Just one week ago, Kinnear and his team reached a tentative agreement with the TTC. Not only were wages higher than inflation but a clause was inserted that would insure that Toronto transit drivers would remain the highest paid in the GTA. If surrounding jurisdictions gave their drivers more money, Toronto operators would get an automatic increase in order to remain the highest paid. It’s hard to budget for increases triggered by other jurisdictions; luckily budgeting is not something that the city of Toronto is overly concerned with.
Last Friday TTC employees voted on that tentative agreement and by about 10 pm the vote was tallied. The contract was rejected by 65 per cent of union members. The TTC were in a legal strike position and walked off the job at 12:01 Saturday morning. Bob Kinnear broke the promise that he made not only to the mayor and management but to the people of Toronto that he would give 48 hours notice of a walkout.
But still, he’s going to get that medal, if not statues erected in his honour.
As an aside, Kinnear’s excuse for breaking his promise was that he had to protect his little girl and girly-men drivers from abuse that they allegedly had to take a little over a week ago when they first gave 48 hours notice of a walkout. This reasoning made no sense in that the almost immediate walkout on Friday left people scrambling including the thousands of people who were downtown in clubs and bars, left after midnight and had no way to get home. TTC drivers will end up taking more abuse by that action than they ever would have if the promised notice was given. If these drivers really are too ascared to go to work, they should quit. We can easily find replacements. Although it takes some skill to do the job, it’s hardly rocket science. And on the off chance that it is, we will just have to find some immigrant rocket scientists and try to entice them away from their current positions in the taxi industry. Thirty dollars and hour, which will probably be what transit operators will end up getting plus the chance to be assaulted in front of witnesses, one of whom might even come to the driver’s assistance, would probably do it.
No, Bob Kinnear will not be getting a medal from Premier Dalton McGuinty for breaking his promise. And he won’t be getting one from his soon to be ex-brothers and sisters in the union who voted overwhelmingly to reject the contract he had negotiated. One of the reasons for the rejection is that the maintenance workers won’t automatically become the highest paid in the area like the drivers will, leading to calls that the poor dears are second class citizens. And Bob Kinnear is unlikely to get a medal from Mayor David Miller who was made to look foolish when the workers walked off the job with no notice after getting pretty well everything that Kinnear at least wanted. And Bob won’t be getting any awards from the good citizens of Toronto, many of whom were left stranded in the early hours of last Saturday morning.
But as far as medals, statutes and other accolades are concerned, all is not lost.
Analysts predict that the high gasoline prices are here to stay and will reach about $2.50 a litre by the year 2012. Unlike previous gasoline price hikes, these increases are not simply OPEC manipulating the cost of a barrel of oil. Demand for gasoline is skyrocketing because of the thousands of people in India and China that are becoming first time automobile owners. And the increase in the amount of car owners in Asia is not likely to change any time soon. As the price of gas increases, people in North America will simply be unable to afford to drive, at least as much as they do now. This does not bode well for North American car manufacturers who will see sales drop dramatically if in fact fuel prices do double in the next four years.
But Bob Kinnear is living proof why Torontonians will never ever give up their cars in spite of high fuel prices, climate change and being subjected to a car-hating city council that do everything they can to make driving a private vehicle more difficult. It will only be a matter of time before the automobile industry rewards Mr. Kinnear for his work in keeping Torontonians in the cars. Medals, statues; hell, they may even name a car after him. He deserves no less.
He should at least be given a free vehicle to get him to places that he has to go that are unreachable by Toronto’s public transit like the hotel in Richmond Hill where negotiations took place.
There is no greater hero for the North American automobile industry than Bob Kinnear; it’s way too late for him to be a hero to anyone else.
