S
spmarshall
Guest
I was joking with a few people that the TTC/ATU would pull a "TTC employees are superheroes" megacampaign after that janitor found the missing child at Wilson Station and had police notified - you know, full bus/subway wraps with the employee's face and a cape.
Of course, this rightfully looks good on the TTC - though this is employees properly doing their job under the Transit Watch/Safety Partner program. This is why I like her quote in the article: "I'm just a regular person just working. I just happened to crack the case". This is an example of how those programs work properly, when you have good, competent employees.
Now the ATU is going to exploit it - not long after we almost had a strike.
Now I'm relatively pro-union, but I never liked the TTC unions for their strike-happy mentality.
Union seizes on boy's abduction
Uses TTC hero to fight job changes
Janitor saved tot on day shift, it says
Apr. 26, 2006. 01:00 AM
KEVIN MCGRAN
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
TTC union officials are using a subway janitor's rescue of an abducted boy to raise awareness about planned cuts to day jobs and their workers' possible response to the move — an illegal strike as early as May 8.
A wildcat strike would grind the TTC to a halt, and force the 700,000 people who rely on the city's buses, streetcars and subways every work day to find alternate transportation.
"The underlying tone from our membership is that they are extremely frustrated," said Bob Kinnear, president of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union. "I'm not sure how much longer we can maintain the level of service we are currently delivering."
If the TTC has its way, 53 of its 87 janitors and 53 of 91 subway track workers will be moved permanently to the night shift in May in what the TTC calls a cost-savings move.
While the numbers of affected workers seem small, Kinnear said he won't be able to control the unrest he figures would boil over to bus, streetcar and subway operators. "We are one union. I would make the assumption if there was a walk-off by a large group of our employees, our entire membership would follow."
TTC chairman Howard Moscoe said the transit authority was going ahead with the conversion to the night shift, but said he doubted workers would strike illegally since commissioners struck a deal with the union last month that nobody would lose their jobs, and that some would remain on days.
"We can have improved cleaning at night, and have additional cleaning in the day," said Moscoe. "We did what the union asked in terms of saving jobs.
"It's more hot air than it is a wildcat strike. But if Bob Kinnear wants to deliver a wildcat strike, I would be very surprised if anything like that happened."
Kinnear said a strike could be triggered May 8, the day the TTC is due to post a signup sheet seeking workers' preferences for new duties and night shift schedules.
To bolster its cause, the union is pointing to Karen Bass, a subway janitor who spotted — on her day shift — something strange between a woman and boy in a Wilson station washroom. Bass, a 39-year-old mother of a 23-month-old boy, remembered the description from Saturday's Amber Alert when a woman abducted Dejon Madurie from the Albion Mall.
`I'm just a regular person just working. I just happened to crack the case'
Karen Bass, subway janitor
The boy was refusing to take a pinkish substance that might have been medicine. But there was something else, Bass said. "He looked up at me and didn't say anything, but his eyes said something, like `Rescue me.'"
She called her supervisor, who called police. Bass pretended to work in the washroom to stay close to the woman. She followed them to a coffee shop. Police arrived within five minutes.
The matter ended peacefully. The boy returned to his mother. Joanne Merlene Jones was in custody. And Bass is now hailed a hero.
"I think people will call me that, but I don't feel it. I'm just a regular person just working," said Bass. "I just happened to crack the case. That's all it is."
But the union notes Bass was working the day shift when she spotted the boy.
"If this incident had occurred six weeks from now under the TTC's proposal, Karen wouldn't even have been there on day shift," said Kinnear.
"We believe there should be visibility in the subway so people can identify with a TTC employee if they have any concerns about their safety and security."
Meanwhile, the 34-year-old woman accused of kidnapping the 4-year-old from the busy north Etobicoke mall made a second appearance at College Park court yesterday.
Jones, who police confirmed is the mother of a young child in the care of children's aid in British Columbia, spoke with her newly retained lawyer, Mary Murphy, from the prisoner's box. The unemployed Rexdale woman was remanded in custody until Friday.
