Advertisement

News

TTC talk

There was plenty of sweat in Ryerson’s Library Theatre for the final Transit Workers ATU Local113 “Let’s Talk” TTC town hall. The weird thing is very little of it was coming from the TTC employees seated on stage with union boss Bob Kinnear and moderator Barbara Budd in the sauna like auditorium.

In fact, the very public fact-finding mission undertaken by the TTC union following the equally public rage-fest sparked (or at least piggy-backed) on a napping ticket collector, at first appeared to be completely nuts. In the end, it probably paid off.

letstalk.jpg

Bob Kinnear talks it out.

By sticking their necks out to hear complaint after complaint at three public forums, they at least earned some level of respect from the crowds. Or seemed to. Anyone expecting the final town hall to be some kind of blowout of pent-up animosity toward a transit system burdened by a piss-poor image would have been disappointed.

Instead, the exchanges between riders and workers was incredibly civil – with the crowd self-moderating the few boil-overs from, say, a woman who stood up to share some photos out of turn (she was denied by a unanimously disapproving response to her attempts at hijacking the Q and A system), or another clearly agitated man who burst out midway through the session but had to wait his turn before finally airing a 40-year grievance list, to another man who began by asking if TTC employees can read English.

For those who patiently waited to have their concerns addressed, the TTC worker panel was humble and sought to find decent responses to complaints – there was a whole lot of explaining how poor funding from the province was the root of people’s frustration.

Your bus not coming or your route not being serviced? Well, guess what – there are so few available buses that drivers sometimes come to work and don’t have a vehicle to drive. With streetcars, the retiring of old PCC cars means we have fewer streetcars running routes today than we did in 1990.

It’s no wonder the top complaint identified by crowd polling at the Ryerson event was overcrowded vehicles.

Drivers didn’t escape complaint free. Another poll question resulted in TTC employees being a greater source of rider unpleasantness than fellow passengers. You can’t blame dry financial wells on that one. Nor can you blame it on incidents of racism, a question Kinnear mishandled by saying that while deplorable, the union has to defend accused racist drivers even if the union doesn’t want to. He should have come right out and told the rider it’s something serious and allegations should be brought to the TTC and offered to follow up on the rider’s specific issue.

Time and again funding was brought up. And without any representation from federal of provincial governments, it was a dead end. What politician in their right mind would show up to defend cuts to Transit City or underfunding TTC operating budgets?

All told, even if little gets resolved, these Let’s Talk sessions fared in a way better than anyone would have guessed. They’ve put a public face on the workers, spread the word of failed funding from the province and allowed regular riders to voice concerns. Kinnear must be getting a few pats on the back today, because he sure walked out of Ryerson with a big smile on his face yesterday.[rssbreak]

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted