TTC STAFF WOULD FACE DRUG TESTS UNDER PROPOSALS

'We Will Be Going To The Wall For This One,' Union Leader Says In
Rejecting Controversial 'Fitness For Duty' Recommendations

Toronto's transit workers would face drug and alcohol tests under
proposed new rules - to be unveiled today - drafted after a probe
found that a maintenance worker accidentally killed in 2007 had been
high on marijuana and after the more recent firing of a bus operator
for drunk driving.

While acknowledging he had not seen the details, Bob Kinnear, head of
the Toronto Transit Commission's largest union, said any kind of drug
or alcohol testing was a "non-starter" and said he would not rule out
any tactic to fight the policy, including a walkout.

"We will be going to the wall for this one," Mr. Kinnear, president
of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents 9,000
TTC employees, said in an interview.

TTC officials are to release their report and brief reporters on the
controversial "fitness for duty" proposals today. The nine city
councillors who oversee the transit agency are to debate the policy
at their meeting next week.

Adam Giambrone, the city councillor who chairs the TTC, would not
discuss the proposed policy's details but did say that he did not
agree with all of the report's recommendations.

"My position will slightly differ from staff's," Mr. Giambrone said.
"... We're going to have different views on degree."

TTC commissioner Michael Thompson said he agrees with requiring drug
and alcohol testing for all TTC employees.

In June, the TTC released the results of an investigation into the
death of 38-year-old maintenance worker Tony Almeida, who was crushed
to death when the work car he was driving crashed into the wall of a
subway tunnel. The TTC pleaded guilty to Ministry of Labour charges
in the incident and paid a $250,000 fine, and the report blamed a
lack of safety procedures for the crash.

But the investigation also found that Mr. Almeida had smoked
marijuana on the job in the hours before he died - and that he had
been disciplined for using marijuana on a break a year earlier. The
investigation report recommended bringing in a testing regime.

Just before that report was released, a TTC bus driver was charged
with drunk driving after passengers on a west-end route called 911 to
report erratic driving. TTC chief general manager Gary Webster said
he could not say at that time how many TTC employees are caught under
the influence each year.

Mr. Kinnear argued yesterday that the TTC's reaction to the incidents
were overblown and that drug or alcohol abuse on the job is extremely rare.

"Tell us where the problem is. We've had one or two incidents over
the last couple of years," Mr. Kinnear said. "We have thousands of
employees that go to work each and every day and with no problem. As
far as we are concerned, the TTC is making an issue of a non-issue."

Mayor David Miller has said in the past that he believed a widespread
random drug and alcohol testing program for TTC employees would
likely run into legal problems and that he wanted TTC managers to do
more to make sure employees are sober. He would not comment yesterday
on the issue, saying he had not seen the TTC report.