Dear Mr Transit man

You is really a dirty, stinking so n so! you kno dat?

Now don't take that too personally but really you can't blame Torontonians if that is how we feel right now that you went on strike this weekend.

The thing is I aint really mad at you for striking that much. If you felt you couldn't accept the contract then by all means strike its your right. Its just that last week you promised that you would give us 48 hrs notice of a strike and then out of the blue we wake up Saturday morning and hear you was on strike from last night. No 48 hr notice, not even as much as two hours notice just sudden so out of the blue .... bram! bus and subway stop running. People left in the middle a de street like idiots looking for the next bus that ain't coming. Got them digging in their pocket for two coppers to mek taxi fare. Ya mean you couldn't even wait till after payday come to strike? What a ting!

It was also vexing because you weren't supposed to go on strike now. A settlement had been tentatively reached after a strike threat for last Monday. And even though some of the improvements and clauses on the settlement looked to the average man like you and the Transit Union had gotten away with murder and had most definitely gotten the best of the negotiations with the City and the TTC management we had breathed a collective sigh of relief that no strike would occur and all was well again cause yea gas prices shooting through the stratosphere at the moment and this is a City where about 20-25% of people rely on transit to get to work in the morning. So no bus, no train means more drama. Nuff people scrambling to get to work and the city looking confuse like misery move up.

So there we were thinking that all was fine and dandy. You had clauses that if any other transit workers in the whole province got more money than you then the City would renegotiate to keep you the highest paid in the area. That just goes to show how special and important we feel you is that you get that clause in there.

Ya get ya 100% sick leave pay and we was happy for ya. Man nobody din even cuss ya for all them drivers that working overtime and end up mekkin over $100,000 last year. Imagine that $100,000 from driving a bus? I gine let my mudda know that she mek me waste my blasted time wid all this stupid university schooling nonsense when I could have been learning to drive bus and make some real money. Chupse!

And you know what? You had sympathy too cause people was saying cuhdear is a stressful job and we respect that and if a bus driver get assault or hurt on the job why should he only get 80% of his pay while on sick leave? We empathized with your demand for the 100% which you got in the end. It only seemed fair to us.

And we were giving you props for saying you'd give us 48 hrs notice so we could make alternative plans be it slapping tar, bike, electric bike, Go-Train, taxi, car or stand home. We knew a strike would produce bachannal on the streets and we weren't looking forward to one but at least that was right decent of you to be giving us proper notice.

And now this!

Mr Transit man let me tell you now all good will towards you done. D.U.N done!

You had people out Friday night, Saturday morning trying to get home from a late shift or from a fete downtown stuck on the streets, waiting at bus stops far from home, and not a single train, bus or streetcar ain't run after midnight. Not me mind you! Wunnah ain't ketch me! I old, I duz be in my bed at 830 so I wasn't out on the road like some poor fellas waiting on the last bus to take them back to North York or Scarborough or Etobicoke. No sir not me!

But is the principal of the thing man. Cause first off we didn't know that you were even contemplating strike. Like I said tentative deal was reached last weekend and needed to be ratified and everyone breathed sigh of relief. Strike averted, people happy and looking at the makeup of the tentative deal we thought you were happy.

You met Friday and didn't ratify it. Cuhdear now what wrong with the deal? Ya trying to get blood out of a stone now. The City broke, the transit people never had no money in the first place, them raise bus fares umpteen times already in the last two years. What more ya want now? Look this is think line ya walking cause if you ask for too much it could backfire on everybody and I don't know what other driving jobs you going find out there where you going t make as much money as you currently making.

To me the move if the deal didn't get ratified by your members would have been to say we don't like that offer can we go back to the bargaining table or to at least give the people a day or two of warning that you will be going on strike. That would have been the decent thing to do. We might still have cussed you as ungrateful, greedy curs but still you shouldn't just stop the buses at midnight with no warning and leave people stranded so. That is a nasty move man. That show me you ain't got no broughupsy, know no common courtesy, no feeling for ya fellow man, nuh compassion, nuttin so.

I going to pray for all ya at church today though! Ask the Lord for now to hold off on the smiting wid de Thunder and Lightning that some a we feel ya rightly deserve!

Then you say you ain't give us the 48 hrs notice cause last weekend people cuss you when ya do that. Well boy if ya think people cuss ya when there was only a strike threat and you didn't actually go on strike imagine how much cussing you going to get when you are forced back to work Monday.

Did I also mention that ya decide to strike in the middle of the highest gas prices here ever. $1.21 a litre and rising! Chupse! Got me looking to get a used tricycle cheap and done wid car, bus, train and everything one time!

Anyway they going to legislate you back to work on Monday so I will see you then. Ya don't have to be frighten when ya see me Monday morning though. I ain't one of them fellas that going abuse you and cuss you for this debacle. I might even offer you a good morning (yes even though I don't speak on the train I will say morning to the bus driver) if my mind bid muh to but just remember that somewhere deep in my head even if I smiling I still thinking that all ya is dirty stinking so n sos to leff the people stranded so with no warning.

Ya use up all the good will we de people had for ya!

Lemma guhlong to church before ya mek me sin my soul more. I still going pray for you though.

Your Truly
Jdid



ps: just because I cuss ya here don't play ya driving past me tomorrow morning and don't pick me up ya kno!