TTC gets more negative news for a few reasons:
- More people have cellphones
- The internet age gives every person the opportunity to be amateur journalists
- Combine the above points and the TTC has a tough road ahead of them as people are sick of unions holding them hostage with strikes, disrupted service and childish antics
It's not like the old days where everyday commuters using the TTC would just have to sit back and like it. If a TTC worker is acting lazy, people are quick to jump on their smartphone and snap a pic or video to embarrass them.
It's their way of getting back at the TTC.
Unions as a whole are disruptive in nature. This isn't the old days where there were massive safety issues and employees getting taken advantage of. Now, they band together under a union leader, sit back and hope management bends. A capitalistic person will say they have every right to and if management bends it means it's a win-win.
Not really.
Management (like myself) have a repsonsibility to try keeping the dept functioning well. If all managers do their part, the company runs great, we sell product, the company profits and everyone has a paycheque as the business keeps going. If things break down, products and services suffer, we sell less and it's slippery slope to losses, in which executives will then cut costs which typically means either people first (non-profit generating depts like CSR, IT, marketing or warehousing crews), marketing/media/advertising costs, or a combo of both. Typically management will keep sales depts, finance and a reasonable amount of warehousing/logistics/order processing as they are essential for future sales.
What never made sense to me is why unionized workers prefer such standardized wages where pay seems based on years of service and job/rank. There seems to be zero effort put into rewarding good workers and getting rid of lousy ones. Two people may be similar years and job and both probably get paid the same. One guy does a great job, one guy lousy yet both paid the same. Since wages seem set, management doesn't seem to have the ability to reward the good workers, while reprimanding the lousy one.
I find it hard to understand why unionized employees prefer this "everyone in the same boat" mentality when every company out there has good, avg and lazy workers. If you are a good worker, don't you want to get paid more than the guy messing up beside you?
I'v always worked private sector and every year the crappy employees who screw up get pink slipped. Fine with me. Screw up repeatedly and nobody wants you around. If everyone was unionized, the guys would probably still have a job.
As for pay boosts, why hide behind a union leader? Fight for your own pay and if you are good enough you'll get a pay raise you deserve. Why pay union dues of $500-1,000 each(!). It shows character to negotiate yourself and speak with managers about pay, passion, and what you bring to the table. I've tried asking for pay hikes twice. Once I lost, once I won. Fair enough. Just act maturely and don't make it into a worker vs. management battle. Every employee at their root has a common goal and that is to do their part (function) well. And if everyone does it well, the organization works well.
No organization wants to lose valuable employees. The government especially should be more willing since they can go into debt no problem where they can't really claim bankruptcy like a normal company. So rewarding good employees an extra few thousand $$$ shouldn't be an issue.
With unionized wages set, all you good unionized employees out there have been getting shortchanged the whole time because the government's budget allocates so much to wages. And with set wage scales, that guy beside you doing a bad job is getting more than he deserves, which means to balance it out it comes from your pocket. As well as the thousands of union due fees paid over the years.
What I think many unionized employees have never felt is the joy of doing well at a job and being rewarded for it.
Like the government, companies allocate a % increase to wages as a pool. How it is dispersed is different. While the pool may go up 2%, some people get 0%, most somewhere between 1-3 %, and the people who exceled get much more. I've known guys get 10%+ wage increases for doing a great job. No promotion or anything. They just did great. So while everyone else averages out a 2% cost of living increase, some guys scored 10-15% salary increase. I've never had that, but have scored a 5% bump up. Not bad when everyone else got around 2%.
Then there's annual bonus, which everyone in the company gets. Even the lowest level job is part of it. It is paid on various financial metrics. The better the company does the better the pay out. Again, it hinges on how well the company does. If everyone fires on all cylinders, chances are it'll be a good bonus. If business suffers, it might be 0%.
Government jobs are different in that it's not about sales in a direct way, but more of a service.... though some are revenue generating like transportation. However, the same basic rules of reward apply. If people do a great job, more people will use the service and in turn more revenue. That can lead to a bigger pool of wage budget for the future. Or better equipment. However, what hinders this is the protectionist union mantra which is basically to hold service hostage and some reason seems to want to keep lousy workers unless really forced to be rid of them. These actions create worse image of the service, add unnecessary costs, can drive good workers to go to the private sector.
It's all a cycle.
You can already see the types of attitude many unionized workers show compared to private sector. TTC, post office, any of those driver's license/passport offices etc.... Notice how 99% of them seem grumpy? On the other hand, go to any fast food joint, store at a mall, or office environment and it seems the opposite. Most people have a much more cheery attitude. All of these jobs are people oriented (service), but the contrast in attitudes is large.
