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Is anybody else as annoyed with the recent Viva strike as I am? Transport service frequency along the Viva routes has gone down from a convenient every ten minutes to every half hour, with only YRT services running. Today is the 11th day of the strike, which started on September 25th, 2008.

I blame this all on workers’ unions. Let’s first clarify what one is. “A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions, forming a cartel of labor. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts with employers.”

Basically, a labour union is an evil organisation which makes an agreement with the employers to represent the “rights” of the empoyees. There are several UN legislations which recognize the rights of labour unions and their members. One is Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which “identifies the ability to organise trade unions as a fundamental human right” and another is the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which defines the “freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining as an essential right of workers.”

The most important reason for my disapproval of unions is the increase in prices of everyday commodities. In this case, bus tickets. Let’s look at the reasons for this strike. The Toronto Star quoted the leader of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 (the labour union which represents Viva bus drivers),  Bob Kinnear, as saying that “drivers are looking for paid sick leave, more consistent scheduling and a pay increase of 3 per cent in each year of a three-year agreement.” The employer evidently doesn’t want to go along with this price increase, so the union members decided to go on strike. And there is nothing anybody can do about it, as human rights legislations and labour laws seem to do nothing to prohibit strikes.

Think about how this situation would play out if it weren’t for unions. A number of people who are unhappy with the employer’s conditions refuse to work and go on strike - the employer fires them. The others learn from example and go back to work. However, the agreements made between the union and the employer don’t let the employer do anything about it, and neither does law. What will usually end up happening is that the employer will accept the union’s terms and raise the wage of the bus drivers. And how does this affect everybody else? The employer needs to make additional money to be able to pay the drivers more, so bus ticket prices go up. Not too long ago an adult ticket cost only $2.50, or even less than that. Now it’s $2.75 or $3.00, I don’t even remember.

The Toronto Star article also mentions another interesting piece of information - “The union proposal would put that rate up to $21.37, slightly more than the drivers at York Region’s three other contracted bus operators.” Yes, York Region Transit has more than one contractor working for them. Different operators run YRT and Viva services. So, if Viva drivers are making more all of a sudden, what will the YRT drivers think? Will they not react in much the same way? And will the employer not give in to the demands the same way? And then think about the TTC. Did they not also have a strike recently? Well, if Viva drivers will be making a few cents more than them, who’s to say they won’t want to make more $ than them? Accepting the union’s proposal would be another step in the already existing loop that pushes our transit prices higher and higher.

However, I do have some hope in the screwed up system in which we live. There was an incident where TTC drivers went on strike until the provincial government ordered them back to work. I just hope the same thing will happen here, and that the employers will not give in to the union’s demands.