The Solution Is Maddening And Will Fall On Deaf Ears...

Toronto democracy is not as sick as you think

Marcus Gee

Instead of moaning about the state of city politics, voters could do something better: pay attention

Read on...

It Depends If You Are A Contributor Or A Public Service Employee

• What do you think about sick leave and the Toronto city workers' strike? posted byRefuge

Land Of Milk & Honey

Matt Gurney: Toronto's unbending unions stand by their privileges

Posted: June 20, 2009, 2:19 PM by NP Editor
Filed under: Matt Gurney

Looking for a land that the recession forgot? Look no more. Toronto's public sector is the place for you.

All over North America, jobs are being slashed as companies fail or teeter on the brink. For those lucky enough to keep their jobs, many are facing pay cuts or mandatory unpaid days off. For the unemployed, finding a new job is near impossible, and most of the available jobs are part-time or contract-only.

And then there are Toronto's unionized workers, who are preparing to go on strike as early as this Monday, if the city continues to push for changes to their sick day allotment. Under the current system, employees have a whopping eighteen sick days per year. Days that aren't used up can be used to retire early or can be cashed in at the end of their careers. Toronto wants to rationalize this system, so that a certain number of days are set aside each year for actual illnesses. This has already been done in most of Toronto's neighbouring major municipalities, such as York Region and union-dominated Hamilton. Toronto's unionized workers, however, are having none of that, and both the indoor and outdoor workers can walk off the job at midnight Sunday.

It's hard to fathom the gall of the union leadership. With Canadians everywhere at risk of losing their far-less lucrative jobs, which usually come with less pay and fewer benefits, Toronto's unions are demonstrating just how out of touch with the mainstream they have been allowed to become. Nothing seems capable of penetrating their all-consuming sense of entitlement. Not falling home values, not battered equities, not even the painful concessions forced out of the once-almighty CAW. Times have changed, but the union members are doing their best to pretend otherwise, even as major municipal governments in the United States take an axe to their own unionized payrolls.

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It Is NOT A Sick Bank.....The "Workers" Don't Deposit A Dime

The argument to keep it: Union officials argue that the sick-bank system rewards good attendance and, therefore, serves the public by limiting absenteeism.
I thought the pay cheque rewarded good attendance?

City sick-day controversy

Patrick Corrigan

Jun 19, 2009 (31)

As Toronto and its unionized workers enter the final days of bargaining before a Monday strike deadline, one flashpoint has emerged: the city's attempt to roll back the costly sick bank system.

It Is Obvious Who Some Councilors And The Mayor Represent

Pressure on as strike looms By SUE-ANN LEVY When asked about his close ties to the CUPE civic unions -- and how such ties would impact on business at City Hall -- would-be mayor David Miller told a Toronto Sun editorial board in 2003 that as mayor he wouldn't shut down his office during a strike.(For during the entire 16-day strike by the city's 25,000 CUPE workers in 2002, Miller's City Hall office was dark as the would-be mayor refused to cross the picket line. So were the offices of Pam McConnell, Kyle Rae, Maria Augimeri, Sandra Bussin, Joe Mihevc and John Filion)

Spelling Change: Councilor Will Now Be Spelt COMMISSAR

Mum's the word at City Hall

By SUE-ANN LEVY

I'd better mention this quickly -- since in a few weeks my words could get me sued -- but it seems this column is now coming to you from Communist City Hall.

Matt Gurney: Torontostan council wants to use tax dollars to sue tax payers. Or each other.

Posted: June 03, 2009, 4:00 PM by NP Editor

If Toronto City Hall were a country, it’s main import would be tax dollars, and the main export, insanity. These are the people who think that ripping up roads and expressways will make the city a better place to commute in, and that drug-fueled violence is best fought by eliminating shooting clubs and starter pistols. The bar for these guys is already set pretty low.

Get set to see it lowered further. The city’s executive committee has approved a motion allowing for any Toronto City councillor to use public funds to sue for libel. Note the phrasing: The motion doesn’t provide the right to use tax dollars to defend themselves from nuisance lawsuits while conducting city business -- they can already do that -- but instead allows them to launch lawsuits against anyone they feel libeled them. In other words, individual council members could use taxpayer dollars to sue the taxpayers. Neat deal. Must go really well with the raise they just received in the midst of a recession.

Even more absurdly, it would let them sue each other, again on the taxpayer’s dime. Things got a little heated in debate today? Sue. Someone tells Mayor David Miller his Tweets are boring? Sue. Rob Ford opens his mouth on any topic whatsoever? SUE!

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Both After The Same Buck

How Unions and Bureaucrats Cost us Millions...
and kill people:Witnesses were outraged after staff at Saskatoon City Hospital insisted upon phoning an ambulance for an unresponsive patient discovered outside the hospital's emergency room doors.Ken Olson, a Saskatoon contractor, was on his way to a meeting Monday morning when he noticed a man in a hospital gown lying on his back "less than 10 feet" from the entrance to the ER."I parked Celestial Junk