Start Prayin'
PREPARE A PLAN OF ACTION FOR MONDAY
As much as Metrolinx would love for you to believe they will do their best to keep their GO Transit network of stations and train corridors up and running, one must be prepared for chaos should picket lines be set up. This is what is causing many people to have concerns. If there's a strike, just how smooth of a commute will it be? Here's the kicker, no one knows. GO has never had a strike before which means, they probably don't have a strike plan.
Maybe this is all for naught and all will be fine by Sunday night.
WHO IS AFFECTED?
About 1,500 GO bus drivers, mechanics, maintenance workers, ticket takers and enforcement officers employed by provincial agency Metrolinx.
GO buses carry about 40,000 people each day. Trains, serving 180,000 commuters daily, would continue to operate.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Talk to your boss and prepare a Plan B. Carpool (what a nightmare that will be). Work from home (if you have such a set-up). Call in sick. Take a vacation day.
IF YOU GO?
I've been told to expect picket lines and disruptions. Plan to leave earlier than normal to ensure you can get to work on time or at least, at a decent hour.
28 comments:
Thanks for posting this CJ.
Did it look panicky enough? I really want it to have some zing.
You can come and stay here with mommy and me. I told you, we have the room. Bring my grandchild with you.
I can homeschool her.
You'd be a fool if you think go train service is not going to be affected, where do you think these 1,500 are going to picket ? at their home ? or at stations ?
I don't recall saying at any point in time in any of my posts that GO train service wouldn't suffer.
It's been pointed out. Thanks for contributing.
Dad, get off the computer. I'm not coming to live with you but thank you for the offer. I live in the country for a reason.
Thank the lawd I moved within walking distance of my work. Yes I still read this blog even though I don't take the GO anymore (it's addicting).
Good luck commuters! I feel your pain, if I were still commuting I wouldn't be able to get to work at all.
Anyone who commutes from Oshawa knows you take your life in your hands just walking through the GO lot let alone standing as an obstacle. These picketers will need to be a brave bunch.
With the parking disaster that is Ajax. And having to walk in from the boonies to make it to the trains, if they try to stop me, I think I may lose it. At 6:30am, I do not have the patience to deal with that shit.
On a side note, I don't have the patience going home either.
Boy am I glad I can afford a house in Toronto.
Yeah? How many acres you got?
I've got 40. You go buy that in Toronto.
I love that line.
Great comeback, CJ.
I don't care particularly where you live but I like being out in north Ajax. And I've got almost 2 acres.
40 acres in Toronto would run around the 14 million mark if not more.
Just because you can afford to live in Toronto doesn't mean any of us can't either. We just chose to live elsewhere and our taxes pay for the commute in.
I don't really have 40 acres as I live in a condo townhouse community but I've got 40 acres across Highway 2 I could go play in, snowmobile on, ATV on. Just for the hell of it.
I have access to more than 20 acres. But I am enjoying my abode with its postage stamp front and back yards.
Had I stayed in Toronto, I would have had to buy in a highrise condo as that is all that is really available for the first-time home buyer. Personally, I enjoy green, not concrete.
Not to worry- I can assure you GO has a contingency plan in affect... It's just a matter of how well it's been thought out..
And to the dude who's too glad to he can afford to live in Toronto- nobody likes a bragger.
That's the crux of everyone's pain. How well will the contingency plan work?
Metrolinx doesn't seem to have appropriate or effective back-up plans for train derailments (like the one that happened in Pickering last year), never mind natural disasters (ie. leaves on rails), let alone a strike that could result in massive service disruption.
I'm not saying picketers would actually stand on tracks in front of trains, but who says they won't?
Then what?
There's no way police officers (also unionized) will step in arrest these people as they aren't trespassing because they work for the very rails they are blocking.
It could be peaceful or it could be disruptive.
No one knows because in 40 years, I don't think anyone thought to care.
you wanna know the back-up plan? It's been taking the non union metrolinx people and showing them how to do the union jobs. Jeebus CJ, you should go work for GO. at least you know that plan b should always be on the ready. we're so taken for granted there is no real plan b.
Well, I doubt it will come to a strike, and if it does, they'd be ordered back to work after a day anyways. And CP/CN won't be on strike, right? Hopefully their enforcement officers will step in. It's also a provincial offense for the picketers to set foot on those tracks. That's private property, and Metrolinx doesn't own it.
