[toto]

And the war on bikes and people who use them as a method of transportation, continues. Do Ford and his support-hose really dislike bikeriders enough back such a stupid bylaw?

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

This is needed downtown, people are locking their bikes up to anything that their lock will fit around, and it's a rampant problem. To fix the problem and skip this amendment we easily need double the amount of lockups that are available now, but there's unlikely to be any money for that not to mention the long planning process for such an effort.

 

[W. K. Lis]

This is needed downtown, people are locking their bikes up to anything that their lock will fit around, and it's a rampant problem. To fix the problem and skip this amendment we easily need double the amount of lockups that are available now, but there's unlikely to be any money for that not to mention the long planning process for such an effort.

Maybe the Fords are afraid that if they build it they will come.

more bicycles will come that is.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Villains separated at birth?

Mayor Ford

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Auric Golfinger

[/URL][/img]


Pinko cyclist: Mayor Ford....do you expect me to talk?

Mayor Ford: No Mr. Cyclist, I expect you TO DIE!!!

 

[Filip]

I'm surprised news of a possible CUPE strike to protest the removal of the 'jobs for life' clause isn't getting any scrutiny here.

I don't understand how they're going to get the support of the general public if they're protesting a clause that most people would kill to have. In the real world, when your job is outsourced or redundant, you're shit out of luck. Very few people will support another CUPE strike if it's about protecting jobs for life. This isn't Greece, nor should it ever get to that point.

My entire graduating class is struggling to find employment (Commerce/Finance degrees) and we're supposed to feel pitty for those who are paid well and have job security for the rest of their lives? Just no, this is plain wrong. If Ford takes them head on and portrays them as leeches, he will win himself a second term, mark my words.

 

[freshcutgrass]

we're supposed to feel pitty for those who are paid well and have job security for the rest of their lives?

No, but resenting them for it isn't a noble sentiment either.

 

[Filip]

No, but resenting them for it isn't a noble sentiment either.

I am not resenting them as humans, but resenting their colossal sense of entitlement. It leaves a bad taste in anyone's mouth suffering through this economy when low skilled workers are paid very well, with generous job security yet have the balls to demand more.

 

[freshcutgrass]

It leaves a bad taste in anyone's mouth suffering through this economy when low skilled workers are paid very well, with generous job security yet have the balls to demand more.

Like I said...resentment.

Decent pay, good benefits and job security....yea...things we should definitely be doing away with (with the exception of you of course).

People who begrudge others for what they have, simply because they don't have it or think they don't deserve it, is what leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[DanTheMan]

I am not resenting them as humans, but resenting their colossal sense of entitlement. It leaves a bad taste in anyone's mouth suffering through this economy when low skilled workers are paid very well, with generous job security yet have the balls to demand more.

Keep in mind that this clause is the only thing protecting city workers from mass outsourcing by this administration. And the fact that it's being called "jobs for life" is a bit misleading, as this does not protect workers from being fired from underperformance.

Also keep in mind that these "low-skilled workers" include paramedics (still not an essential service by the way), water filtration employees and various other high skill, high educated positions that don't have the numbers to be in the public spotlight.

As far as I know the union is ok with keeping the status quo, which I don't find ballsy at all considering the mayor just gave the cops an 11% raise over three years. The administration has made some pretty redonkulous demands including eliminating health and safety committees as well as removing the whopping 1 dollar an hour shift premium for working a night shift.

 

[Filip]

Keep in mind that this clause is the only thing protecting city workers from mass outsourcing by this administration. And the fact that it's being called "jobs for life" is a bit misleading, as this does not protect workers from being fired from underperformance.

Also keep in mind that these "low-skilled workers" include paramedics (still not an essential service by the way), water filtration employees and various other high skill, high educated positions that don't have the numbers to be in the public spotlight.

As far as I know the union is ok with keeping the status quo, which I don't find ballsy at all considering the mayor just gave the cops an 11% raise over three years. The administration has made some pretty redonkulous demands including eliminating health and safety committees as well as removing the whopping 1 dollar an hour shift premium for working a night shift.

