City Workers Strike 2009

[Whoaccio]

Does anyone know how much contract drivers at Veolia and Connex make? The TTC certainly could use more outsourcing. They run their own Brinks trucks for christ's sake.

Veolia drivers under contract to YRT, unionized, earn approximately 21$/hour, or about 4-6$ less than the TTC. Both are represented by ATU113. Veolia drivers though have far fewer benefits. They don't get paid sick days, and if they take sick days without a doctor's certificate, they are usually fired. Veolia also manages to reduce the amount of overtime by specifically avoiding schedules in the CBAs.

So, with a bit of guessing, if the TTC began to contract out bus routes in a manner similar to York Region it should be able to expect direct wage savings of about 20%, plus added benefits of reduced sick days and more stringent overtime requirements. It makes no real sense that you have TTC employees doubling their income through overtime. Any competent managers would have hired part staff (especially for booth monkeys) or just hired new staff.

Station management could definitely be privatized. The amount of private companies that could do this is absurd.

 

[GraphicMatt]

^ Garbage pick-up in the old City of York. It was "brought in" about a year or so ago, a decision I'm sure area residents are happy with right about now...

Ah, thanks. Found the story here: http://www.insidetoronto.com/article/30033

Looks like the move saved money because the contract was put in place prior to amalgamation. I'd be interested in seeing the city look at contracting out garbage service city-wide.

The psychological effects of this strike are interesting. I'd assume, like me, people occasionally forget to put their trash out for garbage day and are stuck with it for an extra couple of weeks. It sucks, but it happens, and it's usually manageable. But literally hours after the strike was announced, likely before most people were even due to have garbage pick-up, people were dumping their household trash in parks and other places? That's crazy.

Garbage from businesses is a whole other matter, of course.

 

[catcher_of_cats]

The city is setting up a few garbage collection stations today. The one that truly bugs me is using all the parking lots along Lakeshore near Sunnyside Park for gargage disposal. This will look and smell really pretty when all the Pride/Long weekend attendees drive into the city along this stretch.

 

[kEiThZ]

Unfortunately, Council's boneheaded decision to vote themselves a raise saps them of some of the moral legitimacy in bargaining this time around. I think this is going to take a while to resolve....

 

[Brian69]

It seems a little ridiculous in this day and age we can allow a modern city to degrade so much and invite all kinds of pests and potential disease simply because we have to negotiate for something as simple as garbage pickup. To say nothing of how long its going to take to clean up all the illegal dumping around the GTA once its over. With the dumping that's already started the strike shows just how little it take for a city to start to fall apart and citizens to look out for themselves--good thing Toronto isn't at much risk for a real problem such as a natural disaster.

If people think the TTC is essential and shouldn't come to a standstill then surely the health and hygene of a city should be even more important. But alas, making things essential services just guarantees paying more for them in the long run.

 

[gabe]

The psychological effects of this strike are interesting. I'd assume, like me, people occasionally forget to put their trash out for garbage day and are stuck with it for an extra couple of weeks. It sucks, but it happens, and it's usually manageable. But literally hours after the strike was announced, likely before most people were even due to have garbage pick-up, people were dumping their household trash in parks and other places? That's crazy.

Garbage from businesses is a whole other matter, of course.

Shows you how idiotic people can be! People are using this strike as an opportunity to dump their hazardous waste, I remember the last strike, people dumped broken TVs, small appliances and kitchen sinks into parks and and streets. It wouldn't surprise me if people are caught dumping their trash into the lake as well

 

[Uncle Teddy]

The city is setting up a few garbage collection stations today. The one that truly bugs me is using all the parking lots along Lakeshore near Sunnyside Park for gargage disposal. This will look and smell really pretty when all the Pride/Long weekend attendees drive into the city along this stretch.

Looks like Moss Park is another. The park has been fenced off. Are they doing King James as well or just those in poor areas?

 

[threnody]

The city is setting up a few garbage collection stations today. The one that truly bugs me is using all the parking lots along Lakeshore near Sunnyside Park for gargage disposal. This will look and smell really pretty when all the Pride/Long weekend attendees drive into the city along this stretch.

There's supposed to be a beach party at Sunnyside on Saturday! If it smells like garbage because of this I'm going to be uber-pissed. It's bad enough the other beach party was canceled because of the strike.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

with all the available food/garbage, we're probably gonna get a population explosion of rats, mice, etc. then when the abundant outdoor food supply is gone, guess where they're gonna go looking for food!

 

[BobBob]

Rat food is people! It's peeeople!!!

 

[Tuscani01]

Looks like Moss Park is another. The park has been fenced off. Are they doing King James as well or just those in poor areas?

ugh that blows. Hopefully the wind blows away from downtown.

 

[Felino]

More out of touch unionized workers.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

when the strike is over and people have lots of garbage bags at home, with the bin system, can you just leave the bags at the curb or must you fit it in your bin?

 

[Yoshimura]

The city just planted hundreds of trees on Lakeshore between Leslie and Woodbine. I'm a little worried about their demise without adequate rain. (The workers have been watering them all individually for the past week or so.)

They're all gonna die from the Emerald Ash Borer anyway

Hey, does the City have a monopoly on trash pickup?… competition allowed or no no?

 

[Yoshimura]

I'd think the myth that private companies are paragons of efficiency and competence was shot down forever in the fall of 2008 when the economy went sour.

That makes no sense. Could you elaborate?

There's no truth to it, and wishing to 'privatize' the TTC is either a completely insane idea or otherwise comes from someone who's confusing 'de-unionization' with 'privatization.'

I wouldn't go with privatization as it is state-orchestrated and simply hands over what was stolen to a group of crony capitalists, but rather marketize, i.e. allow for competition.