If the elevators in her condo tower don't work, Marilyn Haws is stuck.

It's a reality that has become a mounting concern in recent days for the senior, who lives on the 36th floor in a North York condo complex.

Although both towers at Concorde Park have four elevators, on Thursday Haws said that only three were working in her building. In the tower across the lobby, meanwhile, only one elevator was operational.

And with the bulk of the city's elevator workers on strike, she feared the situation could quickly deteriorate.

“I'm worried,” Haws said. “I'm sure everyone feels the same way.”

Elevator maintenance workers are a silent army, largely unnoticed by the public until their services are required. In this vertical city, however, their absence could have profound implications.

Locked in a collective bargaining dispute with four of the biggest elevator companies, the International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) across Ontario went on strike last week. Some 1,400 elevator workers — 800 of whom work in the GTA — are now on the picket line.

According to Ben McIntyre, business manager for IUEC Local 50 in Toronto, workloads and staffing levels are the main sticking points for elevators workers in one of the busiest construction markets in North America.

Although the companies (Otis, ThyssenKrupp, Schindler and KONE) are using replacement workers and managers to help fill the void, repair jobs are already piling up.

On Thursday, the TTC, which has been making strides in recent years to increase accessibility by equipping more of its stations with elevators, issued a news release to inform riders that, due to the strike, elevators “may be out of service for longer than usual after a breakdown.”

TTC spokesman Brad Ross said that before the strike, Schindler told the TTC that managers would perform non-emergency repairs in a matter of hours, but “they have not been able to do that.”

With 9 of its 80 elevators currently out of service, the TTC is now working to secure a contract with another elevator company.

“It affects our customers, and potentially their livelihood. They rely on the elevators, particularly people in mobility devices, to go about their daily lives,” Ross said.

For now, Dean McCabe, president of the Association of Condominium Managers of Ontario, said the labour disruption is primarily “an inconvenience” for condo dwellers. But if the strike drags on to the point where routine maintenance is not being done, it will surely hit home for many residents of the GTA, where there are an estimated 2,000 elevators in residential condos.

“For the people living in highrise condos, (elevators are) as fundamental as transit,” he said. “It's part of their commute.”

The strike marks the first time all three Ontario locals have walked out on the job since 1988.

According to McIntyre, there is a clause in the contract that would allow unionized elevator workers to stay on the job under the old agreement until a new deal is reached, but the companies, which negotiate in tandem, denied that request.

“All these big companies . . . are trying to make up their bottom line statements on the back of the Ontario workers,” he said.

On Wednesday, ThyssenKrupp filed a lawsuit in Newmarket Court against IUEC Local 50. According to McIntyre, the company is seeking $10 million “for damages for the ongoing strike,” a charge the union will defend in court on Friday.

In an email, a spokeswoman for the company said “ThyssenKrupp's top priority is the safety of passengers and the riding public.” She did not respond to questions about the lawsuit.

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At Concorde Park, meanwhile, it's still touch and go. By Thursday night, resident Jim Lang said two of the elevators in his building, and all of the elevators in the adjacent tower where Haws lives, were operational.

Rather than wait for the only working elevator in his building earlier this week, Lang chose to trundle down the stairs from his 18th floor unit every morning. He counts himself among the lucky ones.

“Not everyone is capable of doing that,” he said.