Hurray, the Strike is Over!

After six weeks of torture and smelliness, the Toronto City Workers strike was finally over on Friday. I'm glad that the strike is over. Garbage will finally be collected, and hopefully our streets won't look so ransacked and wreak of garbage. I do have to say, however, that I'm a bit disappointed with Mayor Miller's resolution of this whole thing.It seems to me that the unions came out victorious in the end. A 6% increase over 3 years rather than a 4% increase over 3 years that the city had proposed. And then there's the sick bank thing. I would've rather that he had stuck to his guns and done away with this ridiculous sick bank thing altogether, rather than make it available to current employees and axe it completely for new employees. Honestly, this sick bank thing is just ridiculous to begin with, and I have no idea why such a policy had been in place to begin with.

While both unions had voted for the new agreement, city workers could have potentially gone back to the picket lines if city council didn't ratify the agreement. It was a close call on that part (21-17!). Part of me wishes that they hadn't ratified the agreement to show the unions to stop dicking around and being unreasonable. As I've said before, white collar workers don't get such lovely, outrageous perks when it comes to sick days. My old workplace chased you down for doctor's letters after 3 consecutive days of being ill, only entitled you to 5 sick days per year, and frowned upon employees for being sick on Mondays and Fridays. This is obviously an extreme example of corporate pickle-up-the-ass for sick days, but most places out there aren't THAT much better. Anyway, as I said, part of me does wish that the city had sent out a message to the unions. At the same time, this crap has gone on long enough, so good riddance.

As for Mayor Miller, you are all talk and no show. I hope that come next civic election, a better (union-hating) candidate presents him/herself so that we can vote him out of office once and for all.