Vancouver Garbage Strike

[Lise]

Yes for all your poor little souls living in Vancouver. Expect garbage strike next week.

   [H1 class=headline]Vancouver garbage collectors issue strike notice[/H1] [H3 class=deck]Labour Relations Board ruling clears way for regional strike[/H3] [H4 class=lastupdated]Last Updated: Monday, July 16, 2007 | 12:30 PM PT [/H4]  

 The union representing 1,800 outside workers in Vancouver, including garbage collectors, has issued a 72-hour strike notice.

 The notice was issued after the Labour Relations Board approved essential service levels for CUPE local 1004. Essential service levels have also been set for 800 unionized workers in the District of North Vancouver.

 

 [A href="vny!://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/07/16/bc-garbagestike.html?ref=rss"][FONT size=1]vny!://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/07/16/bc-garbagestike.html?ref=rss[/FONT][/A]

[P.C.]

So I hear on the news this morning, that they WILL NOT  allow this to happen during the 2010 games.  So I'm thinking....they won't allow our visitors to be subjected to this (as they shouldn't be) but it's ok to subject those who live there and pay taxes to it.

  Basically what they're saying is that they DO have control over this....but they will choose when it's ok or not.  This is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

[Lise]

Everyone wants a hefty pay rise. If the politicians and MLAs can give themselves a raise, then I think everyone else who works just as hard should be given a raise. Including garbage workers.

  Though, having said that, they are paid quite well, more so than their other counterparts. Something like over $40,000 or so in a year. That's not bad.

  It is an essential service. I don't think they should hold a strike. It isn't right. Watch for next week when the stinking garbage will add up as the heat wave roll around. YUCK.    

[kitten]

It is so nice that everyone expects nice big raises with each new contract.  I only wish that people on a fixed income, such as seniors, wouldn't be stuck with escalating costs for things they need.  Food, shelter and medicine keeps going up, but income doesn't.  They keep trying to cut back on purchases like food and medicine just to survive.  It just doesn't seem fair, somehow.

[Russ]

They are overpaid whiners.

  I read in the papers about a few of them comparing their salaries to other private companies, saying they used to make more than the private but now they make like 3-4 dollars less, and how they havent received pay rises to match. Two main problems with that comparisson.. Do the private sector people get the same benefits, union safety net, and RRSP matching with medical coverage for the whole family; also do they have to meet tight deadlines and goals with productivity requirements?

  I disagree with you on your point PC cause I think its good that they are getting a contract to end after the 2010 olympics, as well as other sectors like health workers, bc ferries workers, and bus workers. I think they know their days are numbered, and everyone should be prepared for long walkouts after 2010, the unions are going to be broken in a major way. Which should have been done years ago so they dont have a chokehold over the government like what they enjoy now.

  Unions were and are still required to a certain degree, but they have gone too far when you compare them to the current private sector.

[P.C.]

I disagree with you on your point PC cause I think its good that they are getting a contract to end after the 2010 olympics, as well as other sectors like health workers, bc ferries workers, and bus workers. I think they know their days are numbered, and everyone should be prepared for long walkouts after 2010, the unions are going to be broken in a major way. Which should have been done years ago so they dont have a chokehold over the government like what they enjoy now.

  I'm not sure we're disagreeing.  They DO have a chokehold over the government.....unless the government chooses to point out that the unions should NOT be more powerful than the government.  According to the news this morning, they stated that they (the government) would in fact not allow a strike during the Olympics, indicating that they will use the strongarm when it suits them.  I think what I'm trying to say is, that it's somewhat puzzling that it's acceptable to strike if it 'only' affects the taxpaying citizens of the city.

  *I will say though, that we're not on the same side of the picket line concerning unions. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="vny!://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/froehlich/c020.gif" border=0]  

[Devil]

I am not sure about Vancouver, but in Calgary, they make a lot more than $40,000 a year. I am sure it is close to $30.00/hr.

[Schadenfreude]

I have no sympathy for anyone who strikes whether they are a hockey player or a garbage collector.

Ask anyone who works for the city, you would have a difficult time finding one who does not like the working conditions.

[Hobbit]

Now the [A href="vny!://www.virtualvancouver.com/news/news-36.html"]vancouver news[/A] is that the inside workers ( eg librarians, daycare camp workers, etc. ) are also on strike. The avg for these CUPE employees is over $45,000 per year.  I hope that they negotiate a contract that takes it past 2010 so there won't be an issue with the Olympics... but I doubt the union would agree. When it's close to 2010 it'd be best for the union to threaten strikes and get the best contract settlement.

[Sportsdude]

as someone who has one of those 'undesirable' jobs and who can't form a union or will get fired so is technically out on his own when it comes to everything life related. More power to them. My company doesn't give a shit about me nor anybody else in their work force (a girl my age with two kids and one on the way was shot to death while delivering papers, does she get any help? nope. Although she was featured in an 'ad' in USA today. They only notice us when one of us gets killed, then they use us to sell more papers of course, how thoughtful of them.).
 
 People die doing this job and we don't have any saftety nets (first night doing this job 3 years ago I was delivering to an apartment complex ran into a drunk, then last month I almost got hit by a drunk).
 
