Recall Legislation Makes A Lot Of Sense

Someone will have to pay for a two-tier job system

Injunction junction strikeout

City drops the ball by not fighting back against the unions blocking of garbage dumpsites

By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN

At yesterday's strike briefing -- His Grayness nowhere to be seen -- I asked city officials how close they were to getting injunctions that would prevent the CUPE strikers from delaying innocent residents unduly at transfer stations and temporary dumpsites.

After all, with a new protocol in place, the union muscle now feel it's their right to stop every car that comes to toss trash for 15 minutes and enforce a three bag limit.

As I observed at the Ingram Transfer station earlier this week, fuming residents are being forced to wait for three hours or more to drop off their garbage. This while CUPE 416 workers parked their duffs on chairs under a tent, yakking with each other and two mob, er, union bosses, presided over the site's entranceway as if it were their personal fiefdom.

A reasonable person would think on Day 25 of the strike it's time to show the 30,000 members of CUPE locals 79 and 416 they cannot hold innocent Torontonians hostage.

But Socialist Silly Hall -- where our feckless Mayor David Miller and his inner circle have both feet in the union camp -- is hardly a bastion of reason or common sense.

The answer I got from city officials was disgracefully wishy-washy.

City manager Joe Pennachetti said they are currently "gathering information" on any (dump) sites where they believe there are issues.

"We will proceed with injunctions with the evidence and it is possible something could occur in the future," he said.

When I pressed Pennachetti on how much evidence he needs -- since I believe they have plenty already -- he said it was "more complex" than the average person thinks.

"We're using all the legal means we have available to us," he said.

MAYOR UNAVAILABLE

Hizzoner -- who I'm told considers himself the "uber-lawyer" -- was not available to question yesterday.

But on Monday, Miller said a picket line is permitted to stop people for a few minutes to tell them their side of the story but not allowed to "block people."

At the Ingram transfer station, the pickets could have cared less about the lineup of residents waiting to dump their trash. Giving the residents information would have required them to get off their backsides -- clearly too much of a stretch on a sunny day.

I also couldn't help but laugh at the pride with which Geoff Rathbone announced the current tally of fines (328) and warnings (more than 6,800) handed out to residents who've dumped their bags illegally at the temporary dumps and transfer stations.

Well duh, if you keep making it painfully difficult for law-abiding citizens to drop off their bags in an efficient manner (meaning without the mob bosses imposing their muscle), what do you expect? People only have so much patience.

My point is, Pennachetti really should have said the injunctions are still pending not because it is a "complex" matter but because the mayor and his minions suffer from a "complex." I call it Unionitis -- an excessive fear of crossing the very unions who voted them into office.

I would remind His Grayness not many people are feeling too kindly towards him at the moment -- least of all his CUPE union buddies, some of whom were telling me yesterday they will not be supporting him in the next election, that he's a "goner."

Any mileage Miller might have made with taxpaying residents by publicly releasing the city's offer to CUPE late last week will quickly be forgotten if he doesn't take control of the chaos at the city's dumps.

They're a PR disaster in the making. Will he wait until some elderly gent has a heart attack while standing in the sun for hours with his three bags? Or until someone snaps and there's a violent incident?

STAND UP

Perhaps, just perhaps, if the mayor were to stand up to his buddies and take away their power to inconvenience the public in this manner, he might find that they'll be more willing to reach a deal.

Coun. David Shiner, who along with other members of the Responsible Government Group has been pushing every day for such injunctions, feels what's going on is "shameful.

"It allows the strikers to run the city," he said. "Residents have a right to drop off their garbage without being harassed."

SUE-ANN.LEVY@SUNMEDIA.CA