The Good Old Hockey Game Metrolinx Bright Kids Go
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onTHE moveVol 1 No 2 • SeptemberAugust 200 20095 THE GOOD OLD HOCKEYWE MOVED GAME OLDTIMERSTORONTO MATCH A GREAT PUBLIC WINSCAMPAIGN $30,000 FOR MS PGpg.. 126 JOB METROLINXEVALUATION PROCESS NEWNEARING AGENCY PLANS BIGCOMPLETIO CHANGES N PGpg.. 514 BRIGHTEND OF KIDS ATUAN CHILDREN ERA EARN ATUTHE SCHOLARSHIPS LAST GM BUS REBUILD PGpg.. 2214 GO ARGOS! SPECIAL THANKS FROM PINBALL CLEMONS FOR LOCAL 113 Contract ’05 PG. 27 2009 Keeping Downup a tradition moreto than the 100 years Wire old, ATU Local 113 membersAn came aggressive out bargaining in force style backed for up theby an innovativeAnnual communications Labour Day Parade campaign wins Local 113 the best public sector settlement in more thanon aTHE decade.move 1 OFFICERS’JOB EVALUATION REPORT VICTORY OperatorsPlenty of challenges and Collectors ahead Job on Evaluation the road to finally the 2008 contract talks ends in multi-million dollar award want to thank the members for the So to be effective negotiators, we as a maintenance and other behind-the- It supportwas years given in the in themaking recent but election the TTC Operatorsunion have and to Col be- in the$4400; political those arena who camescenes jobs we perform. Itolectors me and Job the Evaluation rest of the finally Executive wrapped upwhere with athe big real win decisionslater are received made. proratedYou might think that with forBoard. the union. We ran About as a team 25 million and we dollars will act in retroactive pay has amounts. The award environmental concerns now alreadyas a team been to protectpaid out and to Operatorsenhance your and Station Collectors was issued in late overtaking even health care as a public andrights about and 3 security. million dollars per year will be paid on a going- June by independent issue, more public funding for public forwardThe time basis to begin to this preparing group, who for ourare all now rated at Wage arbitrator Howard D. transit is all but assured. And you would Groupnext round 7. This of amountsnegotiations to a iswage now. increase It of 37 cents per Brown, ending a saga be right. But don’t get too excited. hourwill be as noof Julycakewalk. 1st, 2009, There or 1.2are permany cent. ATU 113 that had begun in The money coming to the TTC from Maintenancepolitical and economicDepartment challenges members to have over the years 2002, when the union seniorLocal levels 113 ofwon government $25 million (Ontarioin retro pay for Operators and Collectors and $3 undergonesquarely face. formal If we job wait evaluations another eight with similar impacts on first negotiated the Joband federal) is almost entirely capital THE VALUE OF OUR WORK million a year on an ongoing basis. averageor nine monthswages. just to get started, we’ll Evaluation. A dispute funding – money to buy vehicles and already be behind. You can bet that But it doesn’t stop there.between Because the unionwe andexpand the infrastructure. This capital the TTC around the approach and method to be used for the TTC management is already working live in a democracy (it’s not perfect but money is needed and welcome but evaluation delayed the process for several years. The union on their bargaining strategy. it’s pretty good as democracies go), it has little or nothing to do with the political decisions arewanted influenced the existing by Local 113 Job Evaluation plan to be used; A lot of people talk about collective TTC’s Operating Budget, which is public perception. Butthe only company if the public wanted another one that would have been bargaining as if it were a poker game. where the money for our wages and is paying attention andcheaper. understands The union’s plan ultimately won out but that only “Who holds the best cards?” “Is the benefits comes from. the issues to some degree.started That’s the evaluation why process. Thirty five days of hearings in other guy bluffing?” “When do you go To a certain extent, there is a job we also have to be in frontthe public of the arena, arbitrator began in January 2007 and finished in “all in?” (i.e., on strike). creation component to capital funding. constantly remindingMay people 2009. of theBesides the hearing days, many more days were A bus is just an expensive hunk of But negotiating a labour contract, value of our services takenand why up inpublic analysis and preparation. The union’s legal bills metal if there’s no one to drive it. especially in the public sector, is not transit deserves morewere public substantial support. and were paid by the Defence Fund. a poker game. It’s a political game And it becomes expensive junk very We began doing this “Thisin our is last a great round example of the value of having a union that because any settlement