ATU Canada calls on Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath
and City Council to Keep Transit Public

TORONTO-ON, April 23, 2024 – ATU Canada calls on Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath to do the right thing and vote against privatization of the proposed Hamilton LRT line.  Hamilton City Council will be voting on April 24th to adopt a 10-year private public partnership agreement that will see transit operations and maintenance outsourced to a private contractor. HSR has operated the transit system for 150 years and ATU has maintained the transit system for 125 years. 

In what appears to be a complete reversal from what Mayor Horwath has said for over a decade – she is now in favour of contracting out good union jobs. “I have lobbied and fought hard along with Mayor Horwath when she was Leader of ONDP on anti-privatization agendas, but I guess her recent actions speak louder than the words she spoke. A complete turncoat position on her previous anti-privatization ideology,” says John Di Nino, President of ATU Canada.

In a recent Mainstreet Research survey, almost 70% of Hamiltonians said they prefer to have the LRT operations and maintenance remain public, operated by HSR.  We hope that City Council follows the voice of their Constituents. 

After many years of failed privatization of infrastructure in Hamilton, and the numerous recent examples of LRT project failures across Ontario, we hope that Mayor Horwath and City Council will live up to the commitments of previous City Councils who vowed to Keep Transit Public in the City of Hamilton – and not burden Hamiltonians with the endless and inflated financial cost of a privately run transit system.