Nobody gets a 1 dollar shift premium, or a 2 dollar shift premium on weekends in the real world. Also, their benefits are above and beyond anything you'd find in the private sector. Wages and benefits should reflect what the market is paying, not what the seemingly bottomless public funds can bear.

Also, while I don't think the police deserved such a luxurious raise, they are dealing with a much more dangerous and trying job environment than CUPE members. Let's not compare the risks of garbage workers to the dangers of dealing with drug dealers and murderers.

 

[Filip]

Like I said...resentment.

Decent pay, good benefits and job security....yea...things we should definitely be doing away with (with the exception of you of course).

People who begrudge others for what they have, simply because they don't have it or think they don't deserve it, is what leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

As I will be working in the private sector, I don't think I'll ever encounter those benefits, and that job security for a very large number of years. In fact, I'll never encounter that kind of job security. So if my position is outsourced to India, I get another job in the company? Ya, I wish. That's not how the real world works and I hope CUPE members understand this. If they want a war with Ford, they'll get it, and guess what, public opinion will overwhelmingly support Ford; especially after that stunt they pulled in 2009.

 

[DanTheMan]

Nobody gets a 1 dollar shift premium, or a 2 dollar shift premium on weekends in the real world. Also, their benefits are above and beyond anything you'd find in the private sector. Wages and benefits should reflect what the market is paying, not what the seemingly bottomless public funds can bear.

Also, while I don't think the police deserved such a luxurious raise, they are dealing with a much more dangerous and trying job environment than CUPE members. Let's not compare the risks of garbage workers to the dangers of dealing with drug dealers and murderers.

Again, there are more people in this union than just "garbage workers", which by the way still have a labour intensive job that most people wouldn't want and couldn't do.

You said you have a finance degree, so to you i guess the "real world" is an office or cubicle. I am a paramedic and my "real world" is the necessity to work 12+ hr night shifts and the majority of weekends. Multiple studies have shown shift work takes at least 5 years of someone's life expectancy. So i guess an extra buck an hour might be a marginal compensation for that.

As for the comparison to cops, I go into the same situations as them, without a gun, without any way to defend myself. So again, there are more issues at stake here than just a "garbage strike"

 

[Hipster Duck]

If Ford takes them head on and portrays them as leeches, he will win himself a second term, mark my words.

The other thing in Ford's favour is how he handles the Occupy protesters. Recently one of them overdosed in the park and emergency workers had to come in. Occupy Toronto protesters are not quite as irritating as Occupy Vancouver protesters - where someone has already died from a drug overdose, and where firefighters who tried to extinguish a trash can fire (which protesters defended as an "aboriginal spiritual fire") were bitten by protesters - but they are pushing the boundaries of what most moderate people will tolerate. I mean, I consider myself to be left of centre, and even I think that they should, in Ford's words, "move on".

 

[typezed]

I'm not a big fan of union intransigence when it is clear that some compromises and concessions need to be made, but perhaps these provisions exist to protect people who have worked 25-30 years at a job, who have taken on the responsibilities of a family and a house to raise it in, from being dismissed as unskilled and unnecessary by kids who fancy they should be given the keys to the kingdom by virtue of their fresh commerce/finance degrees. It's a strange time we live in, where the emissaries from the "real world" like to go around telling everyone to get a job while simultaneously calling in the name of efficiency for the elimination of all those jobs that once supported a healthy working and middle class.

Anecdotal factoid: I've worked down in the dregs real world private sector jobs of the type you're unlikely to ever encounter, Mr. College Boy Real World, since you're skilled and all that, at derivatives-fiddling or whatever, and I've received up to a buck an hour premium for working midnight shifts.

 

[Justin10000]

No, but resenting them for it isn't a noble sentiment either.

That's just it. So many people spend energy complaining that thers make more than them. Why not try to reach their level? I find people with degrees(Yes, I have one) tend to have the worst sense of self-entitlement. Sorry, not having a degree does not equal a great job right away. Work for it, like union members have.