Milczyn alleged to have called union members 'immoral'

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Ward 5 (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) Councillor Peter Milczyn should apologize for suggesting it was immoral for transit workers to continue to insist that the TTC pay their Ontario Health Premiums, says the head of the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 113.

"Our members are his employees and we just feel it's completely inappropriate for a commissioner to make those comments," said Bob Kinnear, president of the union representing 8,600 TTC workers.

Kinnear was referring to a heated exchange between himself and Milczyn at the July 20 meeting of the Toronto Transit Commission in which the TTC was considering massive cuts to deal with Toronto's fiscal crisis.

Milczyn, who tried unsuccessfully to convince his colleagues to try and limit pay increases to cost of living for unionized employees, also commented on the TTC's failed attempt to avoid paying about $5 million in Ontario Health Premiums.

While most employees in the province must pay the premiums themselves, an old provision in the contract with transit workers stipulates that the commission must pay those fees.

Milczyn commented that while the membership may have a legal right to have their premiums paid, they did not have a moral right.

And in a letter faxed to Milczyn, Kinnear pointed out that the rights his employees are invoking are rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to have a good-faith collective agreement upheld.

Kinnear went on to write: "More serious than your ignorance of the law, however, was your outrageous public slander against the men and women of our union, for which we now demand a public apology. You called our members "immoral" for accepting repayment of the OHP after the Supreme Court decision. We could hardly believe our ears when you said that even though the money was "legally theirs," it would be "morally wrong" to take it."

Milczyn, reached by phone Friday morning at a neeting of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority,, said he had not yet seen a copy of the letter, but would be responding to it in writing Monday.

"I will be responding in writing to the letter next week so my communication back to the union, to their letter, should be in writing as opposed to through the media," he said.

"Beyond that I'll only say that the TTC's position on the provincial health tax was very clear and was unanimous as well, and I don't believe that I said anything inappropriate at the commission."