The absolute best way to get the public on your side, if you are a union in charge of an essential public service like say public transit, is to flash-strike with less than an hour’s warning on Friday night when all the people who have gone out for Friday night and who rely on said essential service to get, you know, home, have no alternative but to call taxis or walk.
I am sure the public is going to just fucking adore your point of view now! Really!
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Dude, let me guess, you were victimized by that eh? Well, at least we’ve had some decently warm weather lately. Or at least us in Ottawa have, how about your Torontonians?
Are you sure that was their goal? I mean, it was such an obvious backfire if it was, that it just doesn’t make sense to DO something like that.
Dammit, man. I want to be a union head. I’ll make stupidass decisions like that for half the price!
I think the union has valid cause to be unhappy. BUT, as a single woman… I kinda like to KNOW when I will or will not have a safe way home on a Friday night.
ok, before I say anything else, understand my state of mind: it’s 3:20 AM EST and that bottle of JD started off the evening much more full…
having spent a few evenings on the bus home sober with drunken college students, I sympathize with the union workers in this instance.
they are responsible (state-side) in many cities for keeping their buses and cars clean.
nothing like waking up to the vomit in your front yard from college age students to awaken the average citizen to the need for public transportation on friday nights.
I understand that it pisses people off, but it brings attention to the issue, big time.
I don’t want to sound like a dick on this but while it doesn’t make you sympathetic towards their cause it sure as hell makes you aware that they think there is a problem, and that something might need to be done about it in order to avoid getting everyone, who rides buses anyhow, totally boned.
I however wish I had such a problem as that would suggest I have a mass transit system that works after 7pm (5 if you want to actually go somewhere that isn’t downtown.), so I will be honest I hold no sympathy for you on this subject, if I wanna ride the bus I have to walk about a half mile to the nearest point and I have to be ready and aware that it will take me two hours to get where I want to go. I also have to be aware that only the biggest losers capable of functioning on their own use the system that is in place here in Oklahoma.
Soon, we will have a last straw. When we get to the last straw, then things start to improve. I hear that the legislature might have something to say about this, and calling in MPPs on a weekend is a good last straw.
I don’t know who’s in charge of PR strategy with the TTC Amalgamated union, but they’re clearly not connected with the external world. A sudden strike to protect the safety of their members? Really? And not because the rank and file have been grumbling about the agreement all week, and need a tactic to get the city to bend over for them?
What’s going to expose their employees to abuse and physical danger — just like the last time — is returning them to work after a move like this. I have to think that’s what longtime TTC employees (particularly those not encased behind thick plastic) are thinking, right after they wonder if this gambit will be worth it.
I know I’m just whining, and my situation is hardly life-threatening or important, but I could CRY right now. I had plans this weekend that I’d been looking forward to for MONTHS. By the time I’d learned about the strike this morning my only potential ride (my parents) had left town to help my sister move. It’s WAY too late to organize a carpool or something. And biking all the way across town hasn’t been a real option since I hit third trimester. >.
“I think the union has valid cause to be unhappy.”
Really? ‘Cause I don’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to think I’m a somewhat Left (or at least Centrist) guy, who has some gripes with unions (mostly those I’ve been a part of), but recognizes they serve an important social function – but let’s review the tale of the tape here:
The union got a 9% cost-of living raise over three years.
They got increases to vision, dental, orthadontic, physio, long-term disability, AND that the TTC would top up their 93% WSIB payments to 100% if injured on the job (a major sticking point, for obvious abuse reasons… not that anyone would ever abuse WSIB claims). New drivers also get to the highest pay tier significantly faster (I believe under two years, instead of 30 months… although I can’t remember where I read that to confirm).
PLUS they got a guaranteed clause that if any transit union in Ontario gets more than them during the term of the agreement, it will automatically adjust so that they’re the best paid transit employees in the province.
So if I’ve done my math right, the average top-tier TTC wage would be $27.30/hr in 2008. Now, I get that working for public transit is not a dream job for a lot of folks. Yes, you take abuse, yes people are rude, yes the hours are long and the work is tedious and repetitive. But let’s look at some other average salaries from a North America wage guide I’ve got kicking around – University Educated Social Worker with 10 years experience? $20.80/hr, Production Worker with 10 years experience? $16.53/hr, Advertising Sales Agent? $21.63/hr, Air Traffic Controller (5 years) $21.25/hr, EMBALMERS (10 years) $22.50.
That’s right you can SUCK FLUID OUT OF DEAD PEOPLE FOR 20,000 HOURS AND MAKE (on average) $5.20/hr less than a ticket-taker.
So there’s two options here:
1) The Union must have some really serious concern about an issue or issues with the agreement.
2) The Union exec (or it’s membership) must be really out of touch with a fair wage for comprable services.
Since the only thing ANYONE has heard from Local 113 ATU is that there might be some issue with the TTC sending buses that are under warranty back to the manufacturer for repairs instead of paying TTC mechanics to repair them… I’m going to have to go with #2 on this.
I’ll also accept that the union is wildly fractious, and sub-groups (the mechanics) are using this to assert more control over the union as a whole (a la the wildcat strike in 1991) … but I don’t actually accept that the union has valid cause. Or if they do, they sure haven’t presented it.
Heh – overheard in my basement about 30 seconds ago:
“We’re in the 4th largest city | and I can’t take the TTC | To go buy a CD | what the hell’s wrong with this City?”
a la – http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/04/19/i-approve/
MGK – helping build metropolitan specific memes since Wednesday.
Well, it looks like they’re going to be legislated back to work on Sunday, unless the NDP throw a wrench in the works. I’m not sure if that tactic doesn’t actually create more strikes in the long run — it removes lots of the fear of a strike from the negotiators on both sides — but I suppose most people won’t worry about that.
My lameness actually came in handy last night: when the TTC went on strike, I was at home in my jammies with a bottle of Shiraz watching Christian Bale movies. No harm done.
But I’m still really pissed off. While it may not be pretty, carting drunk people home from the clubs on Friday night is an essential service. It’s such a stupid idea to pull a stunt like that when half the town is drunk and not in close proximity to their house. I’m surprised that there wasn’t rioting.
On the other hand, even if you’re not sympathetic with them, you are very aware of how much you rely on them.
RE: Brad’s comments…
I love watching people who decribe themselves as leftists rant about the horrors of overpaid workers. It’s right up there with watching fiscal conservatives consistently increase government spending.
If embalmers have a problem with how much they’re paid, then how about they, you know, STRIKE? I expect that corpses accumulating for a couple of weeks will probably result in as much headache to the city than mass transit being down. Just saying.
Typical entitled bourgie so-called ‘leftist’ rant. “Why do they fight if they have such good conditions?” It’s BECAUSE they fight they have such good conditions.
It does make them look greedy by comparison to someone like me, who doesn’t care much about politics other than to vote for the left or laugh at libertarians.
I guess them embalmers need to get themselves a union.
In all fairness, embalmers force the existing fluid out by putting more in. “Sucking the fluid out of dead people” is a bit disingenuous without mentioning that embalmers may use equipment to do so, if they really wanted to.