Coup at TTC union blamed for strike
Dissenters on board pushed for walkout
JEFF GRAY
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
April 29, 2008 at 3:51 AM EDT
The internal politics of the TTC's largest union are to blame for the weekend's surprise public-transit strike, sources say, as a faction within Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 tried to mount a "coup" to scupper the union's tentative agreement and take down its leader.
The move against union president Bob Kinnear - which culminated on Friday night in the rank-and-file vote against the deal that he supported - was orchestrated by maintenance representatives on the union's executive board and led by union executive vice-president Kevin Morton, a union source said. "He's the guy leading the coup to get Bob out," said the source, who spoke with The Globe and Mail on condition of anonymity.
Mr. Morton, a former representative of the union's collectors and clerical workers, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Staff at the union's Wilson Avenue headquarters said he was not available.
The union is notoriously fractious, and it was maintenance workers, known for their militancy - partly, union insiders say, because, unlike drivers, they do not have to face the riding public - who were behind the one-day illegal strike that shut down the system in 2006. This latest split intensified on April 20, when Mr. Kinnear - notably without any fellow union leaders flanking him - told reporters he and his executive board had reached a deal with TTC managers to avert a strike the next morning.
However, seven members of the 16-member executive board, including maintenance representatives and Mr. Morton, had refused to sign the tentative deal and left the hotel north of the city where talks took place. They objected, one union source said, to the fact that a 10-cent-an-hour premium for skilled trades workers had been raised 25 cents, and not 50 cents.
The rest of the executive board had decided that striking for such a small issue simply wasn't on, the source said, because they "weren't going to take the city out for a quarter."
The dissenters, in an effort to "sell this to the other members," then began to raise the other issues that are believed to have led not just maintenance workers but many drivers to vote down the deal, including fears - called unfounded and "misinformation" by management - that the TTC planned to contract out more bus maintenance and lay off workers.
Those fears about contracting out were not shared by all union members, the source added: "We've got the best contracting-out language anywhere. And they've been told that by our lawyers and everything."
TTC general manager Gary Webster - whose voice could be heard yesterday reading a recorded apology to riders on the transit system's public address system - put out a statement on the transit agency's website aimed at employees.
On contracting out, it reads: "Nothing has changed. We continue to ensure that our employees are not laid off or terminated as a direct result of contracting out work."
Still, this issue and others turned a union meeting Wednesday night on the deal into a tense, shouting-filled four-hour affair, sources said, with maintenance union members outnumbering others by as much as 2-1.
On Friday, voting took place at various TTC locations and as counting began in the evening it became clear the deal was going down to defeat. The executive board debated whether to give the city the 48-hour notice that was promised earlier, whether to allow service to wrap up as usual early Saturday, or whether to walk out immediately.
The union's board voted to shut the system down as soon as possible, for fear that the often-drunken late-night crowds on the TTC might assault drivers or even damage TTC vehicles. And Mr. Kinnear was not moved by pleas from Mayor David Miller or TTC chairman Adam Giambrone to reconsider the decision.
In a phone interview yesterday, Mr. Kinnear said he sympathized with passengers left stranded - adding that his own daughter was caught without a way to get home - but said he would not apologize for the sudden strike. He said the TTC should have warned the public that it was a possibility, and singled out comments made by Mr. Giambrone last week playing down the potential for a no vote.
Mr. Kinnear, who stayed well out of the spotlight for most of the tense weekend, would say little yesterday about the politics dividing his union and threatening his leadership.
Despite the voting down of the deal, he vowed to stay on, citing the 80-per-cent vote he won in December, 2006, earning him a second three-year term that is up next year. He also insisted he has the support of his members and even of executive board members who were critical of the tentative deal.
"This is not unusual in our local to have differing opinions," Mr. Kinnear said. "... As far as a coup attempt, I am going to leave those issues ... and we'll sort those issues out internally."
Wages in transit
If TTC workers had accepted the contract offer it would have put them near the top of transit wage-earners in North America.
TOP HOURLY WAGE RATES OF UNIONIZED TRANSIT WORKERS
Operator Mechanic Effective date
Calgary Transit $26.83 $35.15 June 23, 2008
GO Transit $27.63 $30.43 January, 2008
Coast Mountain (Greater Vancouver) $27.52 $32.89 Apr. 1, 2008
TTC $27.38 $33.28 Offer rejected
Mississauga Transit $26.63 $31.31 Oct. 1, 2007
Brampton Transit $26.49 $32.09 July 1, 2008
OC Transpo (Ottawa) $24.23 $28.69 Apr. 1, 2007
New York Transit $26.92*
Chicago Transit Auth. $26.82* *in U.S. dollars
so I'm not sure we want to go that route.
