking York Region transit workers have responded with anger to a York Regional councillor's claim that he is entitled to a 43 per cent pay raise because he now earns less than he would in surrounding vicinities.

Whitchurch-Stouffville's part-time mayor Wayne Emmerson  has said he will vote next Tuesday to raise his annual salary from $42,149 to $62,148. Emmerson also receives an undisclosed additional salary as a member of York Region council.

ATU Local 1587 President Ray Doyle and ATU Local 113 President Bob Kinnear have condemned Emmerson's position in view of his position on the wages of striking York Region transit workers, who are paid 30 per cent less than transit workers in Brampton, Mississauga and Toronto.

"Mayor Emmerson has said that he does not believe the wages of York Region transit workers should be compared to those paid to transit workers in surrounding communities who are doing essentially the same work," said Doyle and Kinnear. "Yet he claims that his salary should match those of other part-time mayors in neighbouring communities."

"What makes this particularly offensive is that York Region transit workers are not even asking for parity with nearby transit workers," the union leaders said.  "The so-called 'offers' from the private contractors would actually increase the 30 per cent wage gap between here and the rest of the GTA transit sector.  We're just trying to hold our heads above water while the contractors are trying to push us under."

"Emmerson's stance is unbelievable hypocrisy that even York Region Chairman Bill Fisch should condemn.  Fisch has publicly scoffed at the very idea that York Region transit workers should compare themselves to nearby transit workers. Let's see what he has to say about Emmerson. We predict Fisch will be silent because he does not want public examination of his own salary."

According to the Ontario Public Sector Salary Disclosure website, Fisch was paid just under $200,000 a year in 2009, making him the highest-paid municipal leader in Canada.  But because he is not directly elected by the residents of York Region, his salary is never reported with those of elected mayors.

"Why York Region residents put up with these hypocrites, who will not even allow the transit strike to end through a neutral arbitration process, is a mystery that may be resolved in the next municipal election.  Except of course for the chief hypocrite Fisch, who holds power without being elected."

YORK REGION TRANSIT STRIKE UPDATE

Miller Transit workers accept invitation to resume bargaining.

The union representing 250 striking workers at Miller Transit in York Region has responded to an invitation by the Provincial Mediator to return to the bargaining table on Friday in an effort to end the strike that began on October 24.

The workers turned down Miller's last offer by nearly 84 per cent in a labour board-supervised vote on January 6.

"The record is clear that we have always been willing to negotiate, despite York Region Chairman Bill Fisch's claims to the contrary," said Ray Doyle, president of ATU Local 1587.

"Our members sent a very clear message to this private contractor that their last offer fell very wide of the mark to get a settlement.

"We will listen to what they have to say tomorrow. Our members want to get back to work but it has to be on terms that recognize and respect the value of the work they do."

Doyle reiterated the union's proposal, first advanced in early November, to end the strike immediately through binding arbitration.

"York Region residents have to know that every day of this strike past November 2 has been due to Bill Fisch's inexplicable opposition to a fair process of neutral arbitration."