Transit workers get 9% TTC board poised to ratify pact
TTC commissioners are poised tomorrow to ratify a collective agreement （指劳资双方达成的协议） that will give more than 8,000 transit workers a 9% raise over three years.
The 690,000 people who ride transit daily breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union and the TTC reached a tentative agreement, averting a crippling strike today.
“I think it’s a sound and fair deal,” said TTC chairman Brian Ashton. “It means we’re going to get some labour stability so we can concentrate on the finances of the transit system.”
While details of the agreement are covered by a news blackout （原意是灯火管制，这里转意为新闻审查） , sources say the increase works out to 3% in each of the three years covered by the contract.
Sources say the proposed deal does adjust benefits but does not change the TTC’s overall cost of providing them to workers.
TTC drivers currently earn $22.25 an hour after three years on the job.
Transit workers will be briefed on details of the agreement Sunday and will vote on the proposal April 17.
“It’s welcome. I’m glad about it, ” Mayor Mel Lastman said from Los Angeles, where he’s on a trade mission. “I’m glad both sides worked hard to come to a deal.”
Transit workers could have legally struck at midnight Sunday but the union promised to keep them on the job yesterday.
MET AT HOTEL
Negotiators reached an agreement at a Richmond Hill hotel at 5:30 a.m. yesterday. Union spokesmen were not available for comment.
The TTC had offered a three-year deal with a 1.25% wage hike in the first year and 1.5% in each of the following years.
The union, wanted an increase of 5% annually for three years.
During the talks, union negotiators rejected the TTC’s call to claw back （这里指补贴） workers’ benefits and shift premiums.
