I gotta start getting prepared for the civ201 trip, I have boots, going to use my old reliable construction boots, got eye wear, I am sans eye wear, hardhat and the reflective vest…do we really need the latter? In retrospect I likely have ear protection, the state of it, that is another matter entirely.
So this weekend, con weekend. I wait ALL year for this. All year. I am volunteering again this year, and sure as hell I plan to abuse what small bit of power I am afforded. Not to mention the t-shirt (I only spell it like that as that is how it is autocorrected on MS Word) is balling and total gym wear. What is not to love? There will be some big changes this year, new venue being the most prominent. Not to mention presales are forecasting a crowd of greater than 60,000 people in attendance.
So, just today at work I finished this massive, and I mean massive thread on a popular forum about the TTC. It was a take on the age old topic starter “Ask a (insert noun) anything”. In this case the noun was TTC employee and asking away is what people did, 194 pages and approximately 3000 posts to be exact (irony). A fellow named Agram answered question after question giving his inside knowledge. He is a TTC mechanic and has worked for both the union and now holds a staff job.
I don’t know if you know this, I didn’t until some education but the TTC is roughly divided into three core units. The union comprises drivers (all flavors), cleaners/janitors, grounds keeping, painters, etc. Staff comprises the BULK (essentially a major issue) forepersons, supervisors, division and section chiefs, engineers, accountants/bookkeepers, bean counters…white collar jobs essentially and literally. The highest tier being the politicians, Commissioners and well David Miller’s lackey Adam Giambrone.
Essentially, you have a perfectly workable system which is strangled by politicians and bureaucracy. Now this is a union city, that is what Toronto is, and I hate that as much as the next guy. But I was naïve to place the blame squarely on the union, ATU 113, if memory serves. Their hands sure aren’t free of blood, but they are covered.
The union’s purpose is to safeguard the best interests of its members, that is why they pay ~20 dollars every week for union dues. You do the math. It is the union which regulates how much work an employee should/will have to do per shift and other details like this. This type of agreement is worked out between the union bosses and staff at contract drafting times. You know, those times when the union talks big, the management talks small, and in the end the union threatens a walk out and holds us ransom. Obviously we cannot afford the additional cost of declaring the TTC an essential service. /sarcasm.
Anyways, the politicians who answer to their corporate sponsors and campaign supports. Read: not the voters they apparently are elected to SERVE. They push on whatever hot-button onto the management which have to hawk it to the union, you know…after 13 advisory committees, three consulting groups and a city council meeting. Red tape.
On an unrelated note, if I read one more comment in the T star or on CBC news about how we should more like the MTR in Hong Kong, or this or that about NYC or Tokyo transit…well, I will be very upset. You cannot, CANNOT, compare a system which is in NYC’s case, 100% state funded or in the case of the MTR, a corporate enterprise with our system. Our system is funded massively by whatever is put in the fare box, and very very little municipal funding, forget about the province.
I could rant on, but alas, I am about to go home from work…lesson to be learned, as much as it pains me saying this , it is not all the unions fault for the TTC, the rest of Toronto (public sector), fuck ya…all union, but here, we have excessive management with top pressure from ill-advised and uneducated politicians.
Too many chiefs, not enough Indians I believe the saying goes…
