The mayor released the results of a survey conducted by Harris/Decima that asked city residents about the transit strike on his blog Tuesday. There’s a fair bit of detail in the results, so I thought I’d highlight a few numbers.

Overall, 63% moderately or strongly support the City while only 14% moderately or strongly support the Union. (Eighteen percent of people support both equally.)

While 14% of people have sided with the union, only 8% of people are satisfied with with way the union has handled the negotiations, compared to 36% who are satisfied with the city’s behaviour. Most people think the city is “being fair and reasonable with the transit union in its approach to the issues”.

It gets more interesting…

Only 8% feel that the union’s demand of a 9.25% salary increase over three years is more reasonable, compared to 86% who feel the city’s offer of 7.25% over three years is more reasonable.

Only 10% feel that the union’s demand to be able to work 17 hours/day with 6 hours of rest is more reasonable than the city’s 8 hours between shifts and a maximum of 14 hours/day.

A resounding 89% of people think that the overall offer, which includes the city having control of the schedule (as it should!) with senior drivers being able to choose preferred schedules, is reasonable compared to 7% that think its unreasonable. Eighty-six percent of people think it’s reasonable enough to warrant a vote by the membership.

Finally, 85% think it’s important that the city hold firm in its bargaining position, to the extent that seven out of ten believe it’s important enough even if the strike goes on for another four weeks.

These numbers send a pretty clear message: The union blew it and the citizens are prepared to “punish” them for at least another month.