While thousands of people wait for an end to the driving examiners strike that has caused great inconvenience and resulted in lost employment opportunities, Liberal and NDP MPPs sat on their hands during a vote on a private members bill that would force an end to the job action, now in its third month.
Progressive Conservative MPP Jim Wilson (Simcoe-Grey) introduced the bill Monday. It earned a swift first passage with a 14-0 vote, with Liberals and nearly all NDP MPPs abstaining.
“I’ve been elected 19 years and I’ve never seen the Liberals and all the NDP, except one, just sit there,” Wilson told CityNews.ca.
“So I read into that, that those pro-union parties just do not want to touch the Steelworkers at all.”
CityNews.ca contacted both the Liberal and NDP parties for comment and neither returned our calls by Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier this month, the driving examiners voted against the latest offer from their employer, Serco-Des, which operates the province’s DriveTest centres.
Wilson’s bill would force the DriveTest employees back to work immediately while Serco-Des and the United Steelworkers Local 9511, which represents about 500 striking examiners, resolve their differences through binding arbitration.
He claims the government response to the job action has been “zilch” and added the recent vote may not have much of an effect.
“It forces the government to look at the issue, but they don’t necessarily have to debate it,” Wilson explained.
The 14-week strike has created a backlog of nearly 400,000 people waiting for services. Job security and seniority are the main sticking points for the union.
“Our goal remains to get this strike settled through a new collective agreement,” DriveTest managing director Paul Dalglish said Wednesday.
USW Local 9511 President Jim Young said no new talks have been scheduled.
“At this current time we haven’t received any direction from the government-appointed conciliator or the employer.”
Aside from frustrating would-be motorists, the strike has hit driving schools hard. Facing dismal enrolment numbers, many instruction centres are barely staying afloat.
Trucking schools are also feeling the pinch, but there’s been small relief with DriveTest offering limited road tests for commercial licences.
A handful of centres across the province, staffed by supervisors, have also been offering written tests and other limited services, such as out-of-province exchanges. There are still no G-class road tests.
Click here for more information on DriveTest services during the strike.
shawne.mckeown@citynews.rogers.com