Fuck you too, TTC

I think the title gives the general impression of where this post is going.

For those of you who don’t live in the Centre of the Universe (Toronto), I’ll give you some background info. Toronto is a city that has managed to avoid downtown blight. Toronto’s downtown is thriving. The midtown is thriving. Hell, even the uptown is doing not so terribly. With any large, bustling city, we have to have a great transit system. Which we do…the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission).

I love the TTC. People from Toronto bitch about it all the time, but clearly these are native Torontonians and have never gone north of Steeles, let alone tried to ride a transit system in any other city. I have. And trust me, Torontonians have no idea how good they have it. I’ve almost forgotten that things like bus schedules exist……..I just go to the subway platform, streetcar stop or bus shelter and stand there. I don’t have to worry about timing it, cuz I know there’s going to be one in like, 3 minutes. Unless I’m on Bathurst. Don’t get me started about the Bathurst streetcar. Overall, the TTC is amazing, I love it, I use it every day. They chauffer me around, while I don’t have to worry about traffic, but get free time to read, knit or ponder the meaning of life.

The TTC is V I T A L to this city. Over 1.5 million people ride it every day. Every single day. Anybody with a brain uses the TTC when downtown rather than drive. Driving makes no sense in Toronto. It’s not like other cities, where only losers take transit. It’s sort of the reverse here. Pedestrians and transit riders have the holier-than-thou attitude, usually assigned to drivers in other cities.

So anyways, TTC is good. It’s important. It’s big. I believe they employ over 10,000 people and have 3 unions in total. And all of them Suck. Capital S.

The TTC employees have shitty jobs, granted. But they know when they sign up to drive a bus, they’ll be driving a bus all day. That driving busses includes dealing with people; good, bad, drunk, crazy, chatty or otherwise. It’s allllll part of the job. It’s how jobs work……they have ups and downs, drawbacks and benefits. I’ve not yet heard of a job that is only puppies and rainbows.

But since the TTC is so huge and has been unionized since 1899, they are FULL of themselves. Every time their contract goes up, they whine and cry. These people have such a sense of entitlement, it’s ridiculous. Their union saps this city dry every three years and then they bitch and moan that they don’t have enough money to run the system.

You know what? Maybe if you didn’t pay toll booth monkeys $27 fucking dollars an hour to sit on their ass, doing crossword, Sudoku and looking at you like they want to shoot flaming spears through your head when you ask them to DO THEIR JOBS by making change, you wouldn’t have such a financial problem. Seriously, these people are overpaid. You know why? Unions.

Every time, they whine. Every time, they get raises. This time they had threatened to strike about a week back, but PROMISED the people of Toronto that they would give 48 hours notice if they did so. They didn’t strike. They reached a deal of 3% pay increase a year and blah blah blah. Uh….I do NOT get a 3% raise each year. I don’t know anybody who does. You’re getting a 3% raise on top of your already astronomical wages.

Then, Friday night rolls around. All of a sudden…..at about 10:30 PM, they tell us they’re striking. At midnight. What happened to the 48 hours? Oh, they had a temper tantrum and changed their minds. Now, it didn’t affect me, but this was HIGHLY retarded.

Think about it. Friday night, tens of thousands of people flood into the Entertainment District (my neighbourhood). They get liquored up and stumble to the subway stations and take themselves home responsibly. They were in the clubs when the TTC announced it’s fun little prank. By the time they got out at 2:00 AM, the city was shut down. They’d spent their money on booze, cuz they knew they could just hop on the train to get home. But wait! There IS no train service, there ARE no streetcars!! Hope you kept $60 in your pocket in case of a TTC strike! Oh, you didn’t? Well, weren’t you dumb to believe them that they would keep their 48 hour promise.

Now you have ANGRY drunks roaming the streets. Super. Fighting over cabs. Brilliant.

Let’s also think about the single women, elderly, disabled, anyone else who went out that night thinking they could get home. They couldn’t.

Fuck you, TTC. Fuck you and your overprivileged, shitty work ethic attitude.

What they were TRYING to do was screw the city over. What they FAILED to remember is that every time they pull this, they get legislated back to work almost immediately. This isn’t a small town transit system. This is a necessity.  If it would have been a weekday, they would have been smart. When the TTC goes down, people can’t get to work, school, medical appointments, grocery stores, dentist visits, hospitals, anything. I can’t get to work if they strike, I live way too far away.

So, all they did was piss off the public AGAIN. They pull this shit way too often (let’s think back two years ago to their wildcat strike….they just decided one day to stop working! Fun!!) They irresponsibly stranded people all over the city and didn’t really get any impact. If they would have pulled that shit on a weekday, they probably could have gotten whatever they wanted. Instead, they gave people a nice, slow Saturday off and wasted their two-day strike allowance.

They claim they work in horrid conditions, don’t make enough, are worried about being contracted out, don’t get enough benefits, have bad schedules, blah blah blah wah wah wahhhhh. Cry me a river. You chose that job. There’s plenty of other ones you could get out there. But you took this one BECAUSE it pays so well, and has such amazing benefits. Plus you have a union that is retardedly powerful and know that you can’t get fired even if you do nothing…….which coincidentally is what most TTC employees do.

They’re worried about the rising violence against their front-line workers. Well, NO SHIT brainiacs. Every time we turn around, YOU get a raise and WE get a fare hike. Every time we turn around, YOU’RE on strike and WE’RE the ones not able to get to work. You know what happens if I don’t go to work? I GET FIRED!! My boss doesn’t give a rats ass if you’re on strike, I need to get myself to work. Every time we turn around, you’re breaking promises about strike notice. Every time we turn around, you’re threatening to cut another line. Remember the time you threatened to shut down the entire, brand new Sheppard subway line? Who the fuck shuts down subway lines???

It’s no fucking wonder you’re scared about rising violence. We’re pissed. And it’s YOUR fault. Stop your moaning and do your job, assholes.

Now I know, not everyone driving the bus is making the decisions. It’s the union heads. But still, the workers vote on the contracts that the union deems acceptable. The public knows this, they know that the union is full of shit when they try to bargain for raises, this that and the other thing.

I HATE UNIONS.

They served their purpose back in the day, no doubt. But nowadays, there are labour laws and all unions do is suck money out of employers and governments. There’s no need for them. We now have laws that make working fair.

Way to go TTC. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. And despite the city’s speech, begging commuters not to beat the shit out of employees when they see them tomorrow, because at this point we have had E-NOUGH, I hope you get what you deserve.

Your latest strike has only pissed off the public, taken away your right to pick your own mediator, taken away your striking power for this round of negotiations and you’ve possibly set the wheels in motion to render you an essential service. This will take away  your right to strike and bitch and moan altogether.

Ah, right. Also, due to your little Friday night prank, if you try and pull that again, you get to pay the city $2,000 per employee, plus $25,000 per union each day. That’s $20,000 plus $75,000. Hell, make it an even $100K. You can make the cheque out to T-A-L…… Way to go.

Hope you’re proud of yourselves, guys. Next time you pull this crap, I hope you all get fired. I GUARANTEE there’s 10,000 people in this city who would walk away from their jobs to take yours, no increased wages or benefits. I would. You have no idea how lucky and overvalued you are; you’re too busy whining to notice.