Torontonians are waking up today to find themselves hijacked by a transit strike.

Subways, streetcars and buses were taken out of service at midnight after TTC workers rejected a tentative contract settlement.

But the strike could be over by Monday as the provincial government scrambles to put together back-to-work legislation that could be passed as early as Sunday.



A draft of the bill should be available today to give MPPs in all three parties time to vet it.

The Sunday passage of the law would guarantee that Monday morning commuters will not be inconvenienced.

Within minutes of the contract being rejected, the provincial labour ministry announced mediators were calling union officials and the TTC back to the bargaining table at 1 p.m. today.

The tentative deal was rejected by 65 per cent of the 9,000 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, including operating and maintenance employees.

"We have assessed the situation and decided that we will not expose our members to the dangers of assaults from angry and irrational members of the public," said union president Bob Kinnear.

The union has been in a legal strike position since April 1 but had promised 48 hours' notice of a service withdrawal.

Kinnear said union members had faced increased threats from passengers, despite giving the notice. This time, he said, they wouldn't be so generous.

"We have a legal responsibility to protect the safety of our members and so does the TTC."

A visibly upset Mayor David Miller said the deal "was appropriate and fair."

"I'm extremely disappointed it wasn't ratified and very concerned the union hasn't honoured the 48-hour notice period," said Miller, adding the notice may have given the city enough time to renegotiate a deal and avert a strike.

The mayor said he spoke to Kinnear earlier last night and "asked on behalf of Torontonians that he honour this. He refused.

"It's unacceptable and irresponsible to the people of Toronto for the union to act this way."

TTC chair Adam Giambrone, who echoed the mayor in calling the strike unacceptable on an hour's notice, said: "This is incredibly unbelievable.

"There was a fair offer that was recommended by the union."

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Unionized transit workers were notified by electronic voice mail late yesterday evening that they were not to report for their shifts effective midnight.

The message warned that the public would be upset because it was not receiving 48 hours' notice of a strike, but that the last vote had not been cast until 10 p.m.

At 11:23 p.m., TTC collectors were told over their private intercom service that they would be shutting down at midnight.

A public intercom announcement was then made.

The rejected deal, which gave workers a 3 per cent increase in each year of a three-year contract, only narrowly averted a strike last weekend.

But it was no sooner ratified by transit commissioners on Wednesday, when cracks began to emerge in the union's support for the deal.

There had been rumblings this week that powerful divisions in the union ranks could derail the ratification.

Some mechanics said they feared the job security language in the new contract wouldn't be enough to protect their jobs given that new bus repairs were covered under warranties, and being done outside the TTC.

There was also talk that some maintenance workers were disgruntled over not being included under the GTA clause, which ensures TTC drivers would be the best paid operators in the Toronto region as of December 2009.

The tentative agreement offered better dental, insurance and injury benefits, including a top-up of workers' compensation for those assaulted on the job.

- With files from Robert Benzie, Prithi Yelaja and Emily Mathieu

