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“Unfortunately, some of them don’t know about our safety issues and we’ve had at least two documented cases last week of snow being swept from the platforms into the windshield of incoming trains, blinding the drivers.

“Somebody is going to get hurt by this.”

The union has launched an ad campaign and website with a petition (rainydayishere.com), calling on the city to tap into its fiscal stability reserve, its so-called rainy-day fund, which currently sits at $544 million, to save the jobs. McKinnon said the union has already been streamlining the service, offering up hundreds of thousands in savings, and said it may even be able to save more if the city were to share the full findings of its zero-based budget review.

McKinnon noted this wouldn’t be the first time the city outsourced transit jobs, with the responsibility for cleaning bus shelters contracted out nearly two decades ago, a move he said has resulted in a reduced level of service.

“We have seen outsourcing in the past and I don’t think it’s been very effective,” he said, noting transit drivers often have to clean the shelters themselves after discovering overflowing garbage cans.

Photo by rainydayishere.com

But Coun. Ward Sutherland, vice-chair of the city’s finance committee, said the argument that contract employees would perform an inferior job compared to their union counterparts is disingenuous.

“If the union doesn’t like it they should compete to meet the same budget level,” he said.