They really don’t pay me enough for this…

Today I can’t help thinking about the similarity between the City of Toronto Labour Disruption and one of my favourite TV show: Survivor.

Both events start with the division of teams, both have someone in charge to mediate any occurrences, both teams are rivals for the duration of the event, both teams are wearing their own coloured piece of clothing, both teams lose people and supporters along the way making teams smaller, both events sees animosity grow between camps only to be quickly forgotten, both are largely responsible for TV stations ratings going up, both host a large BBQ in the middle of the event, both ends with a vote unifying the group together all over again, both last 39 days.

The only difference is that unlike Survivor the TV show, the City of Toronto has no winners. Although, both end with many happy people and a few unhappy ones as well.

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Regardless of how you feel about the following, this is not a kiss-ass moment.

I’ve been critical of some decisions made during the strike, but I am quickly changing my mind. Mr. Miller has more than impressed me in the last few days with the way he has handled the “ugly” media and others he works closely with who continue to criticize him publicly. I am impressed mostly because he’s shown he has balls. He has chosen his words very carefully, his answers have been well thought out and, just a few minutes ago, he just gave a lashing to a deserving group during a press conference that just proved he is the man for the job.

I’m awaiting the council’s vote anxiously. Tomorrow will be an interesting morning indeed.

Day 38 – Is this gesture too premature? Is it really over?

Everyone was in a good mood this morning at our circle of strike… which has now dwindled to a “standing-around-chatting-not-wearing-sign” of strike. We were anxious about the big vote this afternoon, we all wanted this strike behind us, pretty much ready to accept anything the union has to offer their membership. There were laughs, there were dances, there were Lotto 6/49 dreams as we bought another set of tickets for the draw tonight… and then, CRASH-BOOM, this happened:

All was well though, we just moved our group from the sidewalk to under the large covered area by the front door and mingled more with the non-union group that was there monitoring. I have to admit that we’ve had some extremely nice guys and gals with us in the last week.
It didn’t take long for this to happen:

I won the first game of Dominoes… ahaha… suckers.

And then, CRASH-BOOM, this lady came in around 10:20, just a few minutes before we’d leave to go voting, and told us that there was a big problem: the other union, Local 416, was back at the bargaining table!!! (insert horror music here). All faces dropped, silence was all around, no one really wanted to be the first one to speculate out loud about it… A couple of phone calls later, we got word that our local was still ready for the vote and that we were all expected at the Sheraton Centre to cast our ballots.

Voting was a curious process. It was like when they showed on the news the day Mandarin Buffet offered free meals to celebrate the business’ anniversary and the line-up went up the parking lot, then up street into the neighbouring town. There was a lot of people but they were very well organized and we were moving fairly fast. The media kept trying to interview union members, most refusing, and were live on the air running amock with all the details of the new offer, WHICH is a bit different than what was reported in the last few days… but not by much.

As for Local 416, I really don’t have much details about what has happened this morning though, all I know is that their vote has been delayed. I believe that if they do not vote today, our Local will continue to support the picket line until both separate Locals have voted. So, I may just be wearing another sign tomorrow morning, for another $40.

If that’s the case, no more Dominoes or Backgammon for me, I’m bringing the TV and the Wii.

Day 37 – My strike family – and me already reflecting on the good times ahead.

Yesterday’s good news of a tentative deal lifted a huge weight off the shoulders of all involved, not just union and non-union members, but the city’s residents as well. It seems like in just a few days, we’ll be able to go back to our normal lives and start the process of forgetting the month of July 2009.

While we await the next steps, we continue to stay visible at our picket lines. Tomorrow, the union members will go vote on the offer and then on Friday, City Council will have their turn at voting on it as well. There’s always a chance that something might go wrong and the offer might be rejected by any of the two parties involved, but right now the hope is heavenly high that we will be going back to work early next week.

This morning you could really tell that the city residents are already starting to put the strike behind them and going back to their normal lives. I was almost hit by the same car twice as the driver, looking for a parking place, did an illegal u-turn, seeing me at the very last minute, and later on after finding a spot, drove out of it when I reached the same location as he saw another more favourable parking space for him. I called him an idiot of course, and he called me a faggot…

All is well in Toronto.

Now that the strike is basically over, we can all go back to our regular lives. Mine will include the new season of Mad Men in a few weeks. I really like the show and can’t wait for it.

If you’re like me, here’s a little something fun until we’re back with our favourite Sterling Cooper men:

Mad Men Yourself into an avatar

Here’s mine:

Day 36 – A Tentative Agreement Is Reached!

