Transit Workers Oppose Privatization

Toronto transit workers participate in April 9, 2011 Day of Action against cuts to and privatization of transit
and other public services.

May 8, 2014 - The Toronto transit workers' union, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113, on April 23, pre-empted the election call and launched a public awareness campaign to make the Ontario Liberal government's plans to privatize all new public transit projects an election issue in Toronto. On May 2 the election was called for June 12 and wasting no time, the union aired their television ads that day on all Toronto stations. The ads call on the public to take a stand and demand that transit be funded and that transit improvements be publicly owned and operated.

Last year the union presented to the government on the need to heed the overwhelming experience from around the world that privatizing public transit is a bad deal for both riders and taxpayers. The union held meetings with Glen Murray, Minister of Transportation and Premier Kathleen Wynne. The union President, Bob Kinnear strongly contested the Ontario government's plan to build all new transit projects in the GTA as so-called public-private partnerships (P3s).

The union's April 22 news release announcing the launch of its "Stop P3 Campaign" says that Kinnear asked the Minister and Premier for evidence that there is a public benefit to privatizing transit. Kinnear pointed out that there is none and that privatization has failed everywhere. He told them that it is impossible for a private company to make a profit in public transit without huge government subsidies or high rates or reduced service, and usually all three.

According to the union's release, Murray and Wynne told Kinnear that the government is committed to P3s as a way of building infrastructure, whether it is hospitals, jails, highways or transit and public services such as health records and electricity generation. They said that by engaging their private sector partners they believed they would build badly needed infrastructure faster and with less strain on the public purse.

Kinnear said he told them this was exactly what privatizing politicians in Britain, Australia, Chile, Argentina and many other countries said before falling victim to corporate greed and incompetence, giving the example of the London Underground P3 that cost taxpayers over a billion dollars before the government took it back and the system in Melbourne, Australia where services were cut drastically after it was privatized and public subsidies "went through the roof." See more here.

The union gave the example in Canada of the P3 transit line in Vancouver -- the Canada Line -- which was built on budget only by cutting several planned stations and designing the line so that it could never be upgraded. Finally they presented the experience of York Region where Canada's only fully-privatized transit system, York Region Transit, charges the highest fares in the country and is taxpayer-subsidized at five times the public subsidy of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), while paying its workers 30 per cent less than they would earn as TTC employees.

In its May 1 budget, the Wynne Liberals disregarded any of the proposals presented by the transit union. The ruling elite proceeded with a budget for Ontario that set out to give $29 billion to the construction, engineering and finance monopolies to build mass transit and other infrastructure.

The ATU news release says the "Stop P3" campaign will consist of radio, television and print ads along with appearances by Local 113 President Bob Kinnear on media public affairs shows such as talk radio and television. Kinnear will also meet with citizen groups demanding transit improvements that are publicly owned and operated.

The union is confident that the deal to build the $3-billion Eglinton Crosstown LRT line as a P3 can be stopped if there is another minority government that is forced to re-examine the project. The Montreal-based engineering monopoly SNC-Lavalin is leading one of the two consortia bidding on financing, building and maintaining the line, according to a second ATU news release about its campaign issued on May 2. SNC-Lavalin made a big score when Atomic Energy of Canada Limited was privatized and sold to it by the Harper government at a fraction of its value.

ATU Local 113 says the fight to stop privatization of public transit is a key election issue and that the public awareness of the many hazards of transit privatization is crucial to a political solution.

(Sources: wemovetoronto.ca, http://truthabouttransit.com)

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