The 48h clause would have been a nice one, yeah. Sometimes I think unions make their own lives harder... The public's gut instinct, in spite of our oft-touted Social Democracy (rah rah rah), is very nearly always to attack the union and call them everything from lazy to greedy. This is simply explained by the fact that most of society cannot relate to union politics and we all care much more about the daily functioning of our lives, and nothing untoward happening to that daily functioning, than the collective job rights of whatever union is striking. That's to be expected (it's sad, but it's to be expected). HOWEVER, in calling surprise strikes at midnight that are necessarily and understandably going to enrage the public, they are making their case, and their lives, so much worse. 48h notice at least tells the general public that the union is not TRYING to screw their shit up, and is not TRYING to use them as collateral against the city, but that a strike is completely unavoidable in their negotiation tactics at a certain point. If Mr. Kinnear is, as an individual, responsible for initiating a surprise strike or allowing one to be implemented, then yeah, I can see why he'd be looked down upon with a good deal of consternation.

As for the fact that the TTC is broke: was not also the STM (/is not perpetually the STM *laugh*)? And don't Torontonians like yourself pay more than any other major-city-dwellers for your transit? I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere. Is the TTC just undertaking enormous construction/expansion projects, or what? Where is the money going?