The City of Toronto strike continues to drag on. There are reports that both side are prepared for a 6 week strike. As always the losers are the citizens who are unable to access community services. CUPE and City Council seem to be clueless at the anger felt by residents about the strike.
On Wednesday, CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan wrote about the strike in the Toronto Star. He talked about the historical importance of unions and their goal to provide every worker with a 'liveable' wage. He does not feel it is fair to publish workers for an economy collapse caused by risks taken by the rich in attempts to further line their pockets. Rank and file union members have claimed they can relate to the economic suffering of others because they had to live with Rae days or 8 years without a raise under Mel Lastman.
Union demands have hurt the economy, especially in the auto sector. There is a reasons aside from nationality why companies like Honda and Toyota were not jumping in line for government handouts. Unreasonable labour rates, plus union red tape can cut into the pofitability of a company. If a company can't make money then they are not going to have any employees. The fact that the union doesn't flinch at complaining about reduced sick benefits to people who have lost their jobs or live in fear of losing their jobs during the economic colapse.
City council is doing their fair share of not connecting to tax payers. Call from an emergency council meeting to slash roll back this year's raise. An oppurtunity to take action didn't make it to the floor for consideration, when the decision was made to freeze union salaries. Excuses from councillors range from their portion gets donated, to the meeting would cost too much, to it is a 'cost of living' increase and not a raise. Mayor Miller's excuse is that the city stopped the practise of tying their salaries to contracts the city negotiates, recognizing it was a conflict of interest.
Over the years City Council has called on taxpayers to tighten their builts. Tax increases and new taxes have been standard to help with city finances. City Council has still not managed to roll back a single perk to show that they are prepared to stand with residents and tighten their built. The overall savings to the city budget would be minimal. An act of do as I do, instead of do as I say would go a long way to gaining respect from residents.
The Gay Pride Parade was too important to allow the strike to allow it to be cancelled. The same effort and care was not placed on Canada Day celebrations. City Council and it's unionized employees are out of sink with the needs of the community. They are willing to allow everyone else to suffer in order to stick to their ideoligical guns. In Toronto voters are consistent in re re-electing the same politicians over and over again. If they continue to be treated like garbage and taken for granted, there is a slim chance that will not be true for the next election.That seems like a risk all the important players are willing to take.
Showing posts with label CUPE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CUPE. Show all posts
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Sid Ryan, Where are You?
On Saturday a Grad rocket from Gaza landed in a school in Ashkelon. It completely penetrated the fortifications that had been added to the school. They were designed to protect students from Kassam rocket attacks. Any other day of the week, there would have been a tremendous amount of casualties. Since the ceasefire there have been 100 rockets that have landed in Israel. On Sunday all of the schools in Ashkelon were open with the exception of the one that was bombed. The government choose to ignore fears that the schools may no longer be a safe place from missile attacks.
Sid Ryan has decided to make bringing peace to Israel his pet project. He is a big supporter of the Right to Education Project, aimed to help Palestinian children. What about Israeli children? Where is Sid Ryan to condemn this attack? Where is the outrage that an entire school is no longer usable? Where is the concern that once again all schools in the area may be forced to be closed because they are not safe from Palestinian rocket attacks?
CUPE Ontario still has on their website the alleged incident of Israel bombing a school housing refugees. The United Nations have publicly updated their information on the attack because it didn't happen. Why hasn't CUPE Ontario? When Israel bombed the University in Gaza it was being used as a launch site for attacks against innocent civilians. IDF soldiers discovered schools booby trapped which could have killed IDF soldiers or innocent children. How can the attack on this school be justified?
Why hasn't Sid Ryan rallied his 200,000 strong membership to condemn this attack. We hear the silence loud and clear. The silence says more then any half hearted boycott ever will.
Sid Ryan has decided to make bringing peace to Israel his pet project. He is a big supporter of the Right to Education Project, aimed to help Palestinian children. What about Israeli children? Where is Sid Ryan to condemn this attack? Where is the outrage that an entire school is no longer usable? Where is the concern that once again all schools in the area may be forced to be closed because they are not safe from Palestinian rocket attacks?
CUPE Ontario still has on their website the alleged incident of Israel bombing a school housing refugees. The United Nations have publicly updated their information on the attack because it didn't happen. Why hasn't CUPE Ontario? When Israel bombed the University in Gaza it was being used as a launch site for attacks against innocent civilians. IDF soldiers discovered schools booby trapped which could have killed IDF soldiers or innocent children. How can the attack on this school be justified?
