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Morning Brew: Strike this, Strike that, and Strike this Some More

Posted by Jerrold Litwinenko / June 29, 2009

20 Comments

gardiner thronePhoto: "Gardiner Thrones 1" by PDPhotography, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Another Monday, and another weekend of not much but strike-related news...

The city union strike enters week two, and kids are now out of school for the summer. This means no pools, and no summer camps for a lot of kids. I wonder if any city workers are skipping out on picket line duty, to stay home and care for their own kids.

Striking workers formed a human chain and brought the cleanup after the Pride parade to a near halt yesterday. Apparently the city reneged on their word, hiring a private company to clean the streets of debris after a million people partied on the streets. The alternative would have been what? To leave tonnes of crap all over several city streets?

Also related to the strike, there's good news for those who are unable to get street parking permits and collecting parking tickets as a result - the city says to keep them and they'll erase them once the strike is over. No word on what happens if you get towed though!

The new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, Tim Hudak, is speaking out for taxpayers and wagging the finger at city union workers on his first day on the job.

And in non-strike news (there is some?), fans of Toronto chef Susur Lee should take a look at this ride, eat, read, sleep restaurant experience deal.

And for those of you who were not online all weekend (and not allowing he strike to ruin your time off work), here's a quick recap of what blogTO was up to:

Discussion

20 Comments

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Mike W / June 29, 2009 at 10:15 am
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> The alternative would have been what? To leave tonnes
> of crap all over several city streets?

That is their plan isn't it?
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Maria / June 29, 2009 at 10:19 am
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Speaking of, I just biked through Peter St., between King and Richmond, and it is full of garbage from the weekend in the "entertainment district". There are especially lots of fliers and cards promoting events/nightclubs. I wonder if something could be done about those people distributing fliers, I mean it is very probable they are going to be disposed of on the street, they should be more responsible now that there's a garbage strike and stop distributing such garbage.
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Andrew / June 29, 2009 at 11:04 am
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You can rag on there being too much negative press about our socialist mayor, but it's okay to fill half the Brew with Union news?
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Ryan L. replying to a comment from Maria / June 29, 2009 at 11:08 am
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"When someone hands you a flyer, it's like they're saying: 'Here, you throw this away'" - Mitch Hedberg
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April replying to a comment from Andrew / June 29, 2009 at 11:29 am
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Union news? I guess that might be your take on what's written, but I definitely read it from a "general stuff affecting my everyday life as a citizen of toronto news". And right now, that general stuff is largely dealing with the effects of the strike. I think it's totally warranted, it's directly affecting every single person in the city; even it that effect is just a smelly walk down the street, or some street garbage blowing around your ankles. Ew.
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Andrew replying to a comment from April / June 29, 2009 at 11:34 am
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So the mayor's news doesn't affect the city?
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geg / June 29, 2009 at 11:46 am
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keep up the good fight andrew
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Dean / June 29, 2009 at 11:57 am
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I'd say most city workers aren't picketing - does it look like there are 20 000 + picketers? You only get $200/week to do it and you don't see the money for weeks. Every city worker I know is staying home and enjoying their mandatory vacation.
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james a / June 29, 2009 at 12:00 pm
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"City spokesman Rob Andrusevich added that the city had telegraphed its intention to hire private contractors at a news conference last week."

They telegraphed it? Were no carrier pigeons available?
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Andrew replying to a comment from james a / June 29, 2009 at 12:08 pm
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It's a common expression
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Andrew replying to a comment from geg / June 29, 2009 at 12:10 pm
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As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
You begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
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Mike W replying to a comment from April / June 29, 2009 at 12:12 pm
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Just ignoring him, we're hoping it'll make vie for attention elsewhere.
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Andrew replying to a comment from Mike W / June 29, 2009 at 12:56 pm
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way to contribution to the conversation buddy
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April replying to a comment from Mike W / June 29, 2009 at 01:07 pm
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Haha, I was going to retort but I'll hold back.

I agree, it seems Andrew is on a bit of a war path or something...

Has anyone coined the term "Blog-rage" yet??
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Ross / June 29, 2009 at 01:26 pm
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Today, I saw two of our Toronto ambassadors talking to tourists and letting them know about sites in the city worth checking out. They were doing this while standing in a pile of garbage from overflowing bins that had spilled through the street. Here we are, in the middle of our tourist season, with so many already suffering because of the recession, and we're turning away tourism dollars, losing productivity because workers need to stay home with their kids, and having our parks taken over by temporary garbage dumps. And for what? As near as I can tell, the only issue of substance is the ability to bank sick days. Seriously, this is a ludicrous under-the-table compensation to begin with. Even worse for our garbage workers, in that it creates an incentive for tenure. What should be a job that needs to be done is being somehow turned into a lucrative career choice. Insanity.

If this was the private sector, then the financial implications of the strike would put the company in the red and both sides would have an incentive to work together. There's no such accountability in the public sector, so as our city goes into the red, the unions don't feel the pain. And this, ultimately, is the problem. Unions do provide a valuable service, but here in Toronto we are seeing the dark side of public sector unions.
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jameasmallon / June 29, 2009 at 01:35 pm
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Do tourists come to Toronto? Or do people just visit family? We are not Paris, NY or Tokyo. Hell, we are not even Montreal. Before you piss all over this post, imagine you are a tourist to all those cities, not a resident. Then write something intelligent.
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blamblamvietnam replying to a comment from jameasmallon / June 29, 2009 at 02:02 pm
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Uhh, yeah. This took me a whole two seconds to find:

http://www.seetorontonow.com/Web.CMS/pdf/TourismInToronto_2008.pdf

Is there a way we can nominate jamesmallon and andrew for blogto trolls of the year? Just kidding guys. I love ya. I'll drink your bathwater any time.
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Andrew replying to a comment from April / June 29, 2009 at 02:02 pm
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Oh no, independent thought alarm! Quick let's distribute some 'no one is illegal' fliers and talk about going green so we can continue our circle jerk!
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conscious replying to a comment from Andrew / June 29, 2009 at 04:01 pm
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so i take it you piss against buildings and throw garbage on the sidewalks? if the answer is no, ask that back to yourself about 50 times and you now know exactly what kind of annoying you are.
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Dave replying to a comment from Andrew / June 29, 2009 at 09:17 pm
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Way to use proper english
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