Sordid inter-union dispute over Toronto transit union’s dues-stream
By
Carl Bronski
25 February 2017
An Ontario Superior Court judge issued an injunction Tuesday reinstating Bob Kinnear as president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113, the collective bargaining representative of some 10,500 Toronto-area transit workers. Kinnear and the entire Local 113 Executive Board had been deposed on February 2, when the local was suddenly placed under trusteeship by the international union’s US-based central office.
At issue was the ATU’s charge that Kinnear had been secretly exploring the possibility of disaffiliating his local from the ATU and joining up with Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union. Just prior to the imposition of trusteeship, Kinnear had approached the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), behind the backs of the Local 113 membership, to initiate the disaffiliation process.
Shortly after placing the local in trusteeship, the ATU reinstated most of the 17 Local 113 executive board members after they pledged to support the international union. Late Tuesday night, just hours after the court had issued its order, the Local 113 executive board passed a motion of non-confidence in its reinstated president.
On Thursday Kinnear returned to court seeking a contempt of court ruling against the local’s executive board. As of Friday, the court had yet to make a decision.
This entire sordid affair has nothing to do with advancing the interests of York and Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) bus drivers, subway operators, and maintenance workers, who have seen their wages, benefits and working conditions steadily eroded during the more than 13 years that Kinnear has been at the helm of Local 113.
Rather, it is an exposure of the venal dues-grubbing…