Day 3 – I really don’t know what to say about this one!!!
It’s getting violent out there.
Today started pretty well, the sun is gloriously out and it’s very warm. Good day for a 4 hour walk really. And so we did. To the right first, then to the left and so on. A pee break here, a bottle of water there.
Around 10am, 3 hours into my walking tour of duty in the circle of strike, someone came to me and asked if I could help with water bottles. I thought she wanted me to take some and distribute them to other walkers so I followed her, but oh no, there was a truck in the back that was delivering and they needed people to bring them to the front. When I arrived at the location, there must have been 250 cartons of 24 bottles… and 3 other guys. Immediately I asked where the dollies were but sadly they wanted us to carry them by hand… I took 2 cartons and walked… I dropped them at the front of City Hall and asked one of the steward to get some people together to help out, his response was that he couldn’t leave his post and that I should go and get some people myself. Yeah, right. I walked back and got 2 more cartons. And 2 more. And 2 more. I opened one of them and took a bottle out and thank the steward for his assistance and then went to sit down in the shade for a bit. At 10:30, I thought it was time to go back in the circle of strike. After one time around, this other steward came to me directly and asked if I could help at one of the entrances, I asked what was wrong with it and he says there wasn’t anyone marching there. So like an idiot, not having learn from my frist mistake that morning, I followed him, I also noticed he had recruited another guy.
Once there, he said: “Ok, you have to stop people coming in and out of the parking garage, let them wait 5 or 10 minutes and if anyone pushes you out of the way, call the cops”. And then he left telling us he was going to recruit other men. Jesus fucking christ what exactly is he expecting to happen? Is there a little history here???
The answer is yes.
The very first people we asked to stop were wearing business suit and those rolly thingies that look like what lawyers carry when they go to court:
Union Guy: Can you guys please wait for just a few minutes
Suited Guy: What the hell for?
Union Guy: Because of the strike, all business with City Hall is interrupted
Suited Guy: Nothing to do with me, get out of my way
Union Guy (raises his hand to chest level as the international sign for “stop”)
Suited Guy (rams chest first into him and pushes him out of the way, his friend takes this opportunity to walk passed as well)
Me: It’s starting well!
Union Guy: Where is that douche bag that brought us here and then just took off?
In the meantime, this young lady tries to exit the parking lot
Me: I’m sorry Ma’am, we’re asking people to wait for a few minutes
Young Lady: Is this for the strike?
Me: Yeah, all entrances to City Hall are moderated
Young Lady: I understand, do you know how long I’ll have to wait
Me: One minute or two, not long.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this scrawny woman appears and shoves herself between Young Lady and Me and pushes through.
Me: Ma’am, we’re asking people to please wait a few minutes before entering
Scrawny One: I have a meeting
Me: It will be a minute only please, to respect the City Workers
Scrawny One (pushes herself through and yells): If you don’t like your job, go find another one asshole
Me: We’re doing this because we like our jobs, otherwise, we’d go find another
Young Lady: What a bitch!
Me: Well, your one or two minute just turned into 15 seconds, you can go in, thanks for understanding.
At this time, Suited Guy who had gone into his car and drove in our direction, parked in front of us, got out of his car, walked straight at me and Union Guy. He didn’t have his jacket on anymore and the gun on his belt was now VERY visible. He raised his finger at Union Guy’s face and said: “You know that when you raise your hand at someone and shoves him out of the way, it’s called assault, you better watch yourself for the other ones coming this way”.
I don’t know about you, but the sight of guns make me very shaky. I don’t like them around me one bit. My knees started to shake immediately.
After he got back in his car, I turn to Union Guy and say: “Why didn’t he just say he was a cop, if anyone, he should understand what unions stand for and of course we would have never stopped him on his business. Why couldn’t he just show his badge in the first place? Union Guy had no answer. I had no answer either, except that I thought his intimidation tactics were very cowardly.
We had been there 5 minutes and I told Union Guy that I didn’t sign up for that shit and I told him that the Douche can find other people to do his dirty work, we were both done with this door duty.
We went back to the circle of strike and signed out for the day, I was still very troubled and frankly, I think he was too.
I biked home and now, even an hour later, my knees are still queezy. I can’t believe a cop pulled that on us, walking to us and intimidating us with a gun on his belt like that, threatening us with assault when he damn well know he’s the one that pushed his way into one of us. I mean, he never really put his hand on the gun at any time, but he must have known that it was very visible on his light grey pants and white shirt.
On a lighter note, I also saw this guy biking around, demonstrating in his own way:
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No.
More.
Volunteering.
EVAR!
Seriously, I know how you voted on this strike. It’s not worth it!
