Councillor Michael Thompson of Scarborough, who sits on the Toronto Transit Commission, calls the deal the TTC struck with its unions yesterday "quicksand." He calls it "madness." He calls it "Pandora's box." And yet at a TTC meeting Wednesday he will ratify it, because "We have labour peace and the city is running."
Lost amid the relief as Toronto avoided a transit strike is a little clause in the tentative contract called the "GTA clause," which could end up costing the City of Toronto a lot of money. The clause ensures that, throughout the contract, TTC workers will be the highest-paid in greater Toronto.
Which means that as of now, the TTC has handed authority over its budget to Carolyn Parrish and other municipal politicians in Mississauga, Brampton and elsewhere in the 905, possibly creating a unfunded liability of an unknown size.
Mississauga bus drivers at the top of the scale earn $26.63 per hour, whereas Toronto drivers earn $26.58. That 5¢ difference offended the TTC drivers, who believe that, as our police and firefighters, they have the toughest job and should get the best pay.
With this new TTC deal, TTC drivers are tops, but when will this all end? Mississauga Transit is a small shop, with 900 unionized mechanics and drivers and 393 buses (a tenth the size of the TTC) but it could cause us big headaches. Mississauga drivers, grouped in Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1572, begin negotiation this summer ahead of their contract's expiry on Sept. 30.
What if Mississauga wins a 3.5% raise? The TTC apparently then has to top up its drivers, so they stay ahead. Today, Geoff Marinoff, director of Mississauga Transit, said, "We need to be competitive in the job market."
"The TTC is hiring 700 to 900 drivers, we're hiring 100 drivers, Brampton is hiring, GO is hiring," he said. Brampton drivers have a four-year deal that gives them a 3.5% raise in 2010.
Other councillors asked yesterday how this could affect the city's bargaining with other unions. Next up for a contract are Toronto's police.
"Is triple-three [3% per year over the three-year TTC deal] the benchmark or the plateau?" asked Councillor Brian Ashton.
"Part of the madness is that the city has set a precedent," Mr. Thompson said. "It's simply a case of, 'Me too! Me too!' If other organizations say 'We want to be the highest paid,' there's no end to it, unfortunately."
Mr. Thompson and fellow commissioners Peter Milczyn and Anthony Perruzza described conference calls on Saturday night and yesterday morning between the nine commissioners and the TTC negotiation team. All three said the deal was better than a strike.
"As much as we might like to hold the line and be tougher," said Mr. Milczyn, "if there was a strike and they got ordered back to work and there was binding arbitration, it would end up costing us more. At least today the residents of Toronto were spared a major inconvenience."
Mr. Perruzza said, "To some degree I don't think anybody is happy today. It's a very expensive deal for the city, and the union probably wishes it got more."
The union leader, Bob Kinnear, had suggested yesterday that Mayor David Miller intervened personally to cut this deal, but the three commissioners said that was not so.
Brad Ross, a TTC spokesman, said, "that's Mr. Kinnear's speculation." He refused to discuss details of the negotiation or the deal. Union spokespeople in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton did not return calls. Mayor David Miller is resting up after a week in China and has no public events until Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ashton said comparing public sector salaries across the GTA opens another interesting possibility.
"I wish councillors could get that," he said. "If I could get parity with Mississauga councillors, then I could afford to go to Mississauga."
Right now, Toronto councillors earn $95,000, compared to $104,800 for Brampton councillors and $115,000 for councillors in Mississauga.
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