Deaf And Dumb
Pardon the political incorrectness of this address, but in this particular instance perhaps it's slightly pardonable, since I'm referring to the "no-hear, no-know" stance of stubborn stupidity taking place in Ottawa with the mayor of the city and the chief spokespersons of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279 appearing to be revelling in their sterile positions of non-accommodation.
And here's a city of a million shuddering souls being held in ransom to these two insensitive clods' inability to behave like civilized, accommodating people. Instead we get a couple of unreasonable morons facing off against one another.
The union offered a reasonable compromise; get an arbitrator in to settle things, but the mayor, stone-faced as is his wont, Mr. Tough-Guy, won't hear of it. In the meantime, the city suffers. Much colder than usual temperatures for this time of year, people shivering as they attempt to go about their business using somewhat unorthodox means of transportation.
For some hardy souls that means walking, skiing, snowshoeing or bicycling on our freshly-laid foot of snow. And with traffic in the condition it's in, with an estimated 20% more vehicles on the road as a result of the transit strike, that spells danger for bicyclists, and for pedestrians as well. For a metropolitan area of this size to be hobbled in this manner speaks volumes about the relationship of give and take between transit workers and those who employ them.
The city's retailers are wincing in real pain at the huge bite this non-accommodation is taking out of their bottom line, leaving them helplessly unable to move their merchandise at this most critical time of the retail year. People are being affected in the most unusual ways; personal care workers, reliant on public transit, finding it near to impossible to reach their clients, almost helpless without the care they depend upon.
People attempting to make appointments, medical or at City Hall or just about anywhere, are being blocked by picketers planted there to ensure they produce as much inconvenience to the public as possible. Service workers, low paid as it is, and never entirely certain about job security - somewhat in contrast to the union-defended transit workers - have been missing work, unable to get there. If parents are unable to drive their high school kids to school, they're out of luck.
The Salvation Army discovering that fully 60% of the volunteers they rely upon at this time of year to man their donation kettles are unable to reach planned destinations, so their annual search for funding is being directly impacted. Their programs for the coming year will most certainly be affected, as a result; the estimated $300,000 they hoped to take in, will simply not materialize.
No one is happy about this state of affairs, not the strikers, nor the tax-paying public. There are mutterings of discontent from striking drivers, technicians and dispatchers, expressing annoyance at both the municipality whom they believe is acting in bad faith, and their union leaders, whom they feel are unnecessarily confrontational.
The sum total of these experiences should be clear to anyone; this is no way to run a city. And since the buck has to stop somewhere, it lands squarely on the city's mayor, Larry O'Brien.
And here's a city of a million shuddering souls being held in ransom to these two insensitive clods' inability to behave like civilized, accommodating people. Instead we get a couple of unreasonable morons facing off against one another.
The union offered a reasonable compromise; get an arbitrator in to settle things, but the mayor, stone-faced as is his wont, Mr. Tough-Guy, won't hear of it. In the meantime, the city suffers. Much colder than usual temperatures for this time of year, people shivering as they attempt to go about their business using somewhat unorthodox means of transportation.
For some hardy souls that means walking, skiing, snowshoeing or bicycling on our freshly-laid foot of snow. And with traffic in the condition it's in, with an estimated 20% more vehicles on the road as a result of the transit strike, that spells danger for bicyclists, and for pedestrians as well. For a metropolitan area of this size to be hobbled in this manner speaks volumes about the relationship of give and take between transit workers and those who employ them.
The city's retailers are wincing in real pain at the huge bite this non-accommodation is taking out of their bottom line, leaving them helplessly unable to move their merchandise at this most critical time of the retail year. People are being affected in the most unusual ways; personal care workers, reliant on public transit, finding it near to impossible to reach their clients, almost helpless without the care they depend upon.
People attempting to make appointments, medical or at City Hall or just about anywhere, are being blocked by picketers planted there to ensure they produce as much inconvenience to the public as possible. Service workers, low paid as it is, and never entirely certain about job security - somewhat in contrast to the union-defended transit workers - have been missing work, unable to get there. If parents are unable to drive their high school kids to school, they're out of luck.
The Salvation Army discovering that fully 60% of the volunteers they rely upon at this time of year to man their donation kettles are unable to reach planned destinations, so their annual search for funding is being directly impacted. Their programs for the coming year will most certainly be affected, as a result; the estimated $300,000 they hoped to take in, will simply not materialize.
No one is happy about this state of affairs, not the strikers, nor the tax-paying public. There are mutterings of discontent from striking drivers, technicians and dispatchers, expressing annoyance at both the municipality whom they believe is acting in bad faith, and their union leaders, whom they feel are unnecessarily confrontational.
The sum total of these experiences should be clear to anyone; this is no way to run a city. And since the buck has to stop somewhere, it lands squarely on the city's mayor, Larry O'Brien.
Labels: Human Relations, Realities
posted by Pieface @ 6:07 PM
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