The Toronto Transit Commission's public get-tough stance on its workers' customer-service failings might be popular with some riders but it's escalated an already volatile war of words and could actually have made matters worse.
That much is clear from a Facebook group TTC workers set up, called “Toronto Transit Operators against public harassment,” after TTC chief manager Gary Webster publicly issued a stern memo to all staff on Saturday. The note was in response to a recent series of gaffes, caught on camera and posted online, showing transit workers sleeping or stopping for coffee while on the job.
By Sunday night, a few dozen workers were pushing back at the customer complaints through a Facebook group, where they posted their own pictures of inconsiderate passengers and discussed a possible work-to-rule campaign. By midday yesterday, the group had swelled to 500, but had been infiltrated by transit riders irate over the threatened job action, who piled on with more complaints until the group's creator, Jack Gazic, had to close the site to new members.
Yesterday, Mr. Webster defended the memo, which he sent after consulting with Adam Giambrone, who remains TTC chairman as he campaigns for mayor.
Mr. Webster said he issued the memo through the media not to turn up the heat on his 12,000 employees, but merely to ensure it reached them all, unlike a similar note issued internally last month that somehow went unread by many.
“No one's told me the memo has inflamed the situation,” Mr. Webster said in an interview, adding that he met with several front-line workers yesterday. They told him they accepted his message, but wanted more support from management in dealing with problem customers.
To that end, Mr. Webster said TTC supervisors will now spend less time in the control rooms of transit garages and more hours on the road, where they can respond to problems more quickly. Longer term, a new customer service plan is in the works to ensure workers have and keep the right skills.
Alan Levy, a labour relations expert and former University of Toronto academic, was dubious about the TTC's public tactics.
“The notion of making it public is a PR exercise; it isn't something that's designed to alter the behaviour of people who already feel victimized,” said Mr. Levy, who teaches at Manitoba's Brandon University and works as a labour arbitrator and mediator. “It's only going to alienate the employees that much more.”
The job action never materialized yesterday, perhaps due to morning comments on a TV program by union leader Bob Kinnear, who said he didn't sanction it. Still, the fact there was a threat at all, followed by an up-tick in public anger on the Facebook site, showed Mr. Webster's attempt to bring TTC workers into line had done anything but.
“The people who are pushing back in the public feel victimized for a whole bunch of reasons, [so] they begin to victimize the TTC workers,” Mr. Levy said. “And the TTC workers don't perceive that they're receiving the necessary support from their employer, so they push back towards their employer. It's kind of a train, you know?”
If the TTC is sincere about turning that train around, its managers need to engage workers directly, without public and political interference, Mr. Levy said. Riders have every right to demand better service, but should do so through their city councillors, who in turn need to ensure TTC managers are capable of delivering it. That means the managers need to engage the work force, not issue public discipline, he said.
“This is old-fashioned labour relations,” Mr. Levy said. “This is the way GM managed, and you can see what happened to them. There are more successful organizations today that use more sophisticated methods.”
