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It never seems to fail that if I am living in a city with transit, the transit workers will strike. Montreal went on strike in 2003 and that sucked. Toronto went on strike in 2006 and that sucked. And Ottawa is on strike right now and it really, really sucks. Surprisingly, this is the only strike I've been through where I have access to a car and I still have to say, it really sucks. Perhaps even more surprising is just how against the strike public opinion seems to be.
I feel I need to preface this post a bit. I am not anti-union. My father was in a union when I was growing up. I remember using his union t-shirts as night dresses (they only ever seemed to come in XXL size). He was in a union until the day he retired. My mother is in a union now. No, in general I am not anti-union. But...there are times and unions that it can be difficult to get behind and I'll be completely honest, I have a hard time supporting a transit union that is holding a city hostage by striking while simultaneously hearing the union leader say he pretty much doesn't care about anyone that's not in the union.
Until this year when I moved in with my boyfriend, who is a car owner, I have never owned a car. It's kind of surprising given that I got my driver's license as soon as I could growing up. Back then I lived someplace where the only means of transportation was a car. Not owning a car was simply not feasible. I remember even when my town didn't have taxis. I believe there are now two (individual taxis that is, not companies). But then I off and moved to a city that had excellent public transit. When I moved from there I moved to another city that had excellent public transit. Now I live in Ottawa where public transit is not excellent (even when it is running) but hey, it's public transit.
In one of the last years that I lived in Montreal the transit workers went on strike. In Montreal transit is an essential service. Now, contrary to what some people seem to think, this does not mean that they can't go on strike. They had to provide a minimal level of service. So the buses and subways ran from 6am-9am, 3pm-6pm and 11pm-1am. Buses and subways were not cleaned so they were really smelly, but they were still running. Most people could still get to work, even though it didn't work so well for for shift workers. My roommate was pursuing her second degree at the time and as we lived a not so walkable distance away (about 6km) she's go into school at 8am and get back home at midnight. I was working and if I left work right at 5pm I could get home before transit shut down, even the night when someone threw themselves in front of one of the evening subways and I had to walk 2km to catch a bus. Transit users weren't happy, but they dealt with it. When I was in Toronto in 2006 the strike lasted one day and well, as much as it messes people up for one day there is a limit to how much you can really make people angry in a single day.
Having been through other transit strikes this one in Ottawa feels different to me. People are angry - not annoyed, not peeved, angry. People I've never known to use the transit system are angry. People I know that are generally pro-union are angry. I really have never experienced anything like it. It feels like it's the perfect storm of anti-strike factors.
One is the season. It's winter. We just got dumped with about 30 cms (about 1 foot) of snow. It was -22C (-7F) this morning. What's worse that waiting for a bus in the cold? Waiting for a taxi that never comes in the cold and snow. Walking miles to meet up with a carpool in the cold and snow. Walking miles to work in the cold and snow. I am one of the people walking, at least one way each day, to work and home, but I'm lucky that I can. A lot of people aren't that lucky.
Two is the season. No, I'm not talking about winter. I'm talking about the holidays. People have shopping to do and well, malls actually aren't in the most
