TTC union launches $1 million PR campaign

Sure, the TTC has done a piss poor job of most things but the union hardly help either with the crazy inflexibility they insert throughout the TTC. They are probably spending this much to try to suck up to the Toronto public because they plan to go on strike at some point in the very near future and erode the TTC that little bit more.

there was a time unions served a purpose...now they just serve themselves.

I want to agree with the union-haters, I really do - who doesn't like cost cutting? But unions seem to be the only thing between a livable wage and slave labour anymore. How many of those contracted out garbage workers can even afford to live in Toronto?! There seems to be a race to the bottom in every aspect of our economy, all in the name of the mighty shareholder. How is it that my grandparent's one-income carpenter's salary and my parent's two-income no-university salary had more buying power (and housing opportunity) than my wiz-bang engineering job salary?! And what of the carpenters and the non-university educated of our generation!? We are being forced into a culture of haves and have-nots. The middle class is disappearing. While debt-free, I fully expect to be working till I'm 80 because a few rich people convinced everyone else that unions and SOOOOOOOCIALISM are the devil, and that they should be happy with their doldrum 12 hours shifts, working for pennies. I say good luck Bob, you're going to need it.

I am all for making a living wage...I am all for protection for the employee...but the TTC has far too many barely skilled do-nothings "working" at high wages on my dime...

I maintain the TTC is the worst first world system for any city our size on earth and part of the problem is a union that just loves to go on strike and fight any improvements. The fact that we don't have a smart card system is just shameful in 2012.

and the mafia.

You're experience is pretty uncommon. In the suburb I was born and raised in and the suburb I went to university in, there is not a month that doesn't go by that there isn't a pile of garbage blowing down the street and recycling bins sitting in the middle of the road to be run over by cars (I know it isn't kids, either).

I'm not anti-union, but there are times that they need to be more flexible to a) not lose their jobs because of ideologues and b) to win the PR campaign against the person who's trying to get rid of them.

The TTC workers the most militant, spit-in-the-face-of-the-public brand of union around. They make the posties look nice (who have, by the way, really improved since the 1980s). Not all unions are the same, and Kinnear with his us against them mentality leads a bunch of the most entitled ones around.

The worst are the ones working at the main repair yard where the public never goes except for Doors Open. Seeing the model worker working hard in slo-mo at repairing a streetcar in the ad was hilarious. They are among the laziest and most militant, with almost no oversight and not even the fear of dealing with the public.

They are most of the reason the drivers and ticket collectors (many of whom also have a bad attitude as we already know) take the brunt of the public's criticism, and they are the ones who were most in favour of wildcat job action just so they could keep their easy schedules.

No sympathy for any of them--they wore it out years ago. Privatize away!

I'd vote for anyone who could destroy the TTC union. It's clear the union is an impediment to change. Sitting in front of a small box watching tokens being deposited by riders -- is this the 21st century? Seriously, I've ridden transit systems around the world, and I have never seen such a job anywhere else. A transit system is supposed to move a city's or region's citizenry from point A to point B; it isn't a make-work project.

Unions don't have anything to do with poor ttc service. You can all blame the end of government subsidies under mike harris for that.

The ttc is the only system in north america that has to rely on getting over 70% of their funding from fares. If the government properly funded the transit system, maybe you would see some improvements in service and an investment in a smart card system. Yall want your cake for free, but it's not the unions that are stealing it.

The reason we don't have a smart card system isn't an union issue or problem. The lack of funding & political fighting between TTC Management & Commission & Provincial Government. The Presto debate was long fought by TTC Management as they wanted to develop their own system but the Provincial Government forced Presto on the TTC as part of the deal in the City of Toronto receiving $8.4 Billion for transit expansion. That delay had nothing to do with the union. The cost factor of purchasing & installing & maintaining the electronic readers on every TTC vehicle & station is very expensive and there was no budget for it as riders hate fare increases and the Mayor refuses to raise taxes so the money for the Presto machines need to come from somewhere yet nobody was willing to pay for them. Again that wasn't the union delaying the purchase or implementation of the Presto readers.

Are they planning to launch a TTC television station?

If you have $1 million to spend on an ad campaign, does that mean you are $1 million overpaid? This ad campaign was funded by us, the taxpayers, via the wages and so on that we pay these workers, who in turn pay union dues, etc... I'd rather get that money back in my pocket by contracting these services out.

Fact: all your "rights" as a worker are protected under provincial law, except when you are in a union, in which case you give the union the ability to bargain away your rights in deals with the employer.

In other words, unions aren't fighting for worker's rights, they're selling them out. The government protects workers rights, not unions.

Greg Kinnear is a Grade-A douche, and can go lick the 3rd rail at any subway station as far as I'm concerned, but the union has become a convenient scapegoat for much deeper problems. Rest assured that if the union were ever to be broken that things wouldn't improve. The TTC would continue to remain criminally underfunded by both the provincial and federal governments.

People love to compare the TTC to other systems around the world, but they never bother to learn about how much support these other systems receive from their governments.

I lived in Japan for several years and had the pleasure of using top-notch transit systems from one end of the country to the other. There are several reasons why the Japanese experience can't be replicated in Canada (culture, geography, density etc.), but it is crucial to note that they receive significant funding from various levels of government. And while there are some differences, mainly rooted in culture, in the relationship between organized labour and management over there compared to here, those employees are almost all unionized.

I'm curious as to where you think this government funding of the TTC is coming from. It's a well-known fact that over 70% of their operating budget comes directly from fares. The feds contribute nothing, and regular provincial funding has also been stopped. When the economy was doing better, Miller was able to go to Queen's Park and beg for a handout each year, but that's over now that the province is running massive deficits, and frankly, is unlikely to resume anytime soon. Compared to transit systems across North America, and around the world, the TTC has been left to largely fend for itself.

Although I am generally pro-labour, I am no ATU 113 apologist. I can't stand the sight of Kinnear's slimy smirk, and have spent too much time in dirty stations, afraid to use filthy washrooms, waiting on buses and trains driven by surly employees to ever be one. I was also disgusted by the last wildcat strike when they walked out at midnight, effectively stranding people who had taken transit to their destinations that night. By no means do I think that all TTC employees are lazy, rude and/or incompetent, quite the opposite in fact, but I am also under no illusions as to the type of work culture that exists under many modern unions, with ATU 113 being a particularly good example.

Furthermore, I agree with you about the union's reluctance to modernize, or even consider privatizing the most basic of functions.

My point was/is that the union is only part of what's wrong with the TTC, although it often receives most, if not all, of the blame. If it were to be done away with, you can bet that salaries and working conditions would instantly and dramatically worsen. But there wouldn't be any noticeable improvement in the quality of service. Is the guy sleeping in the collection booth, only waking up long enough to snap at a tourist a problem? Definitely. But they're not the reason we don't have a downtown relief line, or subways under Queen or Eglinton yet. That comes down to a lack of political will, vision, and money.

Maybe they should, to counteract all of the anti-union, anti-TTC, pro-private transit propaganda.

Ha! Aren't you just clever with your screen name.

Oh shut up. The only thing our government protects are the interests of the monied. Pure and simple. And you want THOSE mandarins deciding what's good for a union? I think visas to Belarus are easy to come by. I hear there the government protects everyone.

The TTC is not allowed to Strike, as it is now an essential service. The correct term would be work to rule. It's not the same. The difference is you'll still get on and off public transit, at least. Instead of having to waste money on a cab to get around.

Great work, carry on