Morning Brew: Harper Pockets Communion (or Does He?), No More Drugs in Kensington (Really?), Jays Dump BJ Ryan (Halladay Next?)
Photo: "Street Life" by Jim U, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Pages is closing. Owner Marc Glassman tells NOW Magazine that the city's most-loved bookstore will be closing its doors on August 31st. (Previous coverage)
The garbage is going to keep piling up for a while as the striking unions have made it clear they're not accepting a year-long pay freeze and a mere 1% increase in the second year of any deal. Mayor Miller is trying to stand his ground but after announcing yesterday that the bargaining team has been authorized to be more flexible, so it sounds like it will be the city who bends (or breaks) first in the current stalemate. Good thing we've had unseasonably cool weather; the last thing we need is a string of 30+ degree days right now.
A month-long drug sweep by Toronto police has netted 76 arrests, 200 charges and a pile of drugs from King West and Kensington area drug dealers and buyers. Too bad there weren't a lot of hidden cameras - "Project Escape" sounds like a great reality tv show.
Did he or didn't he? Video from Romeo LeBlanc's funeral shows Stephen Harper receiving a communion wafer and apparently pocketing it, not exactly the proper way to treat his Host. Naturally, Harper's people say he would never do such a thing, but the explanation does not go so far as to shed light on why a Protestant was taking Roman Catholic communion.
The Jays have officially given up on B.J. Ryan, who leapt out of the gate as an ineffective closer, and after wearing out a patch in the bench found his way onto the disabled list. After making B.J. rich, now the Jays are hoping another team picks him up as there are several years and a lot of money left on his deal. More worrisome for Jays fans though is news that the Jays may be giving up not just on the season but on their ability to put a winner around ace Roy Halladay. Buster Olney of ESPN.com predicts we may see Halladay in a Phillies jersey by the end of the month. The Star's Richard Griffin says don't believe everything you hear, but don't count on JP making a great deal, either.
Rouge Valley Health System has been hoodwinked, swindled out of $2 million over the course of 8 years by youth services workers who invoiced, shall we say, generously? A tad over 10 years since the fraud started police nabbed one of their guys, which sort of makes me wonder what made the hospital notice now that something was amiss?
Japanese royalty is in our midst. Emperor Akihito and his wife Empress Michiko are in town and staying at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. They'll visit Sick Kids and have shaken hands but I'm more curious if they'll dine at Benihana in the Royal York basement.
Comments (24)
Come on, not the wafer story. The real headline should be "Harper wastes 5 Billion $ after refusing to fund Toronto Streetcars for 400 Million".
We're out of Afghanistan next year, and he just ordered 5 Billion worth of light armour vehicles. WTF? I didn't realize training in CFB Kingston was so dangerous.
Nobody in my company got a raise this year. In fact a lot of people lost their jobs this year. Maybe I should go on strike too.
No raises in my company either. Boo-hoo. Glad to still have a job. (unlike some good friends of mine)
FYI - The Jays are on the hook for that $15 million owed to BJ. If another team picks him up that team will only be responsible for he major league minimum portion of his salary (in the neighborhood of 500K).
No raises, no promotions, no bonuses where I work too. Must be nice to be part of a union. I get the distinct feeling that unions like the 2 that are on strike no longer serve their original mandate. When union members get better wages and benefits than the average non-unionized worker for the same job, it's hard to justify needing the union.
Pages is not the best bookstore in Toronto. It's the best bookstore in the country.
One more reason not to go back.
Then you'd think it'd make sense to strike when the employer can afford it.
Selfish? You think the city of Toronto and the people calling for a stop to this ridiculous self serving strike in the midst of a recession are selfish?
i am beyond frustrated at this point with the strike.
i'm a student and i'm depending on my summer job with the city for tuition money, and i'm not allowed to picket to get the measly $40 a day. i'm not the only person in this situation but it seems like the city and CUPE could care less that they're incoveniencing so many people. how is this justified? someone please explain to me why the city unions have to act like 5 year old to get their way. strikes should be illegal.
It's probably best that the Emperor and Empress dine at the underground restaurant. We wouldn't want to show them the garbage city outside.
Selfish? Surely you jest. In the real world you get a bonus or raise because you deserve it (again we're talking average people - not CEOs) - not because a contract mandates you get it whether you do a good job or not. Those people that get bonuses one year can also get turfed the next year if the economy tanks - no guaranteed job for life. Kinda hard to feel sorry for workers that already make alot more money than the average non-unionized worker. Wish my salary was also indexed to inflation. Again in the real world, it's called a raise but if you're in the union, it's a cost of living increase and then you get a raise on top of that increase. Am I jealous? Damn right I am. Is it fair though to me as a tax payer? Hell no.
I wonder if the King West drug busts included 'The Barking Room' ...have heard some pretty insane rumours about what went down there!
Does anyone know what the process of firing everyone on strike and starting over with a clean slate would be ?
Or getting permanent substitute workers.
They have to replace battle losses from the mission in Afghanistan. We have lost a lot of equipment and much of it was outdated anyhow and showing its age.
Would you prefer next time our soldiers ride in golf carts and bicycles?
"Does anyone know what the process of firing everyone on strike and starting over with a clean slate would be ?
