Transit workers union president Bob Kinnear says he will fight the TTC’s efforts to contract out non-core jobs, including the gritty bus-cleaning duties profiled earlier this year by transit chair Karen Stintz in an episode of Undercover Boss Canada.

The 150 overnight cleaning, servicing and fuelling jobs that pay about $27 an hour on average are part of an ongoing review of possible cost savings throughout the TTC, said the system’s CEO Andy Byford. The workers are expected to be accommodated in other TTC jobs, he said.

“We’re embarking on this road, looking at potentially all aspects of the TTC. Most areas of what I call non-core activities are going to be looked at. I’m determined to get better value for money,” he said Friday.

“I want to deliver better outcomes for the customer in terms of quality and I want to deliver better outcomes for the fare-payer/taxpayer in terms of how much these things cost.”

Drivers and most maintenance work would, however, remain TTC staff positions.

Citing ongoing discussions between the Amalgamated Transit Union and TTC management, neither Byford nor Kinnear would say how much the TTC hopes to save by eliminating the overnight cleaning jobs.

Byford said the TTC would seriously consider the union’s proposals to keep the work in-house, and that the contracting-out isn’t considered a done deal yet. If the TTC does, however, decide to go outside for that work, the positions would probably disappear around the end of the year.

“One of the absolute tenets of the TTC philosophy is that people will be open to new ideas…. We will have a genuine look at what the union comes up with,” he said.

Kinnear said that didn’t happen when the transit system opted to contract-out $600,000 worth of garbage collection services earlier this year.

“The TTC did not accept our proposal, despite the fact that we met their numbers,” he said Friday.

He also said the TTC just agreed to spend an additional $25 million by awarding its non-unionized staff the same 6 per cent increase the union got over three years in a recent arbitrated contract settlement.

The TTC also expects to hire about 500 new drivers — mostly to replacing retiring or departing employees. But about 115 of the new hires are additional jobs needed to keep up with the TTC’s booming ridership, said spokesman Brad Ross.

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“We had budgeted for 503 million riders in 2012. We’re at about 507 million year over year, so we anticipated 512 million by the end of this year. We need to have service in the fall to meet that increasing demand,” he said.

That growth has also meant more revenue at the fare box to pay for drivers, something that was approved by the TTC board and the city.

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