Writing from Toronto — this strike is a fiasco.

If ATU Local 113 were not a crappy, right-wing, American business union, maybe it would think of something like this: a fare strike, in which drivers would refuse to collect fares. Passengers would love them, and if any of the drivers were to be arrested (it’s illegal), passengers would rally round. Of course, because it’s illegal, it would require a high degree of discipline and commitment. And this would mean a serious, long-term effort to educate members during the years between bargaining. It would also require practising a politics of solidarity, so that others would be there for you the way you were for them. A union that thought like that, and that encouraged and practised a disciplined militancy, might also be a union that pushed for expanded, free transit for all, because of its environmental and economic benefits, and because of the principle of decommodification and a vision of alternative, socialist possibilities for how to arrange the city.

Instead, what happened is this.

The union commissioned a study to show how much the TTC is worth, economically, to the city. They then put this study out in an ad campaign. Not bad as far as it goes, but far short of a deep vision, and too weak to have any real impact on public consciousness.

Negotiations went on for a long time. Bob Kinnear, union president, signed a deal at the last minute in which the operators got their key economic demands. Other members of the executive didn’t sign on to the deal, and didn’t appear with Kinnear at the signing press conference. Over the last week, rumours have it, some members of the union executive have spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the contract. As a result, by the time the last votes were counted on Friday, 65% of a 90% turnout of members had rejected the deal.

I’ve heard many versions of why. It’s impossible to find out what is really going on in the union. Here are some things I’ve heard.

From a train guard: “it’s about pensions and stuff”.

From one friend: it’s about maintenance and janitors getting a shittier deal than the operators.

From another friend: it’s about an outsourcing issue.

From the newspaper: it’s about vague wording in certain wage parity clauses in relation to other GTA transit workers.

We don’t have enough information to know how bad the deal was.

What is clear: Kinnear misjudged his membership and didn’t have the support of his executive. Some of the executive campaigned against the deal, and the members rejected it. The members also misjudged the executive, and their own bargaining strength. Presumably, the executive had the final say on whether to call a strike, and on the timing of the strike. Someone — it seems likely it was Kinnear — called an immediate strike, even though they had promised 48 hours’ warning. That same someone, probably Kinnear, decided to punish the members for not falling in line by calling an immediate strike that would piss off passengers and result in back-to-work legislation, arbitration, and possibly a worse contract.

Nobody looks good in this, not the TTC management, not city hall, not the executive, and not the members. And the NDP voted for back to work legislation.

Corvin is an activist and writer based in Toronto. Currently he is working on the Environmental Justice Organizing Initiative to help build an organized movement on climate change rooted in a class, race, anti-colonial, and gender analysis. Read other posts by Corvin Russell.