We Get What We Deserve..........

CUPE Leadership
The majority of city council
Your glorious mayor

.......low voter turnout, virtually no large group protests, acceptance of mediocre performance from political hacks, etc. promotes poor performance. Council should have been reconvened with hours of the end of negotiations and the terms of settlement should have been published.

To hell with the public, again

By SUN MEDIA

Toronto's 36-day civic strike "ended" yesterday as it began, with the public treated like mushrooms -- kept in the dark and covered with manure.

We were such an afterthought that although CUPE Local 416 President Mark Ferguson, Local 79 President Ann Dembinski and Mayor David Miller effectively announced the strike was over, it won't really end until Friday, day 40, just in time for the August long weekend!

That's because the unions won't hold their ratification vote until Wednesday and council won't approve the deal until Friday.

So to hell with the public, again. That started on day one with the unions' bullying tactic of preventing people from quickly dropping off their garbage at transfer stations and dumps.

Workers have a right to briefly stop people to explain the reasons they're on strike and request they respect their picket line.

They have no right, except one our gutless politicians have granted by default, to allow only one person to drop off their garbage every 15 minutes, resulting in hours-long delays.

Intimidation tactic

If there's one image that should be burned into the mind of every taxpayer come next year's municipal election, it was that of city inspectors threatening backed-up motorists with fines if they dumped their garbage illegally, while Miller refused to seek court injunctions to stop this union intimidation tactic.

Dr. Allison McGeer, Ontario's top expert on infectious diseases, warned more people will die this fall because of the H1N1 virus than otherwise would have because the strike gutted the city's public health unit, which should have been preparing for the resurgence of the global flu pandemic.

Meanwhile, at least one death -- denied, by the city -- is alleged to have occurred because of the 25% shutdown of the city's ambulance service during the strike, resulting in longer response times.

When strikes play Russian Roulette with people's lives, the job of the mayor and council is to stand up for us, not take a knife to a gun fight like Miller, or to run away and hide like most councillors.

Remember that the next time they come begging for your vote.