I can agree with you on the bogus back-up plans though. Those trains will be hectic.
I hope it works out for everyone in the end.
cj... been reading a long time. thank u for the laughs and for being subjective. i'm not gonna get into the strike stuff b/c i already know people are just gonna rage on me but i know you see why it's happening and i appreciate that you're trying to help people figure out what to do.
i'm just 1 guy tryin' to do right by his family. i love my job but when you know there's another guy out there doing the same work as you, making more as you and you can't move to do that job because you have a kid with autism where a change in routine can cause all hell to break loose, you feel kinda stuck.
i think people gotta realize there's a story for all of us.
we know y'all work just as hard but u commute to the 416 for a reason because u know that's where the money is.
some of us just can't.
Well said Mr. Bus Driver.
Her dad drove a big rig for over 30 years. You don't have to tell her.
Actually...
1) Metrolinx owns a lot of the rails they operate on. 40-50%-ish and they're looking at purchasing more of the Lakeshore Line all the way to Burlington. That said, it probably doesn't give employees the right to occupy the tracks unauthorized. And, CN still runs the occasional train or three on may of "GO's" lines, not to mention VIA's.
2) All the trains that were once operated by CN are now ran by the Bombers. Only CP crews the Milton trains that operate on the CP line. I might as well throw in that CP and CN both still dispatch trains on the lines (even if GO owns it).
How the fuck am I supposed to get to work to my $18 an hour job?
At least those on trains will get service even if it will be a shit show. Where's my plan B?
Will Metrolink be bringing in private bussing? Because they should.
Here's how Daddy Dalton is gonna find the money to give these people a wage increase. He's put 500 civil servants on the pogey.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1073952--pink-slips-flying-at-queen-s-park?bn=1
Pink slips ‘flying’ at Queen’s Park
The belt-tightening has begun at Queen’s Park — and Liberal political aides are the first victims, the Star has learned.
“Pink slips are flying,” a party insider confided on Friday.
In the wake of the Oct. 6 election that saw Premier Dalton McGuinty’s administration reduced to a 53-seat minority government in the 107-member House, the Liberals have begun imposing austerity measures.
On Thursday, McGuinty slashed cabinet from 28 to 22 members, streamlining departments and eliminating portfolios.
Sources say the premier has also ordered a 10 per cent reduction in the size of minister’s staffs.
“We’re going to be a leaner political organization,” said a Liberal official.
No firm numbers are available, but there are between 400 to 500 Grit political staffers, including in MPPs’ constituency offices.
Those affected range from executives earning six-figure salaries to more junior staffers.
Dozens of Grits were being “severed out” this week — given severance packages and sent job hunting.
“People are being called in,” said another insider, noting many of the departures are from the offices of defeated cabinet ministers, while others are being downsized simply to cut costs.
Aside from the good optics of having fewer employees on the payroll in a minority government, there is the matter of a deteriorating world financial situation.
“Suffice it to say Ontario is not isolated from global events,” Finance Minister Dwight Duncan warned after Thursday’s cabinet ceremony, noting he will soon release the province’s second-quarter financial results.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak on Friday called on the Liberals to do more to “rein in government spending.”
But he wouldn’t commit when asked twice if he’d lower staffing levels in Tory offices by 10 per cent to save taxpayers’ money.
“We’re all open for ideas on how to restrain the cost of spending here in this place, including a freeze on pay for MPPs . . . until we get the books back into balance,” said Hudak, who earns $180,886 annually.
Pay for MPPs — who earn a minimum of $116,550 — had been frozen for three years by McGuinty, whose annual salary is $208,974.
Someone call up Greyhound, maybe they can make a business case of taking over GO's bus network...
all u babies need to quit ur whining and be thankful u have jobs. ALL OF YOU. go train commuters and the union ppl. suck it. honeslty.
"wow" indeed. If I had an attitude and spelling problem like that, I'd be thankful to have a job as well.
For the rest of us who work hard at being employable (and intelligible), we have a right to speak out about what is fair.
Well said Kathy. If 'wow' is just thankful to have a job, they can sit and watch as inflation goes up and their wage stagnates because they don't care about employee rights.
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