Doug Holyday's TTC shocker
Right-wing councillor's vote against Red Rocket becoming an essential service saves Miller
After April's wildcat strike, councillors Cesar Palacio and Cliff Jenkins worked tirelessly all summer to convince their colleagues the TTC should be declared an essential service.
They knew it would be an uphill battle at Socialist Silly Hall where Mayor David Miller and his minions have far too friendly an alliance with all unions.
Nevertheless, the two councillors felt so strongly about taking away the right to strike from the TTC's 9,000 unionized employees, they formed a citizens advisory group of TTC commuters who worked with them to produce a detailed 14-page report outlining the arguments -- cost and otherwise -- for asking the province to declare the entire service essential.
When Miller and his union-loving team, both on the TTC and his hand-picked executive committee, opted -- predictably -- to kill the entire idea, the two councillors were not deterred.
They put together a petition and took it out to the real people who mattered in the debate -- TTC commuters. They presented it online and at subway stops, getting thousands of responses in favour of the idea.
As Palacio put it to me last week, they "worked like dogs" on the campaign and behind-the-scenes to convince the centre-right councillors this was what the public wanted.
Which takes us to last week's council meeting. After managing -- with some persistence -- to have the item placed on the agenda in a timely manner, a long, almost surreal debate ensued.
The vote was too close to call. Palacio said Miller and TTC Chairman Adam Giambrone were "working big-time" on the council floor, asking councillors for "commitments."
That is not at all surprising. There was much more at stake for the mayor than a simple vote on an essential services agreement.
If Miller lost this vote, it would be the second key vote (the first was on his controversial land-transfer tax in July of 2007) on which he'd overestimated his ironclad grip on council. It was a true test of his leadership.
There's no doubt in my mind the man with the union label would also not see too kindly to having to admit his efforts to exact an agreement with the TTC using the "unfettered strike and lock out model" have been less than stellar.
Nevertheless, it's not over until it's over, especially at Silly Hall.
I have said trying to organize council's centre-right is akin to herding a bunch of egotistical cats. But this time it looked like the cats were all in line.
Palacio said councillors like Gloria Lindsay Luby and Bill Saundercook even came on side, knowing it might cost them their seats on the TTC.
Rob Ford, who regularly misses afternoons at council to coach high school football, arrived back mere minutes before the debate was through.
But when the final vote was taken, it was 23-22 against the essential service idea. Right-wing councillor Doug Holyday, who has made no secret of his desire to rein in the unions, was the deciding vote!
Holyday told me late last week he wanted "more information" on other ways of handling the issue -- including a model that would limit strikes to certain parts of the TTC.
He said he feels by making the entire TTC an essential service, council would be taking away the union's "labour rights" -- a comment I found particularly surprising given his strong stance on contracting out garbage and other unionized services.
Holyday added "cost is a big part of it" -- namely he's worried an essential services deal would cost millions of dollars more per contract.
OUT OF TOUCH
Now I've always highly respected the former Etobicoke mayor for his ethics and his frugal ways, but I believe he is totally out-of-touch with what the public feels on this one.
In my view, a positive vote would have sent a strong signal to the Amalgamated Transit Union local 113 and its boss, Bob Kinnear, who has tremendous control over the TTC brass and seems to feel he can regularly play Russian roulette with commuters.
"I can't explain it," he said of Holyday's "no" vote, noting public opinion is "massively in favour of this" and it could indeed become an issue in the next municipal election.
Palacio said he's "extremely disappointed" but he's not giving up.
"I will continue with this one," he said. "I will take this fight to the province and hopefully it will become an election issue."
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