ATU Local 113 members have achieved major victories over the past few years. We have brought contracted work back in-house, ended random drug testing, secured significant investment in the TTC, and won a landmark collective agreement that raised the bar for transit workers across the country.
These victories were made possible, in part, by having an ally in the mayor’s office. When Olivia Chow won the 2023 by-election, she inherited a City Council shaped by former mayor John Tory’s anti-worker, pro-privatization agenda.
By working together, Olivia Chow has delivered important progress in just three years:
- Ended contracting out: We stopped proposals to privatize our work and brought back privatized streetcar cleaning back in-house.
- Made riders and workers safer: The City increased police patrols and extended the Toronto Community Crisis Service to the TTC, adding mental health crisis support alongside policing.
- Expanded service: In three consecutive budgets, Mayor Chow increased operating funding by 7.5%, 6.5%, and 6.5%. By contrast, previous increases had fallen below inflation, resulting in effective service cuts.
- Invested in maintenance: The TTC’s projected state-of-good-repair funding backlog for 2033 has been reduced by almost half (50%), from $8.243 billion to $4.344 billion.
- Kept fares down: Mayor Chow has also frozen fares for three consecutive years while making record investments to repair the aging transit system and expand service.
We know the TTC still needs deeper change. Management must be held accountable , vacancies must be filled so that the TTC can catch up on maintenance, and fares and revenues must remain under local democratic control. Most importantly, riders and workers need to see and feel the benefits of greater investment through better service.
We are stronger in every one of these fights because Olivia Chow is on our side. We need her back at City Hall for another four years so we can continue working together to build a better TTC for riders and workers.
