TTC = Take That Cock!

Woke up early, was sleepy, was hungry and was thirsty. After 30 minutes I was out the door and heading to work. I was pulling the station's door but it wouldn't, i tried pushing and again didn't open. I was still sleepy so I didn't know what was going on; for a second I thought it was Sunday and not monday, I was confused. Then i noticed all the people outside, I realized the operator or collect guy might have forgotten to open the door, so I called the TTC and a surprising message went like this "Welcome to the TTC customer service. All TTC services are closed due to a Union strike". I was pissed big time...it wasn't just for the fact that now it would be a dilemna to get to work but in addition that I hated the TTC union- here is the story:

Fresh from university I joined the TTC as a senior technical assistant in the maintenance departmet. At first I was so happy; good company, excellent pay, health benefits, pension and the whole nine yards. It didn't take me more than a couple of months to realize what a mess it was in there. There were a lot of contributing factors but the big factor was the union. The union at the TTC is really strong. Just as an ilustration, they don't care about anything-it is virtually impossible to fire a union guy. Therefore they would spent a great portion of their time taking a nap at trains scheduled for maintenance and cleaning. In a nutshell, they are the laziest workers I have ever seen in my experience.

Surely, the union was a big factor for me to quit that slow-pace job but there were many more important factors I may discuss in a later post. Going back to the topic of why i dislike that union is that they dare to strike AGAIN after just one year. However, i shouldn't blame them, it is the fault of management, a wiseman once told me 'management gets the union they deserve'. One big fault I noticed in TTC management is that they allow being tosed around by the union, that fact by itself is the mere reason why the union has been able to get away with what it had so far.

Well anyways, once I realized there was no TTC to work I started evaluating options, first I thought of taking a cab but after 5 minutes of waiting I noticed all the cabs were already taken and it was uncertain how long it would take me before getting one. So I tried the Mississauga transit. At first, I spent 10 minutes planning my route to work; I had to take the 11A to Derry Rd. and Rexwood then I would take another bus, the 12E to work. Well that trip took me more than an hour; not because of the route, it was due to the service, there was a 30 minute gap between busses!

As for coming back from work, it was the peak of this experience. First, I thought that TTC was back since I saw some TTC buses on the street. After 45 minutes of waiting I called TTC info and the message said the service will resume the next day at 6am. I was surprised and curious what all those TTC buses where doing then.

Well then I walk for 20 minutes to a Missisauga transit bus, waited there for 25 minutes, got in the bus, got off at Derry Rd. and Rexwood, waited 30 minutes, missed my bus (was seating in the wrong stop!) so I decided to go to Wendy's get some fuel. Got a Single Classic with large fries and a large sprite. Finally I got home at 8pm. What a day.