I get that sometimes workers need to strike in order to be treated fairly. I don’t get how harming people who have nothing to do with it (e.g., by blocking their way) accomplishes that. I would think that as a society we’ve gotten past using violence – even minor forms of it – to get our way.
And same here, I truly don’t understand why entrances should be guarded like this, it’s not like they’ll get service inside the building, there’s 1/10th of the staff in there and not all services are offered, so let them take their chances.
I so disagree with this whole strike and the way it’s going.
Not that I want to sound all Perez Hilton, but violence is never the answer, nor is intimidation… No more door duty for me, I’ll go home before I have to do that again. Those 5 minutes were enough for me
If security guards have no legal authority to detain people, why does your steward want you to put yourself in danger doing something you have no right to do?
The part about a union member complaining about union “featherbedding” in the bottled water part is funny.
The City of Toronto save $25 million dollars for every week they don’t pay wages of employees. I say let the strike go on as long as possible. My payment in the form of salaries equal lower taxes for the residents of Toronto. 8 weeks strike like in Windsor, Ontario would be GREAT. Cool $200 million in saved wages expenses.
A lot of people think like you Jason Lee and sees this as a good thing as well as a punishment for the workers who don’t necessarily want to be caught as pawns in this game between union and City representatives. But the reality of it is, in my office, there are an average of 800 people coming daily through our doors for court requests for traffic ticket they’ve received, or infractions to by-laws they committed, or for meetings with Justice of the Peace or Provincial Prosecutors to try to come to an early resolution. This office remains open during the strike and those people continue to come in as Police Officers continues to give tickets to people who disobey provincial laws or city by-laws. There are 6 managers high on Aspirin running my office right now compared to the 43 workers we normally have on a daily basis.
All I can tell you is that everything I am not paid while we are on strike, I will make up and more in overtime when we return to work as it will take weeks if not months to clean up all the backlog created. So the City is not putting this “saved” money in the bank at all, they might be gaining a bit of interest on it while it’s not being used.
The people of this city make a poor example to follow considering the fact that there is such complaint re the city workers being on strike. Ordinary residential waste collection, under normal circumstances, would have resumed on Tuesday. How can the volume of waste being produced be so great that on Monday everybody had to be going to the transfer station? If there was no strike, and you had a Thursday collection day, than the waste would still be on your property on Wednesday anyway, regardless of the weather. It is high time that people understand the true value of labour organization and rally together, that is to say all those that are a unit of labour, to push for the private sector to finally follow the lead of the public sector in establishing a work environment that recognizes the importance of the employees that perform the work rather than holding people under pressure. People are trying to provide for themselves and their families, private sector organization slashes and burns wages and benefits at the expense of employees for the sake of an increased profit margin.
What I don’t understand, is the anger towards those who have nothing to do with the strike, no power to change things, and its not only the tax-paying citizen to which is occurring. Paramedics picketting the combined Fire/EMS Headquarters, have not only delayed the Firefighters working there from going to and leaving work, but some have been yelling obsenitities and making derogitory comments towards the Firefighters. Do they really think this will create support?
I know… it’s really mind blowing…
How does the city workers expect any sympathy from the public? In todays economy, people in every sector are taking hits in wages. The Industry that I work in has had to reduce rates back to 1990 rates to keep the work here so families can afford to eat and pay rent. We wish our rates were todays rates but they are not. Also, it really upsets me that the city workers have any right to block my way into a building or dump that I have a right to access. The City has said (in news papers, on their web site, TV news etc…) to bring your garbage to the “designated” transfer Stations across Toronto. So, I pack up my garbage, load it into the car (or maybe I should take my smelly garbage on the TTC down to the dump?) only to find that I can’t dump it because of some Union member standing in my way to enter the site. I am also threatened with violence if I cross the line. They shouted rude things at me and all I wanted to do is what the City has said to do in order of a strike. Also, I pay for my garbage to be picked up yearly. Will I be able to get a rebate on that payment for the weeks that my garbage was not picked up? Violence is never the answer, nor is intimidation. Fire them all and privatize the job. Etobicoke seems to picking up their garbage with no complaints!
fed up: This strike is not about wages, please read more about it. No one is expecting a wage increase. I’m sorrry that you are having trouble at the dumping sites, it’s not right. Please see the new sites that were open as of Thursday, you shouldn’t have any trouble going to any of the new ones.
Fire them all and privatize the job.
So let’s get this straight: instead of fighting for better benefits and working conditions, fed up already thinks City workers should be fired just because he had to take a pay cut. Why isn’t he fighting to improve everyone’s situation instead of siding with employers who want to take this recession as an excuse to roll back benefits? “I can’t have it so he shouldn’t have it either” is really stupid.
Note: I am not associated with any union, nor is anyone in my family.
Well said Fail.