Why hasn't Sid Ryan rallied his 200,000 strong membership to condemn this attack. We hear the silence loud and clear. The silence says more then any half hearted boycott ever will.
Monday, February 23, 2009
CUPE Ontario endorses Israel Academic Boycott
Yesterday, CUPE Ontario approved Resolution 50, a plan to carry out an academic boycott against Israel and further along their divestment program. The resolution now needs to be endorsed by the 200,000 membership at the annual convention in April. CUPE Local 3903 at York University who were just ordered back to work after a lengthy strike are fully commited to backing Israel Apartheid Week, next week on York's campus. The motivation behind this boycott can only be based on pure feel good emotions rather than an honest attempt to holding by true values and convictions.
This new boycott was propsed during Operation Cast Lead when IDF forces attempted to stop the daily barrage of rockets on Isaeli civilians. During the 3 week war Hamas used schools, hospitals and civilian homes for launching attacks. The initial inspiration of this round of the boycott is when Israel bombed the Gaza University. CUPE choose to leave this fact for the very bottom of their webpage explaining the reason for the boycott.
In their explanation of the boycott section they site the case of "On January 7th, Israeli forces killed over 40 Palestinian civilians who had taken shelter in a United Nations school. " One would expect a boycott lead by the highest level of acadamia would be able to have their facts correct. The incident they are refering to took place on January 6th. The United Nations has already issued a correction that Israel never bombed the school. An Israeli shell landed outside of the school. All of the victims were outside of the school. Even the casualty count from this incident is in dispute. When the dust settles it will probably be revieled that the casualty count is at least 25% less then reported. Of course this will be burried into some report that goes unnoticed by most of the world.
CUPE is claiming that their actions are as champions of human rights. Of all of the incidents in the world why have they choosen this one to be their champion cause? Gilad Shalit has been held hostage by Hamas for over 3 years. He has been denied all of his Human Rights of allowing visitation by the Red Cross and letting his family know if he is alive. CUPE has been silent. Hamas has commited numerous war crimes. They fired thousands of missles into civilian populations, striking schools and kindergartens. CUPE has been silent. Hamas has fought out of uniform and even in stolen IDF uniforms. CUPE has been silent. This is just to name a few, not to mention when Hamas violently removed Fatah from Gaza and tied Fatah supporters to chairs and threw them off of buildings. CUPE has been silent. They have used the fog of war to shoot the legs of Fatah supporters out of fear Fatah would retake control of Gaza after Operation Cast Lead.
There are other conflicts in the world. Darfur, Ethopia, Sri Lanka and more. CUPE Ontario is silent. Ontario has been condemned by the United Nations for providing full funding to schools belonging to one religion and providing nothing to others. When John Tory and his Conservative Party came up with a solution to this inequality, CUPE Ontario was front and centre in condemning the proposal. Tory was the only political leader banned from speaking to the various union groups at their conventions. One can only reach the conclusion that this boycott was not chosen simply out of moral conviction.
The York student government (YFS) was recently overthrown by the students for supporting CUPE 3903 in their strike. The outgoing YFS members blamed the Jewish student population for their dismial. They refused to acknowledge they were turfed for betraying the interests of the students they were supposed to represent. Now CUPE is openly supporting an anti-Israel week on the campus with the largest Jewish population. Instead of fostering an enviornment of acceptance and learning, Jewish students have to deal with a week of intimidation and fear. It would not be surprising if this year someone got hurt.
If CUPE Ontario really wants to divest from Israel they should enable their members to fully boycott all companies that do business in Israel. Coca Cola, Pepsi, RC Cola, Sports Illustrated, Kellogs, Nestle, IBM, Intel, McDonalds, Burger King for starters. They should boycott the Vancouver Olympics for not banning Israeli atheletes. The Canadian Armed Forces just began using Israeli drone planes to help keep soldiers in Afghanistan safe. This should draw immediate protest. Blocking University assistance for Israeli military technology is directly targeted under the ban.
CUPE Ontario sites hundreds groups that they would normally have nothing to do with who support the boycott. Some the boycott Israel websites bring attention to the successes of their boycotts. They site examples of businesses withdrawing from doing business in the Arab world under pressure of the boycott, causing losses of millions of dollars. The same businesses have not closed up shop in Israel. They also claimed a victory in blocking as shipment of Valentines Day flowers at Heathrow Airport. Early that week the Israeli government gave permission to ship flowers from Gaza to the European market. They were probably stopping of shipment of flowers from Gaza and hurting the Palestinians they claim they are trying to help.
