The rest of our day wasn't quite as great as the show. Some of you may be aware that the City of Toronto's municipal workers are out on strike. While I realized this affected garbage pick-up, what I didn't realize was that all the city owned parking lots would be barricaded and picketed.
The weather today reached the high 90s with a heat index well over 100 - try walking in that with asthma!
Now for the rant....there was garbage everywhere - overflowing from bins, lying on the sidewalks and a lot of the bins had been wrapped so you couldn't put any garbage in them. These workers are striking in part to protect their policy of being able to bank and cash up to 6 months of 18 days a year sick pay benefits. In this economy they should be thankful they have a job, let alone one that allows you 18 days a year of sick days.
The Premier of Ontario refuses to introduce legislation mandating these people back to work - he is asking that we be patient. I guess it doesn't bother him as his limo drives him door to door wherever he goes. The majority of people in the province believe that these positions should be classified as 'essential services' and the employees not allowed to strike.
What a wonderful impression this must make for tourists. Toronto's tourism industry suffered badly in the SARS outbreak after 9/11. It's taken all this time to build it up but who in their right mind would want to visit a city with picketers everywhere and garbage littering the streets - piles and piles of it. It is a public health issue - the rats in the garbage will soon be as big as the political rats who refuse to put an end to this and legislate these workers back to WORK!
I'll get off my soapbox now, but every so often I just have to get these rants off my chest!
Regularly scheduled programming will resume when I actually have something quilty to show you.
2 comments:
Glad they weren't striking when I was there last year!
Jersey Boys was here in Minneapolis a while back and I thought about going but somehow we managed to miss it.
What is typical sick time in Canada? I've never had more than 10 days (work for a major corporation) and it does not carry over. It's typical here for government workers to carry over but it's very rare. I've never worked anywhere you can cash in sick time but my husband works for the local government and they allow it at retirement.
Post a Comment