Press Releases

Yesterday, the Ford government gave its annual throne speech to outline its priorities for the coming year. Transit workers and transit riders were predictably all but left out of the speech.

As we reflect on our country’s first-ever National Truth and Reconciliation Day, ATU Canada stands in solidarity with all those who have faced the horrors of residential schools or who have lost children, relatives, or friends at the hands of these terrible institutions as well all those who faced the brunt of centuries of colonization in Canada.

The recent unrest at the TTC regarding CEO Leary’s confusing mandatory vaccination policies is of extreme concern to ATU Canada. This intentionally divisive approach has resulted in less than 50% of employees disclosing their vaccination status. Clearly, Rick Leary has failed the organization’s needs and has failed to gain employee confidence in his leadership. The numbers do not lie and we are calling for him to step down as Chief Executive Officer of the TTC.

We support public health measures to increase vaccination rates as an essential means of protecting Canadians’ health and safety and defeating the COVID-19 pandemic. This must be accomplished in a fair, reasonable, transparent, equitable fashion with full consultation and negotiation with unions. ATU Canada is concerned that many of our employers may develop vaccination policies that are needlessly heavy-handed and self-defeating or use higher vaccination rates as an excuse to roll back health and safety measures which are still necessary to protect our members and the public. As always, ATU Canada will continue to support its members on issues relating to COVID-19, including vaccination mandates, on a case by case basis.

TORONTO – John Di Nino, National President of ATU Canada and John Costa, ATU International President are encouraged by the recent announcement this morning of the New Democratic Party (NDP) platform and its several commitments to public transit. In the 115-page document, the NDP are pledging to: develop a public inter-city bus system, commit funding for zero emission vehicles with the goal of electrifying transit, improving rural transit conditions, making transit more affordable and putting in place a permanent, direct, allocation-based funding mechanism for modern public transit.

A grave report released yesterday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, stressed the limited time we have to mitigate the irrevocable effects of climate change including more investment in public trans