Bob Kinnear Needs to Wake Up

A recent photo posted to Twitter showing a Toronto Transit Commission employee sleeping on the job has made its way to mainstream news, inciting Amalgamated Transit Union leader Bob Kinnear to respond publicly:

"There have been many media enquires about a picture taken at 10:00 p.m. on January 9 of a TTC Collector described as "sleeping" in the booth.

The TTC is conducting an enquiry on this and until this is completed the union will have no comment on the matter except this:

Whatever the outcome of the enquiry, it is very discouraging that the picture taker and, apparently, other customers, made no attempt to determine if there was anything wrong with this TTC employee. A simple knock on the glass might have determined if the Collector was, in fact, asleep, or whether he was unconscious as a result of some medical problem. The reports that passengers were laughing at him as they passed by the booth makes this even more disturbing.

The union will comment further at an appropriate time."

Is he kidding? Nope! Kinnear appears to actually be blaming the public for not checking on the Collector - ie. avoiding taking a photo of him and posting it online and causing embarrassment for the TTC. That obviously didn't happen, and the ATU leader's outcry is about as insane as it gets - especially considering there's been no news of any medical condition or emergency situation suffered by the slumbering ticket collector, shown in the most relaxed position I've ever seen someone in an office chair. Maybe he was having a heart attack and instead of collapsing or calling for help, decided to clasp his hands, push his chair back, and recline peacefully.

Kinnear's response is something I would expect to read on The Onion - completely unbelievable, presumed tongue-in-cheek and lacking any connection to reality. He wraps quotation marks around "sleeping" even a full two weeks after the fact, as if it's somehow still up in the air whether the employee was actually taking a nap.

Dear Mr. Kinnear: It's not such a big deal that one of your employees was caught grabbing a little shut-eye, but you're making this bigger than it needs to be by pointing the accusing finger your customers.

P.S. - He was asleep, dude.

Perhaps Kinnear unconsciously made the choice to take a stance that was so over-the-top, he wanted to push the envelope of absurdity to find out what he could say without any real repercussions.

Regardless of the actions - or lack thereof - that result after Kinnear's stated ignorance of the pink elephant in the booth, this seems to show the lengths to which he will protect his employees even while the evidence stares him in the face, albeit mouth-ajar . And if disciplinary action is handed down to the Collector after all, it would be a surprise to me after Kinnear's melodramatic defensive stance.

I think Bob Kinnear is the one who needs to wake up.