No Strike Leaks To The Media

Oh my, it is so predictable. Including Eddie's Q&A with the Windsor Star's sister publication, the National Post.

Remember what I wrote about the City's response to the CUPE OLRB complaint:

• "I like how narrowly the Response was drafted. Look at the limited number of people for which the City takes responsibility.
  
  Moreover, and here is the important part....everything is tied directly to the media eg source of details obtained by the media. There is no denial that they leaked information to a person who then was the source of the details obtained by the media.
  
  I especially liked "does not admit it....was responsible for leaks to the media." The City could be responsible for leaks to the whole world but not to the media. Accordingly, the City is saying nothing wrong. Accurate but narrow!"

Now check out the Star story today:

• "Leaked bargaining details that scuttled talks in the city strike were shared with at least two people by a city manager on the day the information appeared on the evening news, says a city councillor and the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 616...
  
  Mike Palanacki, the city’s director of operations, was present at the meeting, according to a Star reporter who covered it. Palanacki would neither confirm nor deny Monday that he divulged any details to Markovic and Postma, but he stressed that he did not share any details with the media...
  
  According to Markovic’s version of events, which was backed by Postma, he and a councillor and a city manager were in a boardroom when the manager received, via his PDA, details about negotiations and a notice that a special session of council had been called for 2 p.m. later that day.
  
  Markovic, who is unaffiliated with the striking CUPE locals but friends with their leadership, was asked about the union’s position. Markovic told the pair that he wasn’t privy to that information. He said he then asked the manager for the latest details and was given the goods.
  
  “The manager did give us the numbers,” confirmed Postma. “The fact of the matter is that the manager had the information before the meeting and that’s the problem — who else had it?”

Accurate but narrow.....that's how this City operates.

I wonder what the results of the City's internal investigation are. Were they known before the response was entered by the City? One would think so given that the Transit Union Head was named. I wonder what the terms of reference of the Integrity Commissioner are.

Don't you find it odd that no one has asked Daryl of Eh-Channel who his source was. Maybe he would tell us!

Can you spell again WUC WHITEWASH AUDIT.

In case you do not agree with my BLOG "It Is Time For CUPE To Surrender," here is another article from the Toronto Star that will be used as justification to help crush CUPE Windsor and other public service unions down the road. Check out after what Eddie said too:

• "City better off to let strike run its full, stinking course
  
  July 07, 2009
  Benjamin Dachis
  Policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute
  Robert Hebdon
  Professor in the faculty of management at mcgill university
  
  Nearly everyone in Toronto feels the impact of the municipal strike and wishes it were over. The strike is now 16 days long, the same length at which the 2002 strike was ended by provincial legislation out of concern for public health. The provincial government should be commended for not intervening and should continue to declare that it will not legislate workers back.
  
  If the unions that represent inside and outside municipal workers and the city cannot come to terms within a few weeks, the province will be under political – not to mention health-related – pressure to order an end to the strike. With the stroke of a pen, the province could do so by way of back-to-work legislation.
  
  However satisfying that might seem in the short term, back-to-work legislation would merely postpone confronting the core disputes that need resolving. The benefits of clean streets and open swimming pools are apparent; the long-term consequences of back-to-work legislation are not.
  
  The April 2008 back-to-work order for the TTC after its workers suddenly walked out was the first time any province had ordered an end to a strike since 2005. That's a far cry from the 1980s, when there was an average of more than three back-to-work orders per year across the country.
  
  While governments have refrained from ending strikes, strikes are longer on average than in the past. In the 1980s, the average public sector strike was 37 days. This decade, the average is 56 days. Governments have intervened less partly because there are far fewer strikes now than in the past.
  
  A back-to-work order would mark a third such move in Ontario alone in a little over a year (the strike at York University was ended by provincial order in January). If the province orders back striking municipal workers in Toronto or Windsor, they should understand the long-term consequences of that decision.
  
  Back-to-work legislation either refers disputes to arbitration or imposes terms. Both outcomes often leave both sides unhappy with the terms of the agreement.
  
  Back-to-work legislation merely delays many disputes until the next round of negotiations. We've looked at the effect of hundreds of cases since 1978 of provinces settling disputes with legislation and have found that a contract settled with back-to-work legislation approximately doubles the chances that the next round of negotiations will have the same outcome: a work stoppage with a back-to-work order.
  
  Also, ending a strike often leaves the union to seek its demands through other means, such as work-to-rule, slowdowns or illegal stoppages. Disputes removed from the heat of a strike simply end up in the slow-cooker. Back-to-work legislation has historically cut in half the likelihood that the next contract agreement will be freely negotiated without a dispute.
  
  If the city and the unions know the province will make the hard decisions for them, they have no reason to do so themselves. That will likely lead to longer strikes in the future as the two sides wait for the province to intervene.
  
  A back-to-work order would mean that the province of Ontario is back in the business of ending strikes. Other cities, employers and unions would know that a provincial solution to their bargaining disputes is more likely than before. The ramifications would spread to all negotiations.
  
  The McGuinty government has always sent disputes ended with special legislation to arbitration. This is more likely to produce wage agreements for the union similar to what was given to the TTC and other city unions.
  
  The main issue today in Toronto is not only wages, but that accumulated unused sick days are paid out at the end of a worker's career. This creates an unfunded liability for the city.
  
  A similar liability existed for the Ontario provincial government prior to 1970. Over several rounds of bargaining and arbitration, the sick leave payout (they were more aptly called attendance credits) was replaced with benefits depending on date of hire. The outcome pitted older employees who kept their benefits against newer employees without a payout.
  
  Without a generous buyout, removal of sick leave payouts can be a very volatile issue. Short-term payouts are likely not affordable for the city – making this a difficult time to eliminate attendance credits.
  
  Back-to-work legislation will not change the city's short-term affordability problems in buying out the sick-leave payout; putting off reforms until the next round of bargaining will further increase the unfunded liability for the city.
  
  Back-to-work legislation would just put problems off until the next round of negotiations and leave taxpayers in the position they are now in. The province should, therefore, not legislate an end to the strike – let the city, unions and taxpayers reach terms they can accept."

Here is why Eddie does not want an end by arbitration either:

• "Q – With no talks taking place, have you considered asking the province to step in and enact back-to-work legislation?
  
  A – “We don’t want the province to step in. The reason we don’t want the province to step in is to do so would be to short circuit the collective bargaining process and send the matter to arbitration. Our concern is that historically, traditionally arbitrators have been known to give away the farm and we’re not prepared to have our responsibility be to a third-party decision maker. We believe that it’s important to negotiate the deal… between the parties that actually have to live with the deal and have to pay for the deal.
  
  One, it sets a dangerous precedent for future strikes where people just hold out and hope the legislators will step in and two, it would send the matter to arbitration and we’re not prepared to give away the farm.”

