Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘strikes’

What will Stephen Harper do with a majority government? That was the question on everyone’s lips just 50 days ago, after an election shocker gave the Tories their long-awaited majority with 166 seats.

Oh, I heard all the platitudes. It won’t be so bad, people said. Give them a chance. They’re not so scary. They won’t do anything that they didn’t do as a minority (not like that was very reassuring, either).

Yeah, right.

In politics, it’s customary to review the “first 100 days”. Unfortunately, Harper and his cronies have been so busy doing shit, that waiting until 100 days for this review seemed excessive.

(And yes, I know it’s not really the first 50 days of majority government. The 41st Parliament only convened on June 2nd, which is in fact less than 3 weeks ago. That’s a frighteningly short period of time in which Harper has already managed to do an awful lot of damage. But it has been 50 days since the election, so I think the post title is appropriate.)

Let’s look at what’s happened in the 50 days since the May 2nd election, shall we?

• Workers’ rights have taken a serious beating, with back to work legislation being tabled against Canada Post, and threatened against Air Canada (who struck a deal to avoid it). In the case of Canada Post, arguably the legislation is against the crown corporation, which has locked out the workers. And those of you who know me understand that I have rather ambiguous feelings about labour unions that have too much power. But, especially in the case of Air Canada – a private company with competitive options for the consumer – the Tory government’s swift response against any labour rights whatsoever crosses the line even for me. There’s a happy medium in there, and this ain’t it.
• Senate appointments for three Tory MP candidates who lost in their ridings called into question not only the appointment process itself, but Harper’s own promises to reform it. Canadians didn’t even blink. Beyond that, he’s threatening to abolish the Senate altogether if they don’t cave to his extortion cooperate with his reforms.
• Asbestos exports are once again being defended by the Tories, who apparently feel that cancer is okay as long as it happens to people in other countries.
• Job cuts in the public sector are coming pretty much right away. One of the first areas to be hit? Auditors. Cause, y’know, Harper doesn’t want anyone actually noticing how badly he’s been cooking the books – and how badly he plans to continue doing so.
• And that doesn’t even take into account the fact that Harper is about to appoint two judges to the Supreme Court – something that will have ramifications for decades.

When you consider that there are still most of 5 years to go in his term, and that nothing prevents him from being re-elected, it’s downright terrifying.

Maybe not. If you’ve got an airline ticket with British Airways this Christmas season, you may be SOL, as BA employees are threatening to strike:

“We are absolutely determined to do whatever we can to protect our customers from this appalling, unjustified decision from Unite,” BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh said in a statement. “We do not want to see a million Christmases ruined.”

The planned strike, from Dec. 22 to Jan. 2, follows a dispute with cabin crew over job losses and changes in work practices. BA plans to cut 1,700 jobs, freeze pay for current staff and offer lower wages for new employees.

The airline is appealing to the courts for an injunction to stop the strike, on the grounds that there were “voting irregularities” in the balloting. But if you’re one of the millions of people with a BA airline ticket for Christmas break, you’ll probably want to watch this one carefully.

One of these days, labour and management will figure out how to have it out without getting millions of bystanders trapped in the crossfire.

Update 9/17: A court injunction has been awarded to British Airways to block the strike.

• The new Montreal transit chief – get this – actually uses public transit! What a concept! He’s even promised to ride the bus out to the west island to see for himself what a disaster the system is out there. Will it lead to improvements? Stay tuned.
• Meanwhile in Ottawa, citizens who’ve been held hostage by the OC Transpo strike, now in its 51st day, might get a reprieve in the form of back to work legislation. For their sake, here’s hoping.
• Back in Montreal, the snow removal crews walked off the job in the middle of a blizzard just in time for afternoon rush hour yesterday. They’re upset because of a payment dispute, and, as is typical for union workers, they believe that gives them the right to endanger people’s lives.
• In more union news, York University students head back in class this week after the government passed legislation forcing striking CUPE members back to work after nearly three months. But, as new blogger Chris reports, this may be only the tip of the iceberg.
• More strikes in France? So what else is new?

