Get Off Your Ass Larry – We’re Not Happy
I’m sitting 15 km from where I work less than two hours away from a public transit strike because our Mayor can’t get off his ass and get a decent deal done… and I am not amused.
I’m sure that really doesn’t matter a hell of a lot Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien, he’s in an income bracket that means he never has to rub shoulders with the unwashed masses on the inside of a bus – and, if I recall correctly, he’s got a chauffeur to worry about the actual driving part of his work day anyway.
Like all politicians he talks a good game about being worried about elders, and working families with children — the same people he conveniently forgets about when he is closing recreational facilities and raising public transit fares.
The city has $5 million to spend on count down timers to tell people how many seconds they’ve got left to cross the street yet they don’t have enough money to come to a contract agreement with a city service that so many people depend on?
Give me a break Larry…. we all know the game, you’re taking advantage of the weather, and the season, and hoping that you can spin city resident opinion against the union because of it all — it ain’t gonna work in this corner.
I’m luckier than many, I’ve got a ride to work tomorrow – I’m betting there are thousands who are not as lucky, it’s gonna cost them, and they’re the ones O’Brian is hurting.
It’s gonna cost Ottawa businesses, and I hope the merchants on Bank Street who have had a really rough go of it for two years in a row while the city completed a major work project on it because they’d been so damned lax in the past that it was pretty well beyond salvage know where to lay the blame for this.
Larry.OBrien@ottawa.ca already has an email from me telling him what I think of his organizational and planning skills in this respect – feel free to send him some of your own love.
– tell him the bunker sent ya.
And the union has got to get its PR act together. When you’re a public sector union public opinion is very important. I saw the union president interviewed on CTV and he came across as very arrogant and not caring about the public. I do not believe that he is, is but that is the impression he presented. As he was interviewed I was thinking of all the things he should have been saying but wasn’t.
So I decided I would present the union position on my blog so I set out to find it. None of the news articles I found on the web presented it very well so I went to the ATU Looal 279 and there was absolutely nothing there about the negotiations or the unions position. No press releases – nothing.
So I have nothing to blog about and an opportunity to present their side of the story has been lost.
Larry O’Brien – When is his next court date?
@rww – With respect, then: if the union doesn’t state a position, what’s yours? I’m not baiting you or trying to place you in an uncomfortable position but how would you defend the public sector unions?
What should he have been saying? Blog about that.
I don’t disagree SL, but a 10.5% wage increase? I haven’t seen that kind of increase in years, without changing jobs.
Its a two way street. O’Brien is a first-class boob to be sure, but the union needs to soften their demands a bit too.
With the economy melting around us, why are so many politicos trying to use the crisis for their own gain?
Wait a minute. Wasn’t there a big to-do a few weeks ago (feels like years) because the CPC feds wanted to outlaw strikes in the federal gov’t (after just signing a 3 or 4 year deal with the union, so basically sounding important but saying buggar all)?
Yet now, there is a strike (civic vs federal) and it’s pi$$ing you off?
I’m so confused.
That being said, as a 100% transit user (no car or motorbike), I’d be totally screwed if ETS went on strike. Thank God I live in anti-union Alberta. My sympathy to those relying on transit to get to work, buy groceries, get to school, get through life, etc.
Day 2, so far the carpooling plans are holding out, and some of our ‘rainy day’ tasks are being looked at again, to see who can do what near home. Fortunately I live downtown, which opens my options regarding where I can work from (the office is in the West end). Still have to trudge out to a central location for a drive to work and a later shift than usual (I’m usually there by now!).
By the way, I was one of those smucks who got hit with the ‘we’ll cap your pay at what was negotiated and ban strikes for the duration of your contract.’ Made me think the govt was working in slightly less than good faith, especially in their refusal to remove language that allows managers to demand unpaid overtime, and refusing to change harassment language to something that makes more sense (heh, again not about money). Or their insistence of finishing negotiations before the economic update.