TTC union board votes 'no confidence' after ex-head Bob Kinnear gets reinstated by Ontario court

After being fired earlier this month, Bob Kinnear was reinstated by the Ontario Supreme Court.

But the move is not being supported by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113.

Kinnear, the Union’s president, was ousted after what ATU board members called a “conspiracy to disaffiliate the local from the ATU.”

And on Tuesday evening, the board called an emergency session and unanimously approved a motion for Kinnear and his allies “to cease and desist from directing or assisting any campaign to take Local 113 out of the ATU, the Executive Board” and called for his resignation. The board also unanimously approved a motion of “no confidence” in his leadership.

ATU Local 113 Executive Board Votes “No Confidence” in Bob Kinnear: https://t.co/blRNU6zird

— ATU 113 (@ATU_113) February 22, 2017

“The Executive Board unanimously demanded that Bob Kinnear immediately withdraw his request to the Canadian Labour Congress seeking justification for a disaffiliation vote,” the board issued in a statement.

Upon hearing that Kinnear was reinstated, the ATU Local 113, representing nearly 11,000 public transit workers in Toronto, released a formal statement.

“It’s a sad day for all workers in our city. The court’s decision to reinstate Bob Kinnear undermines a long history of union democracy in the province,” said international vice-president of ATU Local 113, Manny Sforza. “As Bob Kinnear seeks to exert total control over the 95 per cent of elected local officers who he admitted to deceiving, Local 113 members and the issues they care about will suffer.”

Sforza went on to state that the Local has clear evidence that Kinnear was involved in a conspiracy to deceive members of the union, as he worked with Unifor’s Jerry Dias.

“This is an empire building exercise by Bob Kinnear and Jerry Dias and has nothing to do with the interests of public transit workers in Toronto,” said Sforza. “ATU is dedicated solely to transit workers and we will continue to fight in the best interest of the hardworking women and men who move Toronto.”

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