Looks like there will be a transit strike in Ottawa. Barring a last-minute deal, workers are set to walk off the job at midnight. In the middle of snowy, blizzardy weather. With no alternate means of transport for the thousands of people who will be left stranded.

The union workers are being offered a 7% raise over three years. Most of the people who rely on public transit for their livelihood would kill for that kind of cushy deal. The people hit hardest by transit strikes are the poor, the elderly, students, and those who have the fewest options. Many of them won’t be able to get to work. Many of them will likely lose pay or even their jobs. But the OC Transpo union still sees fit to hold the public hostage in its attempts to negotiate for more.

Once again, this only illustrates how incompatible unions are with public monopolies. A strike in the private sector targets the employer; a strike in the public sector targets the public. Whatever your stance on labour issues, it’s obvious that the system is broken.

To those of you in Ottawa: Good luck.

• So this whole thing is about what cut of the profits should be directed to the writers – both generally from sales, and specifically from online sales. Does that strike anyone else as odd? What ever happened to the idea that the entrepreneur takes the risk and therefore reaps the rewards? What other union has that same sense of entitlement to a share of the proceeds? The writers get their fees, right? What’s with this contingency-based profit sharing, anyway? If a show flops, do the writers have to give back their paycheques? Didn’t think so.
• What’s more, where does this stop? Does every single person who works on a TV show or a movie get a piece of the profits? Will the set designers and the casting agents start working on salary-plus-percentage arrangements? How about the caterer? The dolly grip? The guy who stands in for Tom Hanks while the lighting crew works?
• And what’s with some shows making side deals in order to get back on the air? Why can Letterman have writers but Leno can’t? And how does the WGA give a free pass to the shows it likes? That’s not a strike. That’s a kid refusing to come out of his room… except for pizza.
• If a WGA member writes his own material on a paper napkin, and nobody’s around to see it… did it really happen?

After four days of commuting hassles, headaches and havoc, the STM Maintenance Union has voted to end the strike and go back to work voluntarily, rather than face a possible government directive to do so that would likely come coupled with imposed settlement terms.

But it ain’t over till it’s over. The union and the STM haven’t agreed to anything yet, and the union hasn’t ruled out a second strike, either, if they don’t get their way.

The four-day strike has already cost the city countless amounts of money: Cancelled events, employees arriving late or leaving early, closed shops and businesses, traffic congestion, pollution, not to mention inconveniencing the people who rely on public transit the most: students, seniors, immigrants, low-income earners, and a whole host of others who aren’t lucky enough to have the maintenance workers’ cushy pay, perks, job security and pension. While rush-hour commuters only had to pack themselves into buses and metros like sardines, anyone needing to go anywhere outside of the hours deemed “essential” was SOL. About the only people happy with the strike were the taxi drivers.

For our troubles, monthly transit pass holders *might* get a measly $3.50 refund for our May passes… possibly by September. Whoop-dee-doo. That won’t even cover one day of extra gas spent driving instead of busing (at $1.20 a litre, I might add), never mind extra parking, taxis and lost work hours. If they expect me to do a little happy dance at this, they’ll be waiting a while. And I’m one of the lucky people who *had* options during the strike. Thousands upon thousands of others didn’t.

On principle I’d blame the union for holding the public hostage in order to try to extort more money out of the city. But of course, self-interest is a universal principle, and it’s hard to expect unions not to take advantage of these possibilities when they’re given the legal right and the clout to do so. After all, from their point of view, why shouldn’t they?

Nor can I really blame the city. I’m not a fan of Tremblay at all (needless to say), but I think he’s right to refuse to cave in here. This is the first of a whole series of city contracts that need to be negotiated, and if every union gets everything it asks for, Montreal will go broke and taxes will skyrocket.

No, on the whole, this public transit strike – the 15th in the past 40 years – just illustrates too clearly that the system is broken. If public transit is to be encouraged, it has to be reliable. Public transit, for most users, implies the ability to earn a livelihood, and as such, is just as essential a service as healthcare, education, police and firefighting.

