GO bus service disrupted for 4th day due to strike at Toronto’s Union Station

TORONTO — GO buses are being diverted from Toronto’s Union Station to other transit hubs for the fourth consecutive day due to ongoing labour action.

Ninety-five workers with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers walked off the job last Wednesday after the union and Toronto Terminals Railway failed to reach an agreement.

The striking employees are signals and communication workers as well as train movement directors at Canada’s busiest transit hub.

Suniya Kukaswadia, a spokesperson for the transit agency Metrolinx, says protesters gathered at 10 a.m. today and restricted GO buses’ access to the terminal.

She says the demonstration is not affecting train service.

GO Transit tweeted late Monday that service for several bus routes had resumed at 11:30 p.m. after a similar protest blocked access to the bus terminal during the day.

Union members have been demonstrating in front of the bus terminal on and off since Saturday.

Metrolinx, which operates GO Transit, has said the workers started protesting Saturday afternoon and left a short while later, but then returned in the evening when people were heading home from the Toronto Raptors game.

The protest resumed at 11 a.m. on Sunday and disrupted bus service until 11:30 p.m., the agency has said.

Metrolinx said the disruption impacted thousands of transit riders and hundreds of buses.

The union has said its Union Station employees “eagerly await a worthwhile negotiated settlement” so they can return to their positions and continue to operate GO trains, Via Rail trains and the Union Pearson Express every day.

The workers have been without a new contract since December 2019.