Bob Kinnear, the president of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, told a Toronto press conference today, Tuesday, February 9 that his union wanted to help address the recent surge of public dissatisfaction with TTC service. Local 113 will do so by conducting a series of town hall events across Toronto to meet face-to-face with customers and respond to complaints and constructive criticism.
Kinnear also said the union wants to distinguish in the public mind those service issues which front-line workers do not control — such as fares, routes, schedules and other management and government funding decisions — from those they can control, and work on the latter. He also upbraided “a distinct minority” of passengers who are harassing and insulting TTC workers, including “video stalking” of workers taking washroom and coffee breaks.
Here is Kinnear’s statement:
“I’m here to make a few comments on the recent avalanche of media‐fuelled criticism aimed at TTC front line employees and to announce a union initiative around this issue.
“First of all, I want to thank the members of the public who have been voicing support for our members out there. It’s been expressed in many different ways but the general message has been: “Don’t pay any attention to all this noise. Most of you folks are terrific and it’s not fair that all of you are being blamed for the actions of a few.”
“We really appreciate those comments and of course I would encourage more of them. But let me just briefly address another type of passenger. I know they’re in a distinct minority and we have to put up with them all the time. But the recent media frenzy for “gotcha” pictures has brought more of these folks out of the woodwork. So let me speak directly to them:
“Listen folks: Stop harassing people who are doing their jobs. Stop insulting them. Stop waving your phone cameras in their faces as you get on the bus or streetcar. Stop spitting on them. Stop calling them lazy and overpaid. Stop taking videos of drivers when they stop for a washroom break. We’re entitled to washroom breaks, like any human being should be. Harassing people about this by taking their pictures is an affront to human dignity and a violation of simple decency.
“In Ontario, workers are entitled to a harassment‐free workplace. And even though it is also a public space, a bus, a streetcar or a subway station is our workplace. The people who work there are human beings, just like you.
“There is no group of workers in this city who are more subject to public assault than TTC workers. Every time there is a fare increase, we brace ourselves for the inevitable spike in insults and assaults. But the recent media focus on a handful of TTC workers has made a bad situation much, much worse.