It seems to me that there are two choices:

(1) Truly designate all public transit – not just transit for the 9-to-5ers – essential, and not allow transit workers to strike.

(2) Partially privatize public transit and open it up to competition, allowing more than one company to provide services.

Both options are fraught with problems. But I’m sick and tired of being told that I should stop being an evil anti-environmentalist and turn in my Civic for a bus pass, only to be left high and dry. I’m pretty sure most Montrealers feel the same way.

And if they strike again, I say fire ‘em all à la Reagan and just hire replacements. I’m pretty sure my friend’s cat could lick some of the graffiti off the sides of busses. And she works for catnip.

First it’s the local public transit that’s threatening to strike. And now, the longer-distance buses are getting in on the fun, too:

Unionized drivers, mechanics and terminal staff at Greyhound Canada have given the bus line 72 hours’ strike notice after the workers rejected the company’s last contract offer, both sides said on Tuesday.

Unlike public transit, Greyhound isn’t exactly an essential service. There are plenty of other – more comfortable and civilized – ways to get from place to place. But all these transit strikes are starting to feel positively… European.

After nearly a decade of merrily driving myself around, polluting with impunity (okay, I drive a Civic, it’s not *that* bad), as of this month I’m once again on the BMW transit plan: Bus, Metro, Walk.

Of course, that’s perfect timing for the transit workers to go on strike:

Any time after Victoria Day, you might be packed like an oily sardine into a sweaty, swaying metro car.

You could also be forced to cool your heels and watch a succession of jam-packed buses zip by your regular bus stop before you manage to shoehorn yourself aboard one of them.

If – or when – that happens starting two weeks from today, take a deep breath and remember one thing: In Quebec, this is the law.

Under legislation dating to 1982, “the welfare or the comfort of citizens” cannot be given any weight when the Quebec Essential Services Council rules exactly how to implement essential rush-hour metro and bus services on Montreal Island, council spokesperson Celine Jacob said yesterday.

That’s assuming the transit-maintenance union carries out its threat to launch its second strike in less than four years.

Timing is, as they say, everything. Here’s hoping the union caves in the face of public pressure before I’m forced to sleep at my desk.

The Montreal transit strike two years ago was horribly unpopular, but at least I have a car so it wasn’t so bad.

I’ve been to London during an Underground strike, to Barcelona during a public bus strike, and to Venice during a public boat strike. All of those were, er, interesting experiences, to say the least.

But nothing can compare to the havoc being wreaked in New York City thanks to a massive MTA strike:

During the morning rush hour, police set up checkpoints at bridge and tunnel entrances, turning away cars carrying fewer than four people to avoid gridlock in Manhattan.

Drivers desperate to fill their cars invited strangers to get in, while cyclists streamed over bridges into the city.

Vehicles were backed up to get into Manhattan, where morning traffic moved relatively freely because so many cars were refused entry. People packed onto commuter buses as well as the suburban trains and ferries that were still running.

The strike is illegal and the union is being fined a million dollars each day it goes on. There’s simply no way any settlement they hope to get out of this will compensate for that. And so, the union workers lose, the city loses, and the commuters lose. Nobody wins. That’s the idiocy of a mass transit strike.

Instapundit has more, including comments left by irate commuters on the unofficial transit union’s blog (via Damian Penny).

While the SAQ was on strike last fall and winter, Quebecers flocked en masse across the Ontario border to stock up on liquor at the LCBO. Ontarians were fond of mocking us for this, and we in turn were jealous of their excellent selections, lower prices and seemingly better-run outlets.

Now, it looks like a role reversal might be on its way: the LCBO employees might strike:

About 5,400 unionized staff at the provincially owned LCBO, which runs 599 stores, voted overwhelmingly last week to reject a contract offer. If last-minute talks fail to break the deadlock, the strike will start on Thursday.

Well, the traffic might be going the other way soon. People of Ottawa, come discover our SAQs!

Update: Looks like the strike will be averted, as a last-minute tentative deal seems to be reached. I guess Ontarians won’t have to discover the joys of our SAQs after all.