CUPE just does not have a chance.

Ee i ee i NO

Windsor Myths

It is so tedious already. Trying to make an Eddie purse out of a sow's ear. Gord sure tries hard though, and often.

Perhaps Minister of Finance and our local MPP, Dwight Duncan, might be get lucky. What is this now, the third time that our Columnist friend has written that Eddie and Dwight have buried the hatchet over Greenlink only to have Eddie pull the rug out twice from under Dwight and make him look like a fool!

This time the story did not come for a provincial government insider at least so we can assume that it did not come from Dwight's camp.

Why should it? Dwight has crushed the attempt by the Mayor to be Numero UNO in Windsor. Dwight is still the King! That is what the column was all about. A failing Mayor trying to put the best face forward on his defeat.

I was told in no uncertain terms by my Government insiders quite some time ago that Eddie was told by a certain Provincial Government Official that the border road war was over whether he liked it or not. How else to explain the recent Government action re the road without City comment? I was also told that Eddie learned he would be allowed to save face and to share in the glory provided that he backed off.

It is a myth that:

• "it appears Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis have laid to rest their vicious little spat and are busy forging ties...
  
  The relationship between Francis and Duncan, which had been frigid...began to thaw when they worked as a team to bring the Red Bull air races to Windsor...
  
  Spanky and Hizzoner came out of it looking like heroes, and recognizing that both stood to gain by shelving the feud and working together to address the city's rapidly worsening economy."

Dwight won. Eddie lost. Simple.

Complete capitulation was signalled when CKLW reported:

• "Windsor Council will let the DRIC process move forward without a challenge for now. Mayor Eddie Francis says council feels it is the wrong time to launch a judicial review. The Mayor and council want to meet with Cabinet Ministers Sandra Pupatello and Dwight Duncan to discuss things first. Council wants the Greenway Project, DRIC is pushing the Parkway proposal."

Eddie stated:

• "Francis said council's request for mediation on the parkway was to "show the willingness" to reach a compromise.
  
  The battle to win more changes to the parkway plan will continue despite Gerretson's decision, the mayor said.
  
  "The process is still ongoing," Francis said.
  
  "Just because they rejected mediation doesn't mean we are going to give up.
  
  "We will try to reach out to the provincial government and DRIC team to see if we can arrive at a better solution. We have options available to us under the process."

Again, the explanation I heard re the jail is much different than:

• "That might help explain why the City of Windsor...why it capitulated so quickly on another hot-button issue for the province, the location of a new jail."

Other than the fact that the jail was used merely as a bargaining chip re Brighton Beach, again I was told that it would be more fruitful to look at the connection between the Provincial $3.2M sponsorship money to save Eddie's hide for Red Bull and the end of the rhetoric re the jail location.

As for Greenlink, again I have heard that there will be no major changes to the road other than a few tweaks to help Eddie save face. Even Gord writes:

• "Some relatively modest fixes, directed by cabinet, could bring the city on board and transform Duncan and Pupatello into civic champions."

Hold on there Columnist friend. What about death and destruction with the DRIC road?

How can you and Eddie sell out Windsorites that easily! Remeber the cancer, the asthma, the children. All of the reasons why Eddie has threatened the use our weapon of mass litigation destruction, David Estrin. How can Gord forget so quickly:

• "Sadly, given the damning environmental evidence we heard this week, it would be unconscionable for the city to do anything less than fight for the health and safety of its constituents, even if it means seeking a judicial review.”

What mere tweaking could solve that concern?

IT IS UNCONSCIONABLE DAMMIT. WHERE ARE YOUR PRINCIPLES GORD?

Unless we have the complete version of Greenlink, how can the disaster to the health of Windsorites and our environment be brushed away so easily?

If it happens, then is it not absolute proof that the DRIC road/Greenlink war was a fraud designed for some other purpose ie part of the anti-Bridge Company battle that the Governments are waging and that all three levels of Government are in it together. Millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted that could have paid for PRBs for years for new CUPE hires!

I can hardly wait until proposals come in showing that the cost of the road is grossly excessive and that, as an interim step, we will only get a cheap solution. We will then learn that we have been "Delrayed" for years! By then, who will care!

• "But Dwight and Sandra are not fools. They want the biggest highway infrastructure project in Ontario's history to be welcomed here with open arms, not viewed as an act of aggression by everyone except the special interests hoping to turn a buck."

Moreover, they want it as the next election campaign starts, not now. As I told you, dear reader, a long time ago with the Duncan Gong show fiasco and former Transport Minister Cansfield's revelation, nothing could start until after the next provincial election. That was the budgetted period.

Eddie did a good job stalling everything off until then didn't he with Schwartz, full tunnelling, Greenlink and its next generations.

Let's get real. Dwight beat Eddie on Greenlink. Dwight beat Eddie on the jail.

Heck, Dwight beat Eddie on Red Bull too:

• "The popular race will return to the riverfront this summer after the provincial government, led by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, pledged $3.2 million to sponsor the event.
  
  "Without Dwight's involvement this event would not be coming back -- period," said Mayor Eddie Francis, who turned to Duncan when Red Bull made it clear it required millions in sponsor money to return."
  
  "Estimating that the event generated $100 million in economic activity, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan added that he's already planned to meet with Red Bull officials in Toronto in the coming days to discuss that possibility. [lobbying for the city to repeat as the host of a stop on the 2010 international schedule.]"

Dwight again not Eddie calls the shots on the civic strike. He could end it tomorrow if he wanted but he does not. Just reread my previous BLOG re the CUPE strike:

• "Don't expect Ont. to end civic strike, Duncan says
  
  The Ontario legislature will not force striking municipal employees in Windsor or Toronto back to work any time soon, says MPP Dwight Duncan.
  
  "You know, we haven't even discussed that. The legislature is not scheduled to be back for awhile," he said Tuesday.
  
  Duncan, Ontario's minister of finance and revenue, said it's clear that the city doesn't support binding arbitration, which local CUPE leaders Jean Fox and Jim Wood have been urging."

Finally Gord wrote:

• "It could still fall apart. But my gut feeling, and something more, tells me a compromise settlement is in the works."

It is the "something more" that requires another Integrity Commissioner investigation. Who is leaking again? This time around, do not expect Members of Council to be asked to swear an affidavit that they did not do it! This is a good column for the Mayor.

Oh, I almost forgot, this last myth is a doozie. I first heard Eddie talk about it at the CIBPA meeting to really make him look like a winner rather than the loser he became and could not believe it. Now Gord is spreading it around too:

• "It wouldn't take much. In his state-of-the-city speech, Francis all but declared victory, pointing out that council's firm stand has produced a $1.4 billion gain for the city over the original $300-million plan to turn the E.C. Row into a truck route."

