Movable Strike Signs And Other Items

Here are some more items of note

MOVABLE POSTERS

Remember the pictures by the artist that posted that I thought could change the canal debate.

Here is the work by another artist that can be used to change the nature of the strike debate

Who needs expensive and static billboards. Consider the impact if CUPE hired the artist to paint various CUPE slogans on the models to walk around the City. I bet it would have a bigger impact than the busloads of CUPE members from out of town before the Red Bull event!

Note that you do have to "click."

Body Painting

BIRD BRAINS

Considering the position taken by West End activists and politicos about artifacts buried just beneath the surface all around the area where the Ambassador Bridge wants to build their Enhancement Project, especially around the Indian road homes, I am shocked that they did not, using the same logic, demand an end to all grass cutting on City property forthwith:

• "Thigh-high grass at the Ford Test Track may have scared off soccer and baseball and kite enthusiasts, but a growing number of nesting birds, some making rare urban appearances, are flocking in their stead.
  
  “I’ve never seen a colony of bobolinks in Windsor — I was so happy"

I am shocked that they have not condemned those who cut the grass for Art in the Park or for Red Bull. I will bet that those people did not have

• "a permit from the Canadian Wildlife Service,” said Roberts. The Migratory Bird Act, an international treaty, prohibits the harassment, killing or nest removal of bird species named in the act while they are actively nesting, he said.
  
  While the bobolink is neither endangered, threatened nor listed in the Migratory Bird Act, “I doubt the CWS would issue a (mowing) permit,” said Roberts. Pratt said bobolinks and meadowlarks may not be endangered, “but they’re rare in the sense they’re a declining group of species."

BOBOLINK AND GREENLINK

The Greenlink supporters have been mighty quiet.

In fact, Mayor Eddie Francis has been absolutely silent.

Let's be honest, there has been a total collapse in support for Greenlink as a result of the CUPE strike. Now we can see what the hundreds of acres of Greenlink parks would look like if that road was built.

WHAT TAXI STRIKE

Something's up. Remember the stories during previous taxi strikes:

• more than 100 CAW members and striking cabbies clashed with non-striking cabbies who had planned to stage a rally at the union hall.
  
  
• City residents could find themselves near the epicentre of a brawl like the one that broke out last week or they could be forced to wait for police and paramedics tied up by a taxi industry that can no longer police itself.
  
  The potential for trouble isn't confined to the factory gates in this particular strike with its roaming pickets, and problems could potentially flare up at the airport, train station or any neighbourhood where non-striking taxi drivers pick up or drop off fares…
  
  "It's a war," said Renaud last week.
  
  
• Before Thursday's confrontation, there had been nearly 100 calls to police by both the union and the company over incidents of violence: spray-painted cabs, slashed tires, telephone threats, arson, property damage.
  
  The violence is a symptom of the underlying problems in an industry that is heavily regulated by the City of Windsor, yet has been allowed for decades to create its own set of rules.
  
  
• "About 200 striking Veteran Cab drivers, angry that their union president was denied a chance to speak, brought Monday night's city council meeting to a halt and were hustled out of council chambers by police.
  
  The protest escalated outside city hall only minutes later when a group of irate drivers smashed the windows of a non-striking cabbie and tried to overturn his vehicle, Windsor police said.
  
  
• Tension ran high after CAW Local 195 president Mike Renaud rose to his feet as the council meeting was getting underway. He asked to speak to council but was told by Mayor Eddie Francis that council procedure did not allow for a delegation to speak when their issue is not on the agenda."

Not a peep this time around. What gives? How can CAW keep the drivers so quiet and peaceful?

Where is the Mayor who previously threatened both sides to find a solution so the tourist industry would not suffer:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis has given an ultimatum to the two sides in the Veteran Cab dispute -- get back to the table and work out a labour deal or the city will impose a solution that may not be to either side's liking.
  
  "We know that any action we take will not only have short-term but long-term consequences," Francis warned.
  
  He said the strike by Windsor's biggest taxi service, now in its 12th day, has become "an extreme concern to us."
  
  "We're at a position now where we can't take it anymore -- the deadline has come and gone," he said late Saturday.
  
  "Other cab companies are saying they can't keep up," said Francis, adding the upcoming Super Bowl has "nothing whatsoever" to do with the city's desire for a quick end to the strike. He said there are residents, particularly seniors, who have had difficulty getting to medical appointments because of the dispute.
  
  Francis forced the company and the union representing 350 drivers back to the table late last week, but the effort failed after a marathon 13-hour session. The mayor said, however, that he met with union officials Friday and continued to work at helping find a solution."

WINDSOR'S NEXT STRIKE

The firefighters lawyer and CUPE should use this next story to demonstrate that Windsor likes to be unique and that is why PRBs in Windsor should not be treated the same as in other palces.

NOW I KNOW WHY EDDIE WANTS NO ARBITRATION!

• "Baird announces limits on transit drivers' hours behind the wheel
  
  The Ottawa Citizen
  
  The federal government is changing its work-rest rules for transit drivers.
  
  Twenty years ago, the handful of municipalities whose transit systems are regulated by the federal government requested exemptions from rules that cover commercial drivers, like truckers. The rules set a maximum of 14 hours of driving and eight hours of rest per day and require at least one day off every 14 days.
  
  The exemption was given, but as a result, a small number of drivers, including at OC Transpo took advantage of the situation to work very long hours with little rest for weeks at a time.
  
  The issue became a central factor in Ottawa's 53-day transit strike in December and January, which ended when both sides agreed to binding arbitration on all outstanding issues.
  
  At the time, the federal transport minister and Ottawa West-Nepean Conservative MP John Baird promised to review the exemption, which was in affect in Ottawa, Gatineau and Windsor.
  
  After a two-month examination of the issue, Baird decreed the changes Wednesday.
  
  The Ottawa, Gatineau and Windsor transit systems come under federal jurisdiction because they cross provincial or national borders. Provincially regulated drivers in Ontario have similar work-rest rules, including continued exemptions for transit drivers."