 They just hand us a cheque every two weeks and that's it. Nothing. Somebody tried to start a union out in California and they not only fired the person who tried to start one but they also fired the entire staff at that location. Hundred's of people fired because they wanted a safety net, just something. But nope its never going to happen.

*joins the picketers*

I've never understood the anti union folks, the unions put pressure not only on the corporation's work force they represent but for all workers everywhere. If it was up to the corporations you'd have no rights, no benefits and you'd be treated like shit. It's a fact if you don't like it or not, the benefits you have as a worker came as a result of union pressure somewhere, sometime and at some place.
 
 Without the advancement of unions we'd still be stuck in a fuedalistic society where the few have all the money and the rest are poor. Because of unions we have a middle class society. How do you think all those people after the war got jobs and were able to get houses and move up to the middle class? Unions. And what's happening now? The middle class is disappearing and what's happening to the unions? They're dying off. We are going backwards.

Middle Class is shrinking and its going to disappear only because the unions have been broken by the elite. The middle class in society is a direct result of unions. Without unionized labour this continent would not be as prosperous as it is. More people rising up from the lower and poor class into the middle class meant more consumption of goods and prosperity and the baby boom generation happened. The baby boom generation did not happen just because our side won some war. lol.

The problem is nobody ever works with the unions they want to rail against it like its some evil force in society. Unions are there as a representative voice of the people at the bargining and corporate tables. As I said earlier if it were up to the companies they would throw the workers to the curb. Look at China and its 5 dollar 'ish an hour work force. Capitalist folks on Wall Street always talk about "that cheap labour in China! Oh so powerful. Big money makers."  Yeah while the leaders of the factory are making millions and eventually billions in time. The workers are barely paid barely surviving.

To me that's where the right of centre folks go wrong when they talk about capitalism. Its not 'open markets' that create wealth. Yes it will create wealth but only for a few. Real wealth happens when there are unions at the tables demanding that the workers get a share of the profits and money the ceo's and leaders are rolling in. There by creating a middle class that wants to spend, which in turn creates real wealth and prosperity.

 When this doesn't happen the right of centre free trade capitalist then don't get it when the poor go to people like Chavez, Lenin and Mao. Because the poor were promised to get a share of the money. While mostly these types of leaders or 'revolutionairies' decieve the people the problem started when the poor started to out number the rich. And then the rich never shared the wealth. People got frustrated and turned to somebody who could save them even if it was twisted and not equal like they hoped.
 
 unions create middle classes which then help run capitalist systems. Because its not the trading of goods that creates real wealth, its the unions. Always has been always will be.

[ripper]

I for one am so sick and tired of these government employees. Every single one of these useless parasites should be fired and their jobs contracted out. To allow a monopoly is to allow abuse.  

[Devil]

Sportsdude wrote:

I've never understood the anti union folks, the unions put pressure not only on the corporation's work force they represent but for all workers everywhere. If it was up to the corporations you'd have no rights, no benefits and you'd be treated like shit. It's a fact if you don't like it or not, the benefits you have as a worker came as a result of union pressure somewhere, sometime and at some place.   I am not sure what it is like in your neck of the woods for unions vs. non-union positions. From my experience, I have been in union and non-union jobs. The non-union workplaces I have been at win every time. Where I am at now, a non-union place, the employees benefit tenfold!!

  Yes, I am sure unions had there place in the history books, but they have gone too far. I have seen sh*t that happened in the unions that would make you puke. The laziest workers I have ever met. Everybody is whining about "what is coming to them"...people doing the bare minimum just to get by.

  Being in a non-union environment, the decent workers get rewarded far beyond any benefit of a union. Comparing wages we pay, we will go above the union rates to keep good employees, and provide better benefits. Good employees are gold. Lazy asses need to wake up! The lazy ass workers, get booted to the curb! The decent workers don't have to put up with red tape preventing some asshat from getting canned due to his union dues being paid on time and being well represented.

  Please spare me that unions create "middle class".   That is BULLSH*T!!!

  Anyways, I am speaking from my experiences in Western Canada, I have no idea what Missourri is like?

  I hope Vancouver people take their garbage to the union leaders house, and dump it on his front lawn!

[Lise]

Can't the government make them go back to work or something? Like draw up a draft or bill? Garbage collecting and other civic duties are essential service, no?

  The weirdest thing is hearing Mayor Sam Sullivan say that the strike is not his biggest priority right now. I mean, c'mon. Tell that to to the people with mountains of garbage on their curbs

[Russ]

garbage collection isnt an essential service.. but meter reading and parking enforcement is ($$$$)

[Sportsdude]

they did devil. The same manufacturing job before the war and before the depression that my immigrant grandfather had would not have gotten 3 kids through university, a retirement home in florida, and many trips back to Europe. Sprawl and growth in the 50's and 60's is directly correledated with the rise of manufacturing and union jobs.

Yes now some corporations are doing what unions used to do. "corporate welfare" those are the good companies. The bad ones still treat their employees like crap. For example my chiropractor pays everyone on her staff minimum wage. She makes easily 100-150,000k per year but every other trained chiropractor in her office makes 15k (minimum wage) and they work just as hard and longer in some cases then she does.