Eddie better be careful that he does not rub it in Dwight's face too much.

Remember Dwight's famous saying:

"THE MAYOR IS WRONG. THE MAYOR IS WRONG."

The $300M was for the short-term BIF road. It had nothing to do with the long-term DRIC road. They are two separate and distinct projects. To say otherwise is rewriting history. There is no connection between the 2 sums. To continue to make a link is false.

The only one who can complain is the Bridge Company. Most of the $300M was to be spent on improving the connection to their bridge. Of course, not a penny was spent to do so. One day, we might find out why.

Gee, perhaps Gord is trying to make an Eddie purse for the next election. For which level, only time will tell!

What a myth-take that would be for us.

It Is Time For CUPE To Surrender

I am sure that the CUPE workers who have sacrificed for so long will be upset and disappointed at what I am going to say. But there is a harsh reality which they need to consider. Other readers may be surprised as well.

I always suspected that there was more going on behind the scenes than PRBs in the CUPE strike. But it was more than I ever could have known. Now it is coming out slowly in dribs and drabs and from the most unlikely of places. From outside of Canada.

It was a shocking revelation to me. I did not understand it fully until now, until I read the Times of London article about how big this has become. And Canada is the world's mentor it seems.

Unbelievable, read on and see if you agree or not.

Unionized workers in all unions across Canada owe CUPE Windsor a huge debt of gratitude. Unfortunately, "thanks" do not pay off the mortgage or buy groceries or allow the niceties of life that a regular pay-check brings.

Unless workers across Canada, and perhaps elsewhere as you shall see subsequently, collect money for CUPE Windsor members to give them the equivalent of their salaries as they fight for union members everywhere, then CUPE should take what it can get and the workers should go back to work now!

Why become the martyr for a cause they cannot win on their own? No one will really thank them unless they are prepared to put their money where their mouth is! Does anyone expect that to happen? Don't be silly.

Frankly Sid Ryan was partially right and that is why he has been demonized so much. His viewpoint has to be crushed. He made it easy for himself to be dismissed with his comments earlier for which he was criticized. Ad hominem attacks is a much better tactic to use than reason and logic.

Here is part of what CUPE Windsor is up against. They are fighting City Hall who is using their tax money to beat them into submission:

• "Strike savings mount
  
  But don't expect much of a refund, councillor says
  
  Windsor's labour cost savings for not having to pay 1,800 striking municipal workers since mid-April have reached approximately $24 million.
  
  Mayor Eddie Francis has promised that the city will reimburse ratepayers any net savings from the strike, now in its 12th week. But councillors are cautioning residents not to expect much of a refund. "The city has incurred significant costs --probably much more than what people expect," said Coun. Ken Lewenza Jr. "When people see the level of return, they will be insulted based on the inconvenience they have endured."

That is the $24 million pot so far to buy security guards, hire replacement workers, to run negative ads in the media and overtime expenses. How can any union compete with that? And to add to the bottomless flow of dollars and to add insult to injury:

• "Meanwhile, Windsorites have started receiving their 2009 final property tax bills, which were mailed on Monday."

But so what, that is the reality in any strike where a union goes against a large company. Ahhh, but there is more.

Remember when it was suggested that Windsor was being used by CUPE for the strike in Toronto. I suggested that another possibility was just as plausible. I argued that perhaps AMO was using Windsor to fight the Cities' wars with their local CUPE unions. Who knows what is being discussed at the meetings of the FCM Big City Mayors. Perhaps I was right. Take a look at these articles from the Toronto Star:

• "What's clear is cash-strapped municipalities are gunning to get rid of it [Toronto's strike issue of banked sick days] says Roy Male, past president of Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association, which advises municipalities on collective bargaining.
  
  Some municipalities have placed contract talks on hold and are awaiting the outcome of strikes in Toronto and Windsor, where the city's bid to cut retirement health benefits for new hires has resulted in an 11-week-old garbage strike.
  
  "If they can get away with stripping these concessions in Toronto and Windsor we know we'll be faced with it everywhere else," says Ontario CUPE president Sid Ryan, citing Brampton and Waterloo as places where talks are on hold...
  
  Mayor David Miller puts the future cost to the city to pay for banked sick days at $260 million. But that estimate includes the bill for non-striking firefighters and non-unionized managers. To pay for striking employees of CUPE locals 79 and 416, the liability is $140 million, according to the city's estimate."

That amount is close to Windsor's $290M figure, something that again demonstrates how badly this City has been mismanaged in a City so much smaller than Toronto! Don't forget the massive increase since Eddie has been Mayor. The equivalent of the WUC fiasco.

I did not know about OMHRA before. Their mandate is:

• "In 1963, a few eager HR colleagues met to determine the need for sharing information and the exchange of ideas on a regular basis. This group of nine met at the Walper Hotel in Kitchener and out of that discussion came the beginning of the Ontario Municipal Personnel Association as it was then known.
  
  Today, O.M.H.R.A. represents over 280 members and in excess of 176 organizations including municipalities, local public sector boards, and commissions, and continues to share information and exchange ideas on a regular basis."

How about this from the richest Municipality in the Province. Now you know there is a war on by cities to capitalize on the economic slowdown opportunity:

• "Mississauga seeks wage rollback
  
  City unions have mixed reaction to mayor's request to accept lower salary increase than contract allows
  
  The City of Mississauga has asked unionized employees to roll back a 3 per cent annual wage increase guaranteed in their contracts, city manager Janice Baker says.
  
  "We simply met with the unions and said, `In light of the economic downturn, would you consider deferring some of that economic increase,'" she said yesterday.
  
  Mississauga council has also asked the Ontario government to intervene. Last week, it passed a resolution asking Premier Dalton McGuinty to freeze the wages and benefits of all public sector employees in the province for one year.
  
  Public sector employees should share the burden felt by taxpayers, says the resolution, passed with only one dissenting vote. Municipalities are "prevented from taking many actions due to the long-term contracts with unionized staff signed in better times," it adds."

So now the Province will be asked to freeze all public sector employees, not just municipal workers. Wait until the Editorialists start jumping on that bandwagon to shape public opinion.

No wonder the Province is not eager to legislate workers back to work and it seems will only do so if the CITIES ask for it, not the unions. And why would the Cities do so when Eddie can say:

• "Duncan, Ontario's minister of finance and revenue, said it's clear that the city doesn't support binding arbitration, which local CUPE leaders Jean Fox and Jim Wood have been urging...
  
  I [Eddie] think ... it's probably the right decision given the fact that to do anything otherwise would really short-circuit the collective bargaining process," he said, adding that, if strikers were forced back to work, it would set a bad example for any future strikes. "People would ... hold out until the legislature steps in."