ultimately quickly without the people to maintain of bargaining, to gooddoes effect. not Ourgive up and has the resources to fight long battles,” comes down to politics. The money to it. So yes, as the system expands, the We Move Toronto campaignsaid Frank was Grimaldi, the Executive Board member who fund the system – and pay us – can only quarterbacked the union’snumber efforts. of workers “And it’s needed further expands proof that as Operators and Collectors are now all in Wage (manyGroup 7said) the most effective public aftercome a fromlengthy two job sources: evaluation taxpayers process. and it pays to be patient. Therewell. Butwere as times that happens,we could managementhave settled advocacy campaign ever by a union passengers. And because politicians for less, just to get it over,will attemptas some to were spread advising. more Butthinly we the in our city. It helped change an unfair Operatorsmake the decisionsand Collectors on taxation who have levels been on the payroll since hung in there and we’remoney glad webudgeted did.” For to paymore our on currentthe history perception of our front-line members Octoberand TTC 1, fares, 2002 makingreceived a asettlement retroactive gross payment of of this issue, see Frank members.Grimaldi’s We report can’t on let page that 20. happen. and showcased the importance of with us is ultimately a political decision. continued on page 11 Frank Grimaldi – Arrow Road/Queensway/Mount Dennis /Veolia OFFICER REPORTS Major issues will challenge our union but our solidarity will prevail here are times because some bureaucrat thinks it would be more “efficient.” Twhen it seems A contract is a contract. that the work of a As one example, the union was able to defer the union is like the Bob Kinnear implementation this September of a plan to have York “Whack-a-Mole” President/ Regional Transit (YRT) buses take passengers from Business Agent game at the CNE: Downsview Station to York University. This plan would not a problem or issue only, in our opinion, violate our contract with the TTC but pops up and you it would mean having Toronto taxpayers subsidize YRT try to whack it which, by the way, is operated by a French-owned private down with your corporation, Veolia Transportation. Deferring this plan until mallet while at the we can sort out all the issues does not jeopardize any jobs of same time other our Veolia members. They will still be shuttling York Region problems pop up commuters to and from Downsview. But it will keep all unexpectedly and in different places. Trying to anticipate and Toronto passengers on TTC buses. hit all the moles popping up can be hilarious at the Ex but is a There will be dozens of similar Metrolinx-related issues sober challenge in real life, when the “moles” are all issues of popping up in the near future, not just in our jurisdiction but great importance to our members. in the surrounding ones. For that reason, Local 113 initiated It would take more space than I have here to describe all the a meeting of all the ATU Local Presidents in the GTHA to issues we are facing as a union. If you want to learn more begin strategizing a common approach to these issues. And about the union’s concerns and participate in the decisions I will be personally meeting in early October with Metrolinx on how we handle them, come to the membership meetings. CEO Rob Prichard to exchange perspectives and concerns Let me focus on just three very major issues with long term and hopefully build an ongoing consultative relationship that consequences (good or bad) to how we handle them. will help both Local 113 and Metrolinx. Dealing with Metrolinx Drug and alcohol testing not gone Metrolinx looms large in our future. (See pp. 10-11). Another looming challenge is the prospect of a revival of Metrolinx is the provincial government agency with a TTC management’s plan for drug and alcohol testing of our sweeping mandate to plan and coordinate interregional public members. We are unalterably opposed to this. There are transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area (GTHA). better and less invasive ways to test for impairment than The government would like to eventually see a single transit taking bodily fluids. We have a duty to perform our jobs authority in this entire region. It envisions a transit system without impairment but we cannot allow the TTC to own without municipal boundaries, where vehicles from, say, our lives off the job. My public declarations last year that Mississauga or York Region, share passenger loads with the the union would not accept or submit to such an invasion TTC, all in the interest of more efficient use of the fleets in of privacy seem to have put D&A testing on the back order to get more people out of their cars and onto the bus burner.