TTC work action rumoured after stern memo from GM

Webster lays down the law to employees, union to comment Tuesday

TTC work action rumoured after stern memo from general manager. Riders wait to board the Sheppard 85A bus near Midland Avenue in this file photo. Staff file photo/NICK PERRY

The following statement was issued Feb. 6 by Chief General Manager Gary Webster:

Our Customers Deserve Better

February 6, 2010

I don't know about you, but I am becoming increasingly tired of defending the reputation of the TTC; tired of explaining what is acceptable and what is not; and tired of stating the obvious: that much of the behaviour being reported is, indeed, unacceptable.

You have heard me say that I am proud of the TTC. I still am, but I am not proud of what we have been dealing with over the last several weeks.

Two weeks ago I said that the vast majority of TTC employees care about the organization and do a good job, but we can all do better. I asked everyone to respond well. Some of you did. Clearly, some of you did not.

We all have to accept responsibility for allowing the TTC to drift into a culture of unacceptable operating discipline. In other words, we have deemed it acceptable for some employees to not do all aspects of their jobs.

We have two choices. We can continue to react to issues, deal with individual employee problems, and hope that the rest of our employees get the message, behave themselves and not get caught doing something they should not be doing.

The other choice, and the one we are going to take, is a much broader approach. Expectations need to be clear, especially for frontline employees. And employees need to be held accountable for their poor performance.

We are in the customer service business, but some of the behaviour our customers have encountered recently would suggest otherwise. Our customers pay a fare and the City provides hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the TTC. This public transit agency belongs to the very people we serve.

As Chief General Manager, I am ultimately accountable to our customers. As employees, you - and you alone - are accountable for your actions. The culture of complacency and malaise that has seeped into our organization will end. I hold all of management responsible to make this happen. Reviews and plans are under way to address systemic issues regarding customer service, but real change starts with you.

Gary Webster
Chief General Manager

TTC workers' union leadership will be speaking publicly about rumours of a transit work-to-rule tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb. 9) - just days after the TTC's Chief General Manager Gary Webster made public a stern memo to employees urging them to smarten up and treat riders better.

"Tomorrow there's going to be a press conference and the union won't make comment until then," said Bill Reno, media spokesperson for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113.

Reno would not confirm or deny rumors that a Facebook group, Toronto Transit workers against public harassment, contained a call from one member to begin a work to rule campaign to protest the memo.

The group, which has been closed, describes itself in this way:

"This is a group where Operator's (sic) can give suggestions on how to fight back to the recent photo and video harassment from passengers just looking to make trouble for us. And post photo's (sic) of your own of passengers breaking the rules."

The group appeared after Webster's email memo was made public on the weekend.

The memo begins: "I don't know about you, but I am becoming increasingly tired of defending the reputation of the TTC; tired of explaining what is acceptable and what is not; and tired of stating the obvious: that much of the behaviour being reported is, indeed, unacceptable."

Webster told employees in stark terms that the organization won't tolerate the kind of behaviour that led to the virally popular photograph of the sleeping TTC collector and the YouTube video of the TTC bus driver taking a long, unscheduled coffee break and taunting a rider who called him to task.

"We are in the customer service business, but some of the behaviour our customers have encountered recently would suggest otherwise. Our customers pay a fare and the City provides hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the TTC. This public transit agency belongs to the very people we serve," he wrote.

"As Chief General Manager, I am ultimately accountable to our customers. As employees, you - and you alone - are accountable for your actions. The culture of complacency and malaise that has seeped into our organization will end. I hold all of management responsible to make this happen. Reviews and plans are under way to address systemic issues regarding customer service, but real change starts with you."

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