Sure, sure...US Government crushing UAW and Ontario and the Feds forcing the CAW to make huge concessions. Two of the strongest unions being forced to take hits in order to survive or risk bankruptcy of their employers.

Now take on the public sector unions. Canadian Governments generally do not go bankrupt like companies so it is here where the wars will really be fought. The strategy has to be first go after CUPE Windsor and make them the example. Then go after other cities like Toronto or Hazel's City, then fire, police, the teachers, provincial unions and federal. One after another. Crush them until they give up or if that does not work, legislate them.

As for the NDP...They are invisible, worrying instead about this:

• "New Democrats urge pension plan for province
  
  Ontario New Democrats are calling for a new Pension Ontario Plan that would cover all working people in the province...
  
  Miller said the party is studying similar plans in western European countries, in some American states and in Quebec. But he would not go into detail about such things as financing the plan and how it might be administered until those studies, and all possible options, have been considered. He added, however, that the goal is to have as little impact as possible on the tax base."

What an absolute disgrace for the Party who supposedly talks for workers. Pensions are so much easier to talk about than the current crucial bread-and-butter issues.

Pshaw you say...left-wing silliness, another conspiracy theory. Normally I would have agreed with that sentiment until I read this in the Times the other day. I wonder if the NDP are in on it in Canada as Labour must be in the UK:

• "Whitehall lines up ‘doomsday’ cutbacks
  
  Secret “doomsday” plans for 20% cuts in public spending are being prepared by senior civil servants, who fear politicians are failing to confront the scale of the budget black hole.
  
  Whitehall mandarins have begun creating detailed dossiers containing reductions in expenditure that are far deeper than the more modest savings being proposed by Labour and Conservative politicians...
  
  Mandarins, fearing a prolonged recession and a collapse in tax revenue, have begun planning for more severe cuts of up to 20%.
  
  The dossiers will be handed to cabinet ministers the day after the next general election, whichever party wins...
  
  Steve Bundred, chief executive of the Audit Commission, the spending watchdog, said politicans had failed to be honest about cuts and called for “severe pay restraint” for public sector workers."

So even the English have recognized a problem and are going to make public servants a target. So what you say, what's the big deal about the UK. It's not Canada.

Oh no, read on from the Times:

• "Philip Hammond, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said the Conservatives were looking for “serious efficiency savings”, but refused to put a figure on how much would be cut from spending.
  
  A Tory government would be determined to safeguard basic public services, said Hammond: “I hope civil servants are not simply going to sit around the table and come with a series of options which cuts everything at the front line and leaves the mandarins’ back office alone.”
  
  Hammond revealed he had recently met a delegation of politicians from Canada, who were responsible for a radical 20% cut in spending imposed by the federal government in the 1990s.
  
  “The psychological tactics they used to get ministers to work together, looking at it as a shared problem rather than a series of departmental problems, were important,” said Hammond.
  
  The two architects of Canada’s programme review, Jocelyne Bourgon, who was the country’s top civil servant, and Marcel Massé, a former minister, cut 47,000 civil service jobs.
  
  Under the programme review, ministers and officials were required to assess all the activities of the government “to identify those that no longer served a national purpose or could be delivered more efficiently through other means”.
  
  Subsidies were cut, particularly for transport and agriculture, and many of the activities of government departments were scrapped, pared back or transferred to the private sector."

Can you believe it, Canada teaching the British how to reduce public servants and perhaps other countries as well.

Here is how The Honourable Jocelyne Bourgon is described:

• "Ambassador of Canada to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)...She oversaw the Program Review exercise which contributed to eliminating the deficit, realigned the role of the Public Service, and downsized the public service by 47,000 jobs. She is also known for her contribution to the modernization of the service delivery functions."

Service delivery review hmmmmmmmmm. Aren't we in the midst of that in Windsor. Does that mean job cuts and outsourcing is next? And P3ing essential local services like water and electricity. Of course it does. The Enwin agenda item a few weeks ago at Council and the Tunnel deal were foreshadowing the inevitable.

It is going to be an all-out attack on civil servants. They have to be broken too just like the other unions. And we Canadians will be leading the world.

Politicians are really no different than the titans of industry. They screw up big-time and cost us all billions and the workers suffer. Is it right, is it wrong, you decide for yourself. Naturally, there are financial scavengers around to pick up the pieces to make a gross and obscene profit, again at a huge loss to taxpayers.

All I know is that CUPE Windsor fought the good fight even though their leaders, including their Ontario and Canadian ones made blunder after blunder. No one ever expected them to last this long.

Unless their union brothers and sisters world-wide support them with real money, then why do they need the continued losses, financially and emotionally! They cannot ever win.

As the song goes:

• "You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
  Know when to walk away and know when to run."

If Governments can now take over major banks world-wide and car companies even to the extent of the minute detail of honouring warranties, why public unions are a piece of cake. Forget about bargaining in good faith. It's NOT going to happen anywhere. There is another deeper agenda.

It's time to back off and fight another day. I am merely repeating what Senior has said and with which I agree:

• "We had to make the necessary compromises to live to fight another day," he concluded.
  
  As difficult as it was -- Lewenza described it as "torturous" -- he knew when to fold 'em."

Of course, there is a way for CUPE to fight back and win but it will be very ugly. I do not know if CUPE members will be up to it. But if they want to know that, their leaders have my email address.

Cold Summer Weather Thoughts

Just a few things I was thinking about given some of this horrible summer weather through which we suffered. What else was there to do?

RESTAURANT STAR RATINGS

I guess that the change in stars from 1 (needs improvement) to 5 (excellent) at Chanoso’s Restaurant as publicized in the Star can give rise to what was feared before in the mind of the public in an earlier Star story unless the facts are clearly set out explaining the upgrade:

• "Another restaurant owner wanted to know if he can correct an infraction that pushed him out of the five-star rating and get reinspected immediately.
  
  Bennett said inspectors will stick to an inspection schedule unless there is a health complaint about the restaurant.
  
  "If (the public) saw stars flipping, it would hurt the credibility of the program," she said.
  
  A facility can improve its star rating only on its next inspection."

That must be what happened in the case of Chanoso.

• "Donso said he had understood the previous inspection information was from a preliminary or trial-run inspection with star ratings that weren’t to be posted publicly.
  
  He said he had expected any star ratings would be posted only for inspections scheduled after June 1. Donoso said all of the concerns from the earlier inspection had been taken care of, and the restaurant had remained in full compliance with regulations...
  
  Later, the information online was not only removed, the health unit showed up for a regular inspection that afternoon that resulted in a five-star rating now shown at the restaurant's front entrance.
  
  "That would be coincidental," Bennett said later, adding she doesn't monitor when inspections are performed. "I didn't even know about it. I had no idea."
  
  Eric Donoso and Mark Boscariol, who co-own the downtown eatery, both said they did not ask for the inspection.
  