Or getting permanent substitute workers."
Answer: Having a city council with balls.
"Does anyone know what the process of firing everyone on strike and starting over with a clean slate would be ?
Or getting permanent substitute workers."
Let's for a moment pretend this were actually possible. I sincerely doubt it is; you can't fire somebody for going on a legal strike, so you'd have to find some other legal grounds for firing them all.
Let's also pretend you could somehow avoid paying 24,000 hefty severance packages to all these people you're proposing we let go. And let's ignore the strain on social services and general damage to the economy from turning 24,000 people with good jobs into 24,000 unemployed people.
Now all that's left is the monumentally expensive and time-consuming task of hiring 24,000 new workers, and/or putting dozens (hundreds?) of city services out to tender for private contracts.
Of course this entire plan hinges on the assumption that all the strikers are untrained monkeys who can be easily replaced, and that mobs of people will be lining up to do the jobs at a fraction of the wage with no benefits. In fact, many of the strikers are engineers and nurses and things of that nature. And with unemployment still in the single digits, most people have better employment options than stinky back-breaking garbage work for 10 bucks an hour.
So, in short: it's not a solution, so can we please stop pretending that it is?
Here's a legal reason: you're not doing your job right now. If I didn't turn up for work for 3 weeks simply because I wanted a raise, paid out sick days or lifetime job security, they would fire me in a heartbeat, with no golden parachute.
If you are not a member of a union which is in a legal strike position and has voted to strike, then I expect you would indeed be fired. These people are. Aren't labour laws wonderful?
You are right, in Canada it is illegal to fire striking workers. However, that doesn't make it reasonable or right. Why do only workers get a right to self-determination and employers be forced to negotiate or close? In the city's case, it has no alternative but to eventually settle. It is unfair to the employer - us.
As to severance, that would only apply to workers who have worked 5 years or longer, would be dependent on their contributions to the company's development and would vary greatly worker to worker. This cost could easily be covered by the savings in sick day banking alone not to mention the savings of reduced salaries.
As for 24,000 unemployed people, wouldn't be 24,000 empty jobs much longer and since that would be from already unemployed people it is a wash, social services and the economy would be unaffected.
Hiring 24,000 workers is time-consuming, but how many could we have hired in the last 17 days or so of work stoppage? Putting out tenders is also time-consuming but it is how the city should be run anyway. We could also reduce the number of administrators since the companies contracted would handle much of the paperwork now left to the city.
As for untrained monkeys; most of the workers are drivers and labourers, unless you are assuming the only people who would apply are untrained monkeys then I think we could find to people to do general labour, ticket-taking and truck driving. Garbage collecting is far from back-breaking as it is all automated, the worker doesn't even get out of his seat now, a robotic arm grabs the cans. If they can find factory workers for 10 bucks an hour (and many, many employers do), they can find garbage workers for that.
So, it may not currently be a solution to replace the workers on strike but the objections you pose are not so insurmountable. I still maintain that the unions have rights the employer is forbidden because the owner doesn't have the right NOT to associate which is the logical corollary to the union's right to associate.
I'd prefer they scale back the troop commitment by 10%, save 10% of 5 Billion, put the savings towards the streetcars and have money left over. The street car project will create jobs for 10 years and change the city for the next 30. Instead of a year or so of use in Afghanistan.
There are all sorts of arguments to be made for and against privatization, unions in general, civil servants' right to strike, etc. I'm not gonna get into it. My point is: this strike isn't going to be settled by the "fire them all, like Reagan did" approach. It's not legally possible (and I still contend completely impractical, but whatever, it's moot). Every time a discussion of the strike comes up, several people make that unhelpful suggestion. It ain't gonna happen.
Well, considering the planned upgrades to the LAV-3 in the deal would be done by General Dynamics, jobs will still be providing work to Canadians. While it would also make work for Canadians, I don't know that any new jobs would be created by the streetcar purchase. Thunder Bay may already be able to produce them with the factory and workers they already have. So the job issue may be a push.
6 Chinook helicopters out of 16 will be used in Afghanistan and the bulk of the armoured vehicle purchase will be between 2013-2016, well after we have left. We will still have a need for a well-equipped army after the Afghan mission.
While I believe the argument is in favour of public transportation being an infrastructure project worthy of so-called stimulus funds, Toronto knowingly broke the rules and didn't file properly. 2800 other applications were filed correctly, what was our city's problem? They couldn't have filled out the 1 request they made properly? They couldn't have made proper requests to fix our crumbling roads, sewers and water mains? Then used future budget money earmarked for those projects to cover funding on the streetcars? They only wanted 1/3 from Ottawa, they couldn't have carried that?
Yes, as I said before, you are right. Currently, it can't happen.
Reagan was able to do what he did because the air traffic controllers were federal employees and the strike was therefore illegal.
If the services here are declared essential then the rules will change and strike/lock out can be banned. However, arbitration tends to hugely favour workers who are devoid of their right to strike.
I agree with you that given current circumstances it is pointless to demand it, I just believe that it is possible to privatize the services and get rid of the union as other municipalities have done it. I also wish we would.
View More Events
Suggest an Event
Join the blogTO Flickr group
Join the blogTO YouTube Group
RSS