Press Release |
November 23, 2009 Video and other press releases on this strike
KLEES: The Time to End DriveTest Strike is Now
(TORONTO) Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees, the PC Critic for Transportation and Public Infrastructure Renewal is calling on the McGuinty government to immediately pass legislation tabled today by Jim Wilson, MPP for Simcoe-Grey, to end the 14 week old strike by DriveTest employees.
The bill, the DriveTest Labour Dispute Resolution Act, 2009 passed First Reading by a vote of 14-0 with Liberal MPP’s abstaining. If passed into law, this bill would send the 600 Serco DES Inc. employees who operate the DriveTest Centres back to work, leaving Serco and the United Steelworkers Local 9511 to resolve the dispute through binding arbitration.
“More than 368,000 people have been negatively impacted by this strike,” Klees said. “Jobs are being lost because truck drivers can’t upgrade their licences, new drivers can’t get licences with the result that they can’t get jobs, and they can’t enrol in new job training or college programs.”
Klees joined with Wilson in calling on the McGuinty government to ensure swift passage of the bill to end the strike which he says affects over 4,000 Ontarians daily and is hurting more than 10,000 driving instructors across the province who have been out of work since the strike began more than three months ago. Klees has consistently called on the Minister of Transportation to do whatever is necessary to end the strike.
“Under the terms of the contract between the Serco Group and the Ontario Government that was signed in 2003, the Ministry of Transportation has an obligation to monitor and audit the service provision standards of Serco DES Ltd.,” Klees said. “This strike ensures that neither the Ministry nor Serco fulfill their contractual obligations while Ontario drivers and driving instructors are held hostage by the impasse.”
“As I’ve said on several occasions in the Legislature, the Ministry of Transportation has a responsibility to do whatever is necessary to end this strike.”
-30-
References:
Frank Klees, MPP
416 509 8999