  They added that it usually occurs unannounced about this time of year. Donoso said staff telephoned him to say inspectors had arrived.
  
  "It was a very welcome surprise," Boscariol said."

Just so that readers can have some comfort about Windsor restaurants, it was reported that:

• "During a pilot project held Feb. 2 to March 17, investigators gave 80 per cent of the 565 restaurants inspected a four- or five-star rating."

RENAMING THE WEST END

Aren't you tired just about hearing about Sandwich as if Sandwich was the entire West End.

Yes, there is a need to "personalize" different parts of that area to give it some character just like the names of Walkerville or Via Italia or Ford City or Riverside in other areas. No more Sandwich!

I have it. Why can't Windsor have an exotic locale such as Mexicantown

Thanks to Councillor Postma's BLOG, I would suggest that the area around her house be called "Margaritaville."

• "After I left the [in-camera meeting to discuss labour negotiations where she walked out] I went home, sat in my hot tub and drank two margaritas. It was relaxing."

IS COUNCILLOR POSTMA BEING SET UP

We know the Leakor is never going to be found but is the finger being pointed at Councillor Mom unfairly to take a shot at her for some of the things she has written and said.

Consider the following:

• Francis denied he was responsible for the leak, as did city negotiators and the nine councillors who attended a closed-door meeting of council Thursday afternoon. Councillor Caroline Postma was the lone absentee. Calls made to her were not returned Thursday night.


• "Coun. Caroline Postma wasn't present at the meeting -- she had an important family function -- but told The Star Friday she wasn't the source."


• "Three city councillors refused to cross an emotionally charged picket line outside city hall before Monday's meeting, two councillors braved insults and crossed the line...
  
  Postma, who has supported CUPE in this three-month labour impasse, said she would honour the picket line and urged her colleagues to achieve a "fair" deal with about 1,800 striking inside and outside workers. She said a deal without a tax increase was possible...Postma honoured the line and skipped the meeting."


• From the Councillor's BLOG...why not just phone-----"Last Friday Don McArthur from The Star showed up at my house to ask me since I was not at the in-camera meeting, am I the leak"

The City's OLRB response pointed at the President of the Transit Union as being a possible Leakor:

• "Dragan Markovic, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 616, which represents hourly Transit Windsor employees, was identified as a possible source for the infamous leak in the city’s response to a bad faith bargaining complaint filed by CUPE with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
  
  The city’s response claims — without offering proof — that Markovic “was in possession of the particulars of both offers” before even city councillors were apprised of them and that he had shared the details with others."

Why is this significant:
1) The City in its response said that it was not aware of the source of any leaks of information to the media. Why then did they make the specific statement?

2) Councillor Postma is Chair of Transit Windsor!

TAX REBATES

I hope that it was a misunderstanding in the Toronto Star but here is what was said:

• "What if a city strike actually put more money in your pocket?
  
  That's the scenario in Windsor, where officials say their 11-week municipal strike is saving taxpayers $300,000 a day in wages.
  
  Strike-related costs will lower that figure eventually, but a net savings is expected and officials say some of the money saved will be passed back to residents."

That is clearly wrong because our Mayor said previously:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis said Monday Windsorites will get back any dollars saved by the city during the strike by municipal workers.
  
  “The city does not need the money and we do not need a strike to save money,” Francis said. “Our proposal would be to return those dollars to each household...”
  
  Whenever the strike ends, city administrators will determine the payroll savings, subtract the city’s management overtime and other strike-related costs and give back the rest to homeowners, the mayor said.
  
  “We are not going to use this money to fill a hole in the budget,” Francis said. “There will be an independent and side account. Any net dollars will not go to the 2009 budget or our reserves, but back to ratepayers as a rebate.”

I HOPE EDDIE IS BACK SOON

It looks like nothing has happened on the strike scene since he has been away and nothign is scheduled:

• "The city has repeatedly rejected union calls for outside arbitration to end the protracted strike, and both sides said Thursday that no new talks are planned."

WAS IT A LIBERAL POLL

Remember I mentioned that there was a survey being undertaken last week about a number of matters including the CUPE strike.

This week local MPP and Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan said:

• "The Ontario legislature will not force striking municipal employees in Windsor or Toronto back to work any time soon, says MPP Dwight Duncan.
  
  "You know, we haven't even discussed that. The legislature is not scheduled to be back for awhile," he said Tuesday.
  
  Duncan, Ontario's minister of finance and revenue, said it's clear that the city doesn't support binding arbitration, which local CUPE leaders Jean Fox and Jim Wood have been urging."

DUH, Dwight, who cares what either side thinks if there is a public health or safety risk! If both sides wanted arbitration, we would have had it already.

Why is he shirking his responsibilities as a member of the Senior Level of Government or did the polling tell him something that he can use politically?

Here is an odd comment from our Mayor:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis said he supports Duncan's statement.
  
  "I think ... it's probably the right decision given the fact that to do anything otherwise would really short-circuit the collective bargaining process," he said."

12 weeks is short-circuiting! To do "anything otherwise" means Eddie loses and we know how much Eddie likes to lose.

HAS THE BRIGHTON BEACH DEAL HIT A ROADBLOCK

From the Windsor Star, June 25, 2009:

• "It's now a done deal: Windsor has agreed to sell more than 100 acres of city-owned lands for the creation of the new span over the Detroit River.
  
  The site will include a new Customs plaza, as well as the Canadian tower of the crossing, if it's a suspension bridge. Counting the new highway to it, the overall project will cost a staggering $5 billion.
  
  The announcement of the plaza land deal had been slated for this week, after council approved it in-camera. But conflicting political schedules have pushed out the media grip-and-grin session for another few weeks."

Detroit Free Press, July 2, 2009:

• "Transport Canada, the Canadian federal transportation agency, said today it was finalizing the purchase of about 100 acres of riverfront land in Windsor to allow the construction of a new bridge across the Detroit River.
  
  Windsor’s city council approved a preliminary measure last week that allowed the federal agency to inspect and test the property. Mark Butler, a spokesman for Transport Canada, said the sale could be completed soon."

Now the Windsor Star says on July 5:

• "The federal government and city of Windsor are nearing a deal on the purchase of about 100 acres of land at Brighton Beach to be used for the new border crossing.
  
  “We’ve pretty much agreed on a price,” said Mark Butler, Transport Canada spokesman. “We are also talking to some private owners and those negotiations haven’t been completed.”

What is going on here? Is there a deal or isn't there one? What has to be tested---whether the land can support a bridge? I thought that had been done before.

I heard that the sale price is several times more than the low number the Star quoted. I guess that makes Eddie look like a hero.

Could it be that Canada Customs Officers are protesting the location. After all, if the Jail should not be located there according to the Ontario Government, why should CBSA officers have to work in a dangerous location! Why should the public be forced to use such an area either!

