In sitting back and evaluating the recent goings on, I have come up with a few thoughts. What is union and what does it mean to us? Well, unions fight for us all to have fair and proper treatment in the workplace and the ability to do something about it should it not occur. Unions fight for fair benefit packages so we can take care of our families. Unions fight for fair working hours for all. Unions fight for fair pay so we can have our families live an acceptable life style. Does anyone remember what it was like when Dad could go to work and generate enough revenue so that mom could stay home with the kids and be a mom? Do we not all wish that could be the case still? No one wants to have both parents working and the kids being raised by daycare all so you can just scrape by. That is what our unions fight for. We all want a collective agreement that is fair. We all hear how times are tight and there is no budget, all the while the fat cats at the top are driving Bentleys. Large corporations are meeting and exceeding targets and recording record profits. Hey, even the city of Castlegar ran a surplus. They could even afford to put blinky lights on a bridge, paint a rainbow crosswalk and hang up goofy banners. The requests of CUPE do not really seem all that out of whack no? What really bothers me is the fact that the people refusing to grant them these reasonable few items are the people we have entrusted with our tax dollars to perform the will of the general population. I am having great difficulty believing they are doing their duty with the horrific amount of corruption I have seen and heard of coming from city hall. We have a mayor laughing while people ask questions, we have a councillor crossing picket lines then lying to the public and CUPE members about her authority to do so, we have sub contract managers at a rediculous salary while collecting pension and huge overtime rates, and then there is the millennium pond fiasco. Councillors lying to the people about not having the equipment, then renting the equipment and giving it all to a sub contractor. That is straight up taking work away from our municipal employees and being dishonest about it. That leaves me with two burning questions, is that why there are so many grievances and is that why they want to control the grievance time, and what prompted that decision, kickbacks? For those that think I am far stretched in taking that stance, just look further, it doesnt stop at our little town. The province is taking hunting allocations from local residents and giving them to non residents because it generates more revenue. There are cutbacks in education and healthcare while the big wigs take huge bonus cheques. The problems are endless, but what we can do is deal with our small town issues first. Im not suggesting any one has to pick sides here, but it seems obvious to me that CUPE deserves better, and they deserve our support. If you dont support that and you choose the other side, you are not only not part of the solution, but part of the problem. Give our brothers and sisters not only what they are asking for, but what they deserve. Merry Christmas all!
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 21:53:49 +0000