EDITORIAL
FOR JULY 2002
PUBLIC SECTOR STRIKES
So, I apologize for the delay in posting the editorial
for July. I do get busier in the summer months, what with trips to the cottage
and gardening and what I call golf (others disagree). Apologies also go out
to Martha, whom I labeled with an errant drive on the fourth tee at Duntroon
Highlands, towards the end of last month. I am sorry, and I hope the swelling
has since gone down. You are one hell of a dancer, lady. I hope the "Titlest"
tattoo has also faded. Sure has been hot lately in Toronto. Between the garbage
strike and the smoke from Quebec forest fires we are having an interesting
summer in the big city. Mayor Mel got caught in a lie when he caused the
closure of all the Toronto swimming pools as a result of the strike by CUPE
Local 416 on the hottest week of the year. This is the union representing
the city's outside workers. Apparently, they have nothing to do with most
of the pools that Mel closed. Those pools are looked after by the school
board employees. Oops, that one kind of backfired, didn't it, Mel? So, apparently
garbage isn't the only thing that stinks in Toronto.
On the subject of the CUPE strikes by both 416 (outside) and 74 (inside) city workers, I hope that these brothers and sisters are successful in obtaining a satisfactory settlement of their contract dispute. We need these people and the services that they provide. And we need them, full time. It is also blatant self-interest on my part that I hope they do well. Catholic World Youth Week is fast approaching and there is just no way that this city can play host to the youth of the world with no municipal workers on the job. Jesus Christ supposedly fed a multitude with four loaves and two fishes. It remains to be seen what Pope John Paul II can do with several mountains of rotting garbage.
I mentioned self-interest because as a transit worker, I am subject to a collective agreement in which we negotiated a topping-up clause. If the CUPE workers get a better deal than we got when we settled our contract in April, we will get a further increase as well. Go CUPE! There is one thing though, that needs to be said about this work stoppage. Irrespective of the danger to public health (rats, my dears), the plain fact is that in the public sector, strikes do not work! In a for-profit environment, a protracted strike may be settled on terms whereby the workers achieve more than they lose. In the public sector, where no profits are ever generated, and a work stoppage actually saves management money, the longer that Mel and his flunkies can delay settling this dispute, the farther this years' budget dollars will stretch. Thus, if after a stoppage of ninety days, wherein the workers have lost 92 man hours of work each, even if they settle for an immediate 10% wage hike, it will take them nine hundred and twenty days (or nearly four years of work) to recover what they have lost, before they make any gains.
In the 1980s, the transit workers experimented with a different strategy. We stayed on the job, collecting our pay, and worked to rule. Since management still had to pay us, and the resulting service was so dismal, they were compelled to settle the contract quickly and in our favor. This would be the better way for CUPE to go. If, as they claim, the strike is about job security and contracting out of jobs, then they might have been better advised to stay on the job, providing us with a demonstration of the quality of work that they think contract workers would provide. They would continue to receive their wages, the taxpayers would get a taste of what to expect if the city politicians get their way and contract out all of these jobs, and the city would have to settle the contract with real dollars - not the money they have saved out of their budget by forcing a stoppage of work.
Maybe next time, eh? In the meantime, I'll hold my nose while I'm here, hope that the Pontiff can make Garbage disappear and run to Muskoka whenever I can get away. At least, that's how I see things - today!
On the subject of the CUPE strikes by both 416 (outside) and 74 (inside) city workers, I hope that these brothers and sisters are successful in obtaining a satisfactory settlement of their contract dispute. We need these people and the services that they provide. And we need them, full time. It is also blatant self-interest on my part that I hope they do well. Catholic World Youth Week is fast approaching and there is just no way that this city can play host to the youth of the world with no municipal workers on the job. Jesus Christ supposedly fed a multitude with four loaves and two fishes. It remains to be seen what Pope John Paul II can do with several mountains of rotting garbage.
I mentioned self-interest because as a transit worker, I am subject to a collective agreement in which we negotiated a topping-up clause. If the CUPE workers get a better deal than we got when we settled our contract in April, we will get a further increase as well. Go CUPE! There is one thing though, that needs to be said about this work stoppage. Irrespective of the danger to public health (rats, my dears), the plain fact is that in the public sector, strikes do not work! In a for-profit environment, a protracted strike may be settled on terms whereby the workers achieve more than they lose. In the public sector, where no profits are ever generated, and a work stoppage actually saves management money, the longer that Mel and his flunkies can delay settling this dispute, the farther this years' budget dollars will stretch. Thus, if after a stoppage of ninety days, wherein the workers have lost 92 man hours of work each, even if they settle for an immediate 10% wage hike, it will take them nine hundred and twenty days (or nearly four years of work) to recover what they have lost, before they make any gains.
In the 1980s, the transit workers experimented with a different strategy. We stayed on the job, collecting our pay, and worked to rule. Since management still had to pay us, and the resulting service was so dismal, they were compelled to settle the contract quickly and in our favor. This would be the better way for CUPE to go. If, as they claim, the strike is about job security and contracting out of jobs, then they might have been better advised to stay on the job, providing us with a demonstration of the quality of work that they think contract workers would provide. They would continue to receive their wages, the taxpayers would get a taste of what to expect if the city politicians get their way and contract out all of these jobs, and the city would have to settle the contract with real dollars - not the money they have saved out of their budget by forcing a stoppage of work.
Maybe next time, eh? In the meantime, I'll hold my nose while I'm here, hope that the Pontiff can make Garbage disappear and run to Muskoka whenever I can get away. At least, that's how I see things - today!
Your comments on the above editorial are welcome!
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