• "Brighton Beach is comprised of heavy industry. The issues with heavy industry is that it would be considered "sensitive land use" because there would be people living, sleeping and working in the building 24/7. In accordance with the Ministry of Environment guildelines, the introduciton fo sensitive land uses in heavy industrial areas is not encouraged."

COULD THE STAR CLOSE DOWN

Be still my beating heart. What happens if there is no deal with creditors? Look at what just happened with Eh-Channel where its suitor just walked away:

• "Canwest deadline extension increased
  
  Canwest Global Communications Corp. has won an extension from its senior lenders on a deadline to come up with a definitive re-capitalization plan, the media company said Tuesday.
  
  Winnipeg-based Canwest, which owns The Windsor Star and the National Post, said discussions with a committee representing its lenders are continuing, with a new deadline to have an agreement in principle in place by July 17. A definitive agreement must be met two weeks later, on July 31."
  

Will CUPE Fold

Short and sweet.

Incredible pressure is being put now on CUPE workers to back off and knuckle under. After being 3 months on strike, do CUPE members have the resolve--and the personal finances--to continue on?

From looking at the Star online comments, it would seem that they have minimal support from Windsorites. Surprisingly though, I have not received very many anti-CUPE notes notwithstanding the readership demographics of this BLOG.

Frankly, the expectation was that when Toronto CUPE was going was going to be legislated back to work, then Windsor CUPE members would too. If that does not happen or does not happen for a month or two more, then what?

Consider the following:

• Should CUPE be concerned about CAW? Probably not but who knows


• Polling being done in Windsor with the strike being a big topic in it


• No negotiations while Eddie was away and no negotiations scheduled


• Pupatello, showing her toughness, calls Torontonians a bunch of babies over their strike


• Eddie becoming the media darling by "talking trash" and telling Toronto how to fight a strike


• Councillors believing that playing tough on CUPE is winning them votes for the next election


• The putdown of Councillor Jones


• "The Ontario legislature will not force striking municipal employees in Windsor or Toronto back to work any time soon, says MPP Dwight Duncan."


• Dwight only thinking about the City's side, and supporting it, not CUPE's: "Duncan, Ontario's minister of finance and revenue, said it's clear that the city doesn't support binding arbitration, which local CUPE leaders Jean Fox and Jim Wood have been urging."


• The Globe suggested today the following which suggests CUPE's concerns are irrelevant:
  
  "Some think Premier Dalton McGuinty's hands are tied in Toronto because of the 11-week-old strike by indoor and outdoor workers in Windsor. Mr. McGuinty said last week he has no intention of interfering in the Toronto dispute as long as both sides are at the table. But Frank Reid, director of the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto, said he'd be “very surprised if they [the province] let the Toronto strike drag on as long as they have the Windsor strike. We are more spoiled here.” If the province moves, it would only be after getting a clear call for help from the city."


• Stories about garbage not being an issue since 75-80% being picked up and trash entrepreneurs---and their trucks--- being made heroes.


• Windsor saving a ton of money, $24M, with the strikers out minus of course the strike costs


• An Ontario Government spokesman claims, whatever this means: "Matt Blajer suggested there is no mediator for talks in Windsor because there’s nothing for the two sides to talk about.
  
  “At this point in time, the elements do not yet seem to be in place that would warrant the mediator to reconvene the talks,” said Blajer. He said the ministry “continues to confer with the parties … once the elements are in place, we would reconvene the talks.”


• And then to top it off, a story where Toronto's Mayor says "Miller said progress has been made at the bargaining table in recent days on a number of non-monetary items and he believes it's "time to say yes" to a deal" which would mean no legislation and Windsor CUPE being hung out to dry.


• Of course, Gord gives it away too, just add in the strike approach: "It's not quite hugs and kisses. But it appears Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis have laid to rest their vicious little spat and are busy forging ties that could help end the border infrastructure war between the city and the province.
  
  That war has been overshadowed -- chased right off the radar for close to three months -- by the tension-filled showdown between striking city hall employees and defiant Windsor taxpayers."

I really admire this kind of investigative journalism by Star opinion-makers {sarcasm intended}:

• "But you know, when they're standing around like that in a circle?" he says, a sly smile growing under his big mustache. "It reminds me of when they're working -- five guys watching one guy."
  
  Several tires were shredded one day by a purpose-built device slipped under the wheels of their big truck while they waited to cross a picket line. That week they worked for almost nothing.
  
  All of the damage has occurred while they were in their trucks, bringing garbage into the Malden Road transfer station. Now they take a video camera to tape the faces of the people who approach their vehicle on picket lines.
  
  "You know it's strikers," Ted says of the damage. "How do they get away with it without being charged?"
  
  They say they're threatened every day, and they've been followed by strikers in caravans of vehicles who harass their customers. At night, threats are yelled from cars as they sit on their front porch. "In front of the kids, too," Darren says."

What will happen next? I doubt if CUPE can back off although there is a growing amount of pressure from suffering rank and file members to go back to work. Some may even be willing to cross the picket lines and face the wrath of co-workers rather than seeing their families destroyed financially and emotionally any longer.

My suspicion is that when the polls suggest that most CUPE workers have had enough, and hopefully for the Mayor and Council if Toronto has been settled or if Toronto only has been legislated back to work, look for the City to do the following as was threatened some time ago:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis said Sunday that council has discussed bypassing CUPE leadership and offering a deal directly to union members.
  
  Francis said in a phone interview that there is a provision in the labour laws that allows the city to hold a “board-supervised vote,” where the city’s last offer would be put before the membership to vote upon.
  
  “It would be supervised by the Ministry of Labour,” the mayor said."

What will happen at that time is anyone's guess.

Readers' Comments (Part 2)

More readers write

26) Excellent video addition, thanks. Would you be able to e-mail me a copy that I could save?

I wouldn't hold your breath for anything as original from the city though.....you may turn a little blue.

Now, if I were to guess who the leak was, would you tell me if I was right or wrong? lol

27) Finally, the real story about the bridge is coming out, thanks to you. BTW, I did not know you were a lawyer.

What we really have to learn about now is what is Eddie's role with the Green Link. He has spent a lot of money on promoting that.

28) I do think the idea of CAW taking over COW workers is a non-starter. Too many pitfalls re: decertification. Too much risk vs. reward.

29) But I think the idea is to SAVE taxpayer money so it doesn't have to be used to subsidize PRB's for future hires; and I'm sorry, but I can't see why taxpayers should pay for this (not even current employees). If you work for a private company, that's a different matter, but the taxpayer already pays for benefits after 65, so why should they double dip, so to speak? And I can't see how they keep saying they are low paid people - it seems to me almost all of them make more than I do, and I think I am paid reasonably.