Outside court, Murphy said she knew little about her new client who police said has mental issues. She plans to meet with Jones today.
With files by Leslie Ferenc
Of course, this rightfully looks good on the TTC - though this is employees properly doing their job under the Transit Watch/Safety Partner program. This is why I like her quote in the article: "I'm just a regular person just working. I just happened to crack the case". This is an example of how those programs work properly, when you have good, competent employees.
Now the ATU is going to exploit it - not long after we almost had a strike.
Now I'm relatively pro-union, but I never liked the TTC unions for their strike-happy mentality.
Union seizes on boy's abduction
Uses TTC hero to fight job changes
Janitor saved tot on day shift, it says
Apr. 26, 2006. 01:00 AM
KEVIN MCGRAN
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
TTC union officials are using a subway janitor's rescue of an abducted boy to raise awareness about planned cuts to day jobs and their workers' possible response to the move — an illegal strike as early as May 8.
A wildcat strike would grind the TTC to a halt, and force the 700,000 people who rely on the city's buses, streetcars and subways every work day to find alternate transportation.
"The underlying tone from our membership is that they are extremely frustrated," said Bob Kinnear, president of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union. "I'm not sure how much longer we can maintain the level of service we are currently delivering."
If the TTC has its way, 53 of its 87 janitors and 53 of 91 subway track workers will be moved permanently to the night shift in May in what the TTC calls a cost-savings move.
While the numbers of affected workers seem small, Kinnear said he won't be able to control the unrest he figures would boil over to bus, streetcar and subway operators. "We are one union. I would make the assumption if there was a walk-off by a large group of our employees, our entire membership would follow."
TTC chairman Howard Moscoe said the transit authority was going ahead with the conversion to the night shift, but said he doubted workers would strike illegally since commissioners struck a deal with the union last month that nobody would lose their jobs, and that some would remain on days.
"We can have improved cleaning at night, and have additional cleaning in the day," said Moscoe. "We did what the union asked in terms of saving jobs.
"It's more hot air than it is a wildcat strike. But if Bob Kinnear wants to deliver a wildcat strike, I would be very surprised if anything like that happened."
Kinnear said a strike could be triggered May 8, the day the TTC is due to post a signup sheet seeking workers' preferences for new duties and night shift schedules.
To bolster its cause, the union is pointing to Karen Bass, a subway janitor who spotted — on her day shift — something strange between a woman and boy in a Wilson station washroom. Bass, a 39-year-old mother of a 23-month-old boy, remembered the description from Saturday's Amber Alert when a woman abducted Dejon Madurie from the Albion Mall.
`I'm just a regular person just working. I just happened to crack the case'
Karen Bass, subway janitor
The boy was refusing to take a pinkish substance that might have been medicine. But there was something else, Bass said. "He looked up at me and didn't say anything, but his eyes said something, like `Rescue me.'"
She called her supervisor, who called police. Bass pretended to work in the washroom to stay close to the woman. She followed them to a coffee shop. Police arrived within five minutes.
The matter ended peacefully. The boy returned to his mother. Joanne Merlene Jones was in custody. And Bass is now hailed a hero.
"I think people will call me that, but I don't feel it. I'm just a regular person just working," said Bass. "I just happened to crack the case. That's all it is."
But the union notes Bass was working the day shift when she spotted the boy.
"If this incident had occurred six weeks from now under the TTC's proposal, Karen wouldn't even have been there on day shift," said Kinnear.
"We believe there should be visibility in the subway so people can identify with a TTC employee if they have any concerns about their safety and security."
Meanwhile, the 34-year-old woman accused of kidnapping the 4-year-old from the busy north Etobicoke mall made a second appearance at College Park court yesterday.
Jones, who police confirmed is the mother of a young child in the care of children's aid in British Columbia, spoke with her newly retained lawyer, Mary Murphy, from the prisoner's box. The unemployed Rexdale woman was remanded in custody until Friday.
Outside court, Murphy said she knew little about her new client who police said has mental issues. She plans to meet with Jones today.
With files by Leslie Ferenc