TRANSIT
• TTC has a ‘million’ reasons to reach a deal, workers say [ Toronto Star ]
• TTC union talks tough as strike deadline looms [ Globe and Mail ]
• TTC talks stalled [ Toronto Sun ]
• Memo to drivers: The streetcar can’t go around your parked car [ National Post ]
• Hard climb for many if TTC lift breaks [ Toronto Star ]
CITY HALL
• Interest fund fiasco alarming [ Toronto Star ]
• City deposit fee likely on batteries [ Toronto Star ]
• Pothole budget strained [ National Post ]
• Green been counters mystifying [ Toronto Sun ]
• ‘Oriental’ comments dog Ford [ Toronto Sun ]
• City council checklist [ Eye Weekly ]
MISCELLANEOUS
• Concerts, singalong in dark planned to brighten Hour [ Toronto Star ]
• Nature makes fools of architects [ Toronto Star ]
10 comments
I waited for an hour on Saturday on the corner of Queen and Sherbourne. After having no luck I went back home and cancelled my plans. I didn’t know what was happening though, sadly there’s no way of informing.
On Sunday I was on board a streetcar on Queen St. when it had to stop because of a car parked too close to the tracks. One hour later the clueless driver came back. He got away with only a $60 ticket.
Story and pics here: http://www.nakedknitgirl.ca/?p=3682
The Transit Union can honestly go f*** themselves.
It’s an organization with no other function than to ensure job security, and splendid pay, for the rude and lazy.
So.. at $12b a year value… that means that their illegal strike cost the city about $65 million. We accept cash.
Sean, you echoed my feelings exactly.
And where are those plexi-glass doors that were supposed to be installed in all the buses to protect the drivers? I saw a few installed a few months after the wildcat strike, although I never saw one used, and then I never saw them again.
Wha’ happen’d
@Josh: I heard at least one driver saying he wouldn’t use them anyway, because he didn’t like being encased and separated from the passengers, and honestly didn’t feel that it was worth it. Maybe this was the general sentiment?
The cameras are coming, so I hope that will be enough. I’d rather take taped surveillance than plexiglass barriers because 1) We’re not Baltimore, Washington or Detroit (where even their buses don’t have barriers), and 2) it adds another degree of separation where courtesy and manners mean even less.
As for the union’s propaganda, I suggest reading BlogTO’s post. The union’s television and ad drive, just before a contract renewal and a likely walkout (legal this time) is cause for concern and way over-the-top. (Our drivers, by just doing their jobs, are heroes, like the woman who comforts passengers on long commutes because her job has her installing those hard red felt seats.)
I’m not anti-union by any means, and I generally don’t support contracting out or cutting wages. And while many of those comments on BlogTO are often way-over-the-top, I can’t see the strike-happy Local 113 getting much sympathy from many people, and they make the more reasonable unions out there (like the ones that will negotiate as long as they can and use strikes only as last resorts) look bad.
I really wish we wouldn’t compare ourselves to the worst US cities when it comes to crime rates. “I’ll be happy as long as we’re not South Central LA” and the like. How about “I won’t be happy until we’re as safe as Vienna or Geneva”?
World Class indeed. Toronto: We Cope.
Hopefully my post on blogTO wasn’t too over-the-top. It may very well be that my frustrations with Kinnear and the ATU are overwhelming my sense of better judgment. I’m really angry with the union’s study and ad campaign, so much so that I’ve stooped to calling it bullshit.
Many riders (myself included) are completely fed up with it all, and feel that the commission is powerless to the grip of the union, which serves its members (arguably) too well while doing disservice to the ridership.
Mark:
Not that I like to compare Toronto to places with higher crime rates either, but I think it says something that even in all US cities I visited (from the D-DOT Woodward bus to LA to Baltimore to New York), none have resorted to the plastic shields. I’ve seen them in the UK, where they seem to be common partly because many the buses are still staffed by two-person crews.
Jerrold:
Why many of the comments after your post had gone too far (a few calling for Reaganesque or Thatcherist mass firings or complete privatizations), I agree that ATU 113 and the Toronto Police Association (especially under Bromell) are amongst the best examples around of unions behaving badly, and making the entire labour movement look bad.
Sean M. got it exactly. I never EVER want to see privatization of the TTC. ANyone who feels privatization is the answer should look to the UK as an example. It will just end up costing us more in the long run, with our money going to CEO’s, and shareholders. Screw that. That being said, the ATU is being run by a clueless f**kwad. Labour does not need this.
And the TTC really needs a management overhaul. The current management is just pathetic.