If they are ligislated back to work, what happens to the negotiations? Is the contract status quo? If that is the case, then, you're right, nothing has been accomplished. Except that city workers have forever given themselves a bad name by many of the antics that have been pulled over the past weeks. The shame of it is, I know it's not the majority of them, and I know that many of them would just like to get back to work, but their union people just won't let them have a say in what's going on.

Never mind - looks like nobody is going to win in this, no matter how it turns out. Whatever happens, half the city is going to be mad. And my next questions, why is Gary Parent and Ken Lewenza and the CAW sticking their noses in this? I'll tell you why - it's just because they think they should be in charge of everything and that everything should be done their way. I say, in their negotiations with employers of CAW personnel, go for it - get what you can - those are private businesses. But this is none of their business... They're doing nothing to get the support of the people of Windsor for CUPE members.

Wow - I'm sorry, Ed - there I go off on another track. And I also apologize - I'm sure you have better things to do than exchange e-mails with me all afternoon!!

Stay cool in this weather, and have a great day!!

30) Does the mayor know the first thing about mediation? A good mediator wants a settlement and it's not his/her job to decide who's right or wrong. The mediator leans on the side considered weakest and will push until a settlement is reached. Why is the city afraid of someone not on the "Ministry of Labour" list?

What a mess.

31) [The Mayor's] just upset his mute button doesn't work outside of Council Chambers

32) Great response to the Jeffrey Simpson's column. You just handed him the very best condensed history lesson on the Ambassador Bridge ever. There are always two sides to every story.

33) The Civil Assistance Plan was signed by the U.S.-Canadian military in February of 2008. The plan would allow the military of one nation to support the other during a civil emergency. The agreement goes well beyond any cross-border crisis. Even though it threatens the sovereignty of each country, there was no public debate and no Parliamentary or Congressional oversight. Similar to the SPP, the Civil Assistance Plan is shrouded in secrecy with missing annexes that remain classified. There are concerns that this agreement could lead to foreign troops being used for gun confiscation and a martial law scenario. Increasingly, the military is being used at sporting events, checkpoints and in some cases, in response to crime. Foreign troops are participating in more training exercises on American soil. Many military drills are also taking place in urban areas to further acclimate military presence on the streets.

A government controlled bridge would go a long way in assisting transborder movement of troops! Enlarged staging areas/plazas at border crossings etc...

Having been in the military myself, it is faster and easier to move large amounts of troops and vehicles rapidly through open areas with good highway access than move them through conjested city streets, were the public can see you or threaten you.

My thoughts, that DRIC will be built to move troops deeper into Ontario or vice versa (not very likely though, more the other way around), the Gateway Plaza at the Ambassador Bridge, will be a staging area for local area control i.e. Windsor and the tunnel.

34) I see that, once again, the Mayor is wrong - but, in your eyes, he is no matter what he does.

My first thought when CUPE wanted to appoint the mediator was "sure - they want somebody who will go along with what they want". And who's to say who is telling the truth about "being inches away from an agreement" - could be the mayor - could be CUPE. I have to admit to feeling that Jim Wood doesn't actually know what's going on when I hear him on the radio. So we should really keep an open mind on that, and many other statements also.

Have to admit, though, I enjoyed your picture in response to the Mayor's "we can build mountains" comment - very funny!!! Even though, I think that particular mountain is the fault of CUPE, but there again, we should agree to disagree.

Another thing I agree with you on is that they should certainly let the bridge company pull down those eyesores on the west side (I think that's where you stand on that). Of course, it's the west side, and nobody seems to care about the west side anyway.

35) [RE Mount Francis] OMG ...too funny Ed. Speaking of funny, this morning on my way to the gym I was listening to 96.7 and they advised the public that our beloved Mayor was in Greece for the Children's Olympics but then AM800 reported that he was overseas trying to bring some company here to Windsor...no mention of Greece but then they said he was also going to Frankfurt to see about the Hub. Just goes to show you....

36) I still cannot believe that he would think so little of his employees that it is more important for him to go abroad than settle the dispute here in Windsor...but then nothing he does should surprise me.

37) Couldnt the mayor just sign a 2 year contract and let them keep their PRBs and put a 2 year hiring freeze in place?

That would solve his problem until the end of his term.

38) If the CAW is planning to make a move on CUPE it will come as a huge blind side. In my experience it hasn't even come up as a topic of speculation on the picket lines. Personally, even with the mistakes the locals have made through the course of the strike I don't see the benefit of switching unions.

39) It is interesting to me that the mayor's response to this [CUPE OLRB] complaint is that it is "frivolous" . He is not saying that it is unfounded or untrue but rather that it is "frivolous". I have never considered ethics, morality, honesty or the rules of fair play ( or the law for that matter) to be frivolous concepts...

There is my soap box for the day. Hope you are having a good one

40) Interesting read as usual. I think I will give Mr. Comartin a call this week see where he's been...under a rock?

[About the Mayor going to Greece] the song by the Clash comes to mind "Should I Stay or Should I go Now".

So now we sit and wait... I guess. I have really learned to be patient through this strike, but the hardest part is not having any control over what is going on. Putting a sign around my neck has become so second nature to me now it feels more like my job then driving into work.... Ah going to work, wonder when that day will come.

I really miss my job,I really enjoy it and I work hard at it. Isn't it sad that I have to tell you I work hard at my job, it has come to that now I think we feel we need to defend ourselves in every way.

Oh well Ce La vie.... This too shall pass.

41) Of course Eddie doesn't mind having a new mediator - as long as they start where they left off.

I don't know how slick Jim Wood et al think they are but an offer on the table is exactly what they put out... Their last offer is out there. No wonder Eddie doesn't mind picking up where they left off. In his mind, that final offer IS a good starting point and he can easily claim that they were only inches away.

42) The whole power of the strike seems to be coming from our fearless leader Eddie Francis. Everybody in our union passionately hates the man and he has through his media circus has caused an army of Francis defyers out in the city. The CAW was there at our meeting to show that they are with us 100 percent and gave speeches as well. The speeches were inspirational and kept the moral up to show strength. There is allot of people that have spoke up that have shown very bad losses in there homes and are struggling very hard. I don't read the Windsor Star Enquirer anymore or if I do I tell people the truth wherever I go. I find that if I talk to lots of bank tellers and hair dressers it seems to get the message out allot because they talk to several people a day. Most people I talk too don't like the Windsor star and find it very depressing.

43) People needed to vent and there were tons of questions to be had. Everything was answered -that helped.

CAW and Gary Parent were there to show their support - financially and on the line.

44) As for us ditching CUPE and joining CAW, I don't really see that happening. We've been CUPE forever and I think its the right union for us, along with all other public service workers. Maybe we will have to change our leadership but I can't see us changing unions.