Resolution 50 is as hypocritical and backwards as the strikes that have now become a routine part of life at York University. Hopefully the general membership will choose to closely examine both sides of the conflict and vote down this rediculous resolution.
This new boycott was propsed during Operation Cast Lead when IDF forces attempted to stop the daily barrage of rockets on Isaeli civilians. During the 3 week war Hamas used schools, hospitals and civilian homes for launching attacks. The initial inspiration of this round of the boycott is when Israel bombed the Gaza University. CUPE choose to leave this fact for the very bottom of their webpage explaining the reason for the boycott.
In their explanation of the boycott section they site the case of "On January 7th, Israeli forces killed over 40 Palestinian civilians who had taken shelter in a United Nations school. " One would expect a boycott lead by the highest level of acadamia would be able to have their facts correct. The incident they are refering to took place on January 6th. The United Nations has already issued a correction that Israel never bombed the school. An Israeli shell landed outside of the school. All of the victims were outside of the school. Even the casualty count from this incident is in dispute. When the dust settles it will probably be revieled that the casualty count is at least 25% less then reported. Of course this will be burried into some report that goes unnoticed by most of the world.
CUPE is claiming that their actions are as champions of human rights. Of all of the incidents in the world why have they choosen this one to be their champion cause? Gilad Shalit has been held hostage by Hamas for over 3 years. He has been denied all of his Human Rights of allowing visitation by the Red Cross and letting his family know if he is alive. CUPE has been silent. Hamas has commited numerous war crimes. They fired thousands of missles into civilian populations, striking schools and kindergartens. CUPE has been silent. Hamas has fought out of uniform and even in stolen IDF uniforms. CUPE has been silent. This is just to name a few, not to mention when Hamas violently removed Fatah from Gaza and tied Fatah supporters to chairs and threw them off of buildings. CUPE has been silent. They have used the fog of war to shoot the legs of Fatah supporters out of fear Fatah would retake control of Gaza after Operation Cast Lead.
There are other conflicts in the world. Darfur, Ethopia, Sri Lanka and more. CUPE Ontario is silent. Ontario has been condemned by the United Nations for providing full funding to schools belonging to one religion and providing nothing to others. When John Tory and his Conservative Party came up with a solution to this inequality, CUPE Ontario was front and centre in condemning the proposal. Tory was the only political leader banned from speaking to the various union groups at their conventions. One can only reach the conclusion that this boycott was not chosen simply out of moral conviction.
The York student government (YFS) was recently overthrown by the students for supporting CUPE 3903 in their strike. The outgoing YFS members blamed the Jewish student population for their dismial. They refused to acknowledge they were turfed for betraying the interests of the students they were supposed to represent. Now CUPE is openly supporting an anti-Israel week on the campus with the largest Jewish population. Instead of fostering an enviornment of acceptance and learning, Jewish students have to deal with a week of intimidation and fear. It would not be surprising if this year someone got hurt.
If CUPE Ontario really wants to divest from Israel they should enable their members to fully boycott all companies that do business in Israel. Coca Cola, Pepsi, RC Cola, Sports Illustrated, Kellogs, Nestle, IBM, Intel, McDonalds, Burger King for starters. They should boycott the Vancouver Olympics for not banning Israeli atheletes. The Canadian Armed Forces just began using Israeli drone planes to help keep soldiers in Afghanistan safe. This should draw immediate protest. Blocking University assistance for Israeli military technology is directly targeted under the ban.
CUPE Ontario sites hundreds groups that they would normally have nothing to do with who support the boycott. Some the boycott Israel websites bring attention to the successes of their boycotts. They site examples of businesses withdrawing from doing business in the Arab world under pressure of the boycott, causing losses of millions of dollars. The same businesses have not closed up shop in Israel. They also claimed a victory in blocking as shipment of Valentines Day flowers at Heathrow Airport. Early that week the Israeli government gave permission to ship flowers from Gaza to the European market. They were probably stopping of shipment of flowers from Gaza and hurting the Palestinians they claim they are trying to help.
Resolution 50 is as hypocritical and backwards as the strikes that have now become a routine part of life at York University. Hopefully the general membership will choose to closely examine both sides of the conflict and vote down this rediculous resolution.
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