Here I was at 3:30pm, eating up every word Ann Dembinski was saying, you could tell by the little smile on her face that it was going to be good news.

WE HAVE A TENTATIVE DEAL.

It’s such great news to finally see the end of this. Details will be released to the membership, then to the media… but I think every local 79 and local 416 members will be very happy and are all looking forward to go back to work.

Looks like members will get to vote on Wednesday with Thursday as possible first day back to work. Details will be released to employees at City of Toronto website.

Well, I won’t lie, I’ve been practicing my happy dance all morning… Fingers crossed a deal is reached this afternoon announcing a quick return to work…

Come spend one minute with me on the picket line. See all the action. Feel all the excitement. Live the life of a striker:

On a totally fun note, today is DR’s birthday. He’s turning 44 and he’ll be watching The Watchmen on BD Live with the movie director later on today. I hope there’s cake… I love birthday cake.

Over the last few weeks, strikers have all been part of some crazy events on or around the picket lines, some of us were involved, some of us were witnesses. All of these events unnecessary. If people stopped thinking of the strike as a battle, and more as a message board to get their message across, we wouldn’t see so many fights or incidents. There is nothing wrong with telling the people what the strike is about without raising voices or fists…

I was so surprised to see the tons of videos online about Toronto Strike conflicts all around the city for the last 5 weeks… I don’t know why I never even thought of searching for them before yesterday, but I was flabbergasted by the amount of them and even more so by their content. I don’t want to promote them by posting copies here, I’m disgusted by the way people act on them, but still, they might be worth a viewing for those who think that Toronto isn’t really affected by the strike. It’s a whole can of crazy, be prepared.

What I do see daily from my circle of strike though is the continuous need for citizens to drop by to insult us. I understand we are easy targets, we are wearing strike signs, we are walking in a circle in front of a city building, we are supporting a group that is working on our behalf so that benefits they won for us in the past won’t be taken away, etc.

Still, let me give you a few pointers if you think that coming to Dundas and Victoria to scream insults at us is a good idea and want to continue living. I’m not saying that any of us would take any measure to injure people, far from our minds, but some people act so carelessly that I’m surprise we haven’t had the need for emergency services already.

ALMOST ACCIDENT #1
One guy driving a pick-up truck southbound on Victoria St. stopped just before the intersection and rolled down his window to scream “GO BACK TO WORK FUCKERS” and then pressed on the gas as a mean of quick getaway only to slam on the breaks and screech his tires realizing the light had turned red, almost slamming into a car that was driving through on Dundas.

ALMOST ACCIDENT #2
One woman on a bicycle riding illegally on the sidewalk zoomed past us and started yelling gibberish and stopping one inch short of ramming herself into a wall. See, she was riding fairly fast and was quickly turning her head in the direction she was going and then to the direction of the strikers every other word, not really paying attention to the fact there was a building with bricks and cement ready to stop her stride… All we heard was a rapid succession of words that couldn’t really form a sentence as we couldn’t hear the words yelled when her head was turned to the direction opposite us… it sort of went like “You (blank) money (blanK) stupid (blank) work (screeeeeeeeeech) SHIIIIIIIIT!!!” She came to an abrupt stop, then sheepishly looking down, turned the corner and dissapeared.

ALMOST ACCIDENT #3
One man was so excited at our sight that he completely stopped in the middle of the intersection. Standing there immobile and looking at us, he started yelling that we were just being lazy and wanted time off during the Summer. Meanwhile a car was waiting to turn and seemed hesitant as the driver couldn’t tell if the man would continue on his way or retreat back from where he came from. At the exact same time, both of them decided to move… heading in the same direction. With one opinionated man jumping backwards and avoiding a car wheel on his foot… Apparently it was enough of a scare for him to just turned around and continue on his way…

ALMOST ACCIDENT #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9
Every morning, around 9:30am, approximately 100 exchange students from Brazil (or so their backpacks say) swarm the corner on their way to a Ryerson class or meeting. You’d think that at least one of them would notice the street light at the corner, but oh no… every morning they all arrive following each other and cross Victoria St stopping any traffic that would be coming their way. Cars can be honking their horns as loud as they can, they continue on walking across. Hopefully they’ll get to the “crossing the street lesson” soon.

