Category: Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Categories
It Happened to Me The Current Situation Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Sign of the Times

I took the photo below in High Park station this morning:

“Grand Theft Auto IV” advertisement in High Park station

This photo is a sign of two things:

  1. The Toronto Transit Commission is back in action (and running smoothly from most accounts).
  2. Grand Theft Auto IV gets released at midnight! All branches of Future Shop (except in Quebec and Sudbury) and EB Games as well as the downtown Best Buy will open at midnight tonight to sell it, and I’m thinking of getting a copy tonight. The reviews of the game have all been glowing, and it’s expected to sell about 9 million copies at launch, putting it on par with the opening weekends of major movies. And why not? More and more, I’m of the opinion that I’d rather take a really good, immersive videogame over a movie.
Categories
The Current Situation Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

The TTC Strike and Resolution, Summed Up Very Nicely

Here’s a video that does a pretty good job (and funny!) of summarizing what happened with Accordion City’s transit system and their strike. As an added bonus, it provides a breezy baedeker for Canadian and Toronto politics:

I give this video bonus points for its consistent message of “Nobody listens to the NDP” (and with good cause!).

[Found via blogTO.]

Categories
The Current Situation Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

TTC Strike Surprise (Or: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)

Accordion City is waking up this fine Saturday morning to…a transit strike!

For those of you not from here, here’s a quick recap of what’s been happening:

  • The threat of a strike has been looming for the past little while. The union — Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 — promised to give at least 48 hours’ notice before a strike in order to allow the public time to make arrangements for alternate means of transport.
  • If the union and management didn’t come to an agreement by 4 p.m. last Sunday, April 20th, the workers would go on strike at 4 a.m. Monday, April 21st. The negotiations went into overtime, but they came to a tentative agreement that evening. There would be a vote on the agreement later in the week, but it seemed as though the union would accept the deal.
  • Last night, the union voted against the settlement (a 65% “no” vote) and went on strike at midnight.

Friday is what PR people call “Take Out the Trash Day” — it’s a good day to make unpopular announcements, especially late in the day, because it’s when people don’t pay attention to the news. Many people were caught by surprise — on TV, they’re showing interviews of people who were stranded downtown last night. The unexpectedness of the strike, coupled with the union’s earlier promise of 48 hours’ notice, is not going to endear the union to the public.

Categories
The Current Situation Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Toronto Transit Strike Survival Guide

T-shirt: “I survived the New York City Transit Strike 2005″
Photo from Bridge and Tunnel Club. Click the photo to see it on its original page.

Even though a transit strike might not happen on Monday, if you live and work in Accordion City, you really should be making contingency plans. The Toronto Star published a Strike Survival Guide today featuring information on carpooling, where to park, where not to park, cycling, using GO Transit, getting a cab, going to the airport, highway driving, getting an ambulance, and service for the disabled.

Categories
funny The Current Situation Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Bob Kinnear’s Funny Bogus Wikipedia Entry

Last night, someone frustrated with the impending public transit strike here in Accordion City (slated to start at 4 a.m. Monday if this weekend’s negotiations fail) decided to do a little creative editing of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 leader Bob Kinnear’s entry in Wikipedia. Knowing the edit would be corrected in short order and wanting to preserve this for posterity, I took a screenshot of the page, which appears below:

Screen shot of the nasty Wikipedia entry posted about Bob Kinnear on April 17th, 2008
Click the screenshot above to see it at full size.

For those of you who are extremely curious and have a little time to kill, here’s the history of edits to Bob Kinnear’s Wikipedia page.

Categories
The Current Situation Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

TTC Strike Update: Strike Monday, Unless There’s a Settlement This Weekend

TTC: Strike Monday morning unless there’s a settlement

Here’s the word from the folks at CP24:

TTC Union boss Bob Kinnear has laid out the terms of avoiding a TTC strike: land a deal by 4pm Sunday or his members will walk off the job at 4am Monday. A disruption would shut down all buses, streetcars and subway cars for 1.5 million riders.

He’s pleading with Mayor David Miller to get involved to avoid a crippling walkout, and admits “most of the public won’t be on our side.”

Damn right most of the public won’t be on your side, Kinnear. With steadily worsening service and lame union propaganda, even your most ardent supporters are fed up.

Categories
The Current Situation Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

TTC: Strike or No Strike?

TTC logo above “Strike or No Strike?”

If There’s to be a Strike, We’ll Hear About It Very Soon

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, the union of workers for the Toronto Transit Commission, is expected to make some kind of announcement today, and the current news reports say that it’s likely they will strike. The union promised 48 hours’ notice for a strike, which means that if a strike is announced, the real traffic chaos will happen on Monday.

Some news reports for your perusal:

A Very Telling Statement About the Union

The most telling statement about the union appears in the first paragraph of this article in yesterday’s National Post:

Amalgamated Transit Union 113, which represents about 9,000 employees at the Toronto Transit Commission – 3,500 maintenance workers, about 4,500 bus, subway and streetcar drivers, plus ticket collectors and others – has invited the press to the Sheraton Hotel in Richmond Hill tomorrow for an “update” on its contract talks with TTC management. When I asked why the union negotiates, and meets the press, at a hotel not served by the TTC, a source replied, “There is lots of free parking.” What that logic tells you about both sides’ belief in public transit is a matter I will leave up to the reader.