ALMOST ACCIDENT #10
This one has nothing to do with the strike, it would (and will continue to) happen on any regular day in downtown Toronto. This homeless came by, drunk out of his mind, holding a half full-bottle of what seemed like pure alcohol and was trying to light up a cigarette butt probably freshly picked up from the sidewalk… I kept expecting him to go up in flame at any time as the handling of the bottle and the striking of the matches made the booze pop out of the bottle and was soaking the front of his shirt. He finally managed and blew smoke in our direction. Man On Fire = 0, Smoking = 1. This time…

Everyone has the right to their opinion of course, I’m not saying people shouldn’t feel angry at strikers they see in the city, and I’m not suggesting they should sympathize with them either, but if the need to scream at someone arise at anytime, please do it in a safely manner. Or if you walk directly to the strikers and ask a question instead of throwing insults, you might see a different side to all of this mess.

Also, drink pure alcohol and smoke responsibly.

Day 32 – Wet. Very wet. My message is “running” like a cheap mascara.

Well, we lasted 31 days without being rained on during our time on the picket line. There were days I hardly made it home and then the sky opened up, but today was really raining hard most of the time we were there. We took cover and when the rain stopped, we got back on the sidewalk and continued to be visible for anyone who still cared… which by the looks of it is not many people… Still, this morning, a nice lady who works at the building we are picketing at brought us a large box of donuts to share between all of us. Sweet. No pun intended. Another one also commented that we were a “decent” group… not sure if she was comparing us to the group that takes over after us or to another picket line she crossed somewhere else or simply just because we don’t point and scream “SCAAAAAAAABS” at employees crossing the picket line.

Which, by the way, is a very sore point with me. Crossing the picket line for any union member is a personal choice they had to make. I have said before and strongly continue to believe that I cannot get mad at anyone who does. I am not in their shoes, I will not judge them either. I do not see the point in making them feel any worse than they’ve already felt the morning they realized they had no other choices than to go back to work. But every time I mention this out loud, someone asks me why I don’t cross if I don’t see anything wrong with it. Today was the 17th time in 32 days that I was asked the question… Yes, I’m that bored, I keep score of trivial stuff like that… the same way I keep score of this girl that keeps telling me she knows exactly how long the strike will last… On the first week she said it would last 2 weeks, then on the 3rd week she said she always knew it would be minimum 3 weeks, then on the 4th week, she said she had been told before the strike that it would last at least 5 weeks…. This week she had the nerve to tell me she’d told her husband to be prepared for 6 weeks of strike! Yeah, I know, my head is spinning too.

But I digress, today while some guy off the street asked us if many “scabs” were crossing the picket line, I told him that since we didn’t work in that building, we had no way of knowing who was a manager and who was a “scab” (I should have shut up right there and then, but no…) then I added that if there were “scabs” crossing, they had their own reasons to do it. That’s when I was asked once again why I don’t cross if I don’t see a problem with it… I usually answer that it’s a personal choice I made since I might one day need the Union’s help, but today it particularly burnt my ass because it wasn’t the first time this individual had asked me… so I decided to answer him… even more so since he’s not someone who walks with us regularly and has this arrogance about him I wanted to shake a little bit…

Me: “I personally owe a lot to Unions in general… My dad worked for one and because of that I was able to have a very nice childhood. He worked hard and was well paid for his effort. His Union also helped him out when he was hurt on the job and wasn’t able to work for months at a time and was having problems getting paid by Quebec’s worker’s comp.”
Him: “That’s why?”
Me: ” Actually, there’s a bit more as well, see I know that Unions are always fighting for basic human rights, we wouldn’t have some of the liberties I enjoy today without them. Being gay is not something that was wildly accepted when the Union fought for same sex benefits decades ago for their members, and because they were victorious a lot of large corporations had to follow suit. We didn’t just wake up one day with same-sex benefits, someone fought on our behalf.”
Him: “Are you sure about that?”
Me: “Well, you have the internet, right? You can easily check, there are cases from the 80’s where same-sex benefits were part of the agenda at the bargaining table.”
Him: (silence)
Me: “Also, Unions have been there to fight for all other mino…
Him: (at another person walking by) “Hey, do you have a cigarette?”
Me: “… rities too… huh… k… bye…”

Just like that, he was gone, leaving me with my unfinished answer… oh well… At least, he probably won’t ask me again…

After another hour on the picket line, we marched to City Hall where our Teamster friends were hosting a BBQ in support of Local 79 and 416. Because of the rain, there wasn’t many people there, but I still enjoyed a delicious free lunch. Today, I’ve had a free donut, a free cookie, a free bottle of water and a free hamburger… Woohoo. Still, I’d rather be at work and pay for my own burger.

Strike Burger

Just for fun, tomorrow, if I see the “Fortune Teller Striker”, I might bring up the subject of “how long can this strike last” one more time just to see what she’ll come up with… I bet she says 7 weeks.