I for one, would be glad if the Mayor was telling the truth about giving each and every one of us existing workers an iron-clad legal document guaranteeing us our PRB's. This is a battle that I DO NOT WANT to have to fight over and over again each time a contract expires. He claims it would be taken off the table forever, that is what I would like to see.

45) Hello Mr. Arditti. I recently stumbled across your blog. I am just e mailing you to say that it has been quite refreshing reading through your blogs, particularly the ones pertaining to the CUPE strike.

I am a local CUPE member, and I admit it can be frustrating when reading all the half-truths and misconstrued "facts" published in the Windsor Star and elsewhere in the local media. If only your blog could obtain the same numbers in local readership as the Star does. You would certainly have more than a few eyebrows raised and eyes opened after reading your material. There would still be many CUPE bashers and haters, there always have been. They have just recently found the opportunity to express their dislike of CUPE (and unions in general) through the Star, since they feel they have the support of the newspaper and other local media. They know that their views and opinions will not be shredded but rather CUPE supporters will.

I am not suggesting that I believe you are siding with CUPE. I just personally believe, from what I know about the situation, that you have a very firm grasp on what is taking place during these "negotiations". You can obviously read between the lines, and see directly through the tactics being pulled by our "faithful" mayor. It is wonderful that you have taken the time to research the information on the current issues, and provide both facts and opinion on them. All of the facts seem to be very accurate, and the opinions are respectful. It's too bad you do not have your own column with the Windsor Star. Then again, people can read your blog for free and receive a superior product to the columns written by the Star's columnists.

I shall continue reading you blogs even after this strike ends (whenever that may be). I will also refer some fellow CUPE members to your blog to maybe boost their morale a bit, and realize their are some people who see this strike for what it is.

46) I'm very upset and want my regular life back! I hate being degraded by the public. I work very hard and I [did] like what I was doing for the community... It's really a slap and spit in my face!

I wouldn't say we are joining CAW, but they "support" us in what we are doing. We were told we have more support then we realize... I still wouldn't say that's a lot because what we think we have in support is pretty much zero... but that kind of support won't help us to pay our bills. I hate that we have to beg for help; go to food banks, etc. I had a somewhat normal life not too long ago...

From what I read in the comments of the online Windsor Star (which I just vowed to myself I'm going to stop doing, because it's too upsetting), many people seem to be behind the Mayor. And in regards to the Mayor, he more then upsets me! What he's doing to us, is totally crazy and unforgivable! We have taken it very personally. I guess that's why many don't want to give up. But then many of us are facing very serious financial ruin, too. Our employee/employer relationship, is without a doubt, ruined for many years to come.

I can only hope I'm able to with-stand whatever's in store for us. I don't have a lot of confidence in this whole process. It's really a horrible never-ending nightmare! I don't want to cave, but I can't see how I can survive this, financially and mentally, for much longer. What does the end mean? I hope it's arbitration and not destitution.

I am seeking other temporary employement in order to survive. But pickens are extremely slim... and I suppose once they find out I'm a striking city worker, I won't get the job anyways...

It's probably going to get very nasty now, not that I would do anything nasty, but I'm sure others will. The public hates us as it is; it doesn't matter what we do. If we leave them alone, then we're lazy; if we make them wait then we're greedy...

We need a miracle...

47) I don't think I like being called a clerk and a gardener, even though I do have a flower garden at home that I tend to. Ha!

Maybe Henderson should join us on the picket line sometime, he would find out first hand that there are still a number of City residents that support us and he would be hard pressed to find ANY supporters of Eddie's regime. Every day more and more residents are seeing through Eddie. We hear a lot of people say that they absolutely hate Eddie, they want him gone. They are saying this even when they do not support the strike!! Of course the Star and AM800 would NEVER report that. Eddie pushed us into this strike, it's his bullheadedness that is keeping us out. His actions are causing undo hardship to not only the CUPE membership but also the community at large, the residents, the business communiity etc.

The Chrysler and GM workers still have more in their contract AFTER their 'massive contract sacrifices' than we currently have without ANY sacrifices. Eddie keeps saying he doesn't want to give up the farm. BUT he wants the farm from CUPE workers. If he is successful in his fight with us, our contract will be so gutted, we might as well not belong to any union. Grrrrr. He makes me very angry. But...who says we lost this battle? If it does go to arbitration, we may be winners after all.

The Star is so poisoned it is pathetic....but I did get a chuckle reading the story CUPE strikers mow Tom Wilson Field as 'favour'. The statement, “They’re saying that with some of this grass, they just might have to do a controlled burn because you’re never going to cut it.” Wouldn't it be just beautiful to see each of the City parks on fire. (sarcasm here) Hey, maybe Eddie could work his spinmaster magic and turn it into a world event! The catch phrase may be something like 'Once in a lifetime event...Come watch the savanna at Ford Test Track Park be transformed into a spectacular green space featuring magnificent gardens, playing fields and picnic areas. WOW

Thank you for letting me endulge and rant a bit.

I think the work climate is in constant flux. And the labour unions are losing ground quickly, especially the CAW/UAW with the collapse of the auto industry.

Personally, I don't think it matters if we did belong to the CAW, we would be in the same boat. (Look what has happened to the union jobs at the Casino) The era of the strong unions is gone.

Eddie has made this strike personal for each of us and it seems that the each of us now has the resolve to stick it out to the bitter end. It certainly is not going to be easy, however, we can't let Eddie win and be the City hero.

I loved your blogg today, Why The Anonymous Source Did It.

How can we possibly get the 3 other councillors to call for arbitration?

There are going to be even more houses up for sale in Windsor before this is over, further driving down the realty market. And more people collecting Ontario Works (we don't qualify for social assistance).

Anyway, keep up the excellent work!! You are my only ray of sanity in all of this!!

48) A bottle of wine is yours if so..................and not 2 buck chuck either!
Maybe YOU should run for mayor!
Hoping we see the end to this hysteria soon,

49) Sir....you and your influence have out did yourself. The God Lord smiles apon you, and deservingly so. Although, I cannot ignore this 'sources' bravery, even if its a tad late, we all know, 'its better late, then never' even if its at great cost which makes me sad. 'Woman and children' is more honest than you might ever know or appreciate, but that is another story.

As usual, I rely on your commentary and look forward to it, as I walk the lines, motivate, donate, feed and of course, dream of things better for this a City that lacks any lustre.

You Sir, should run for counsellor and if bored for mayor. If and when I decide to listen to my peers, I'll be sitting across the table from you. You must be getting bored of the legal field. The City has potential like no other, as was demonstrated at the Energy Fair at the Casino. City planners are afraid to speak-up, transportation, parks, and yes, even the business commerce, are all sick of the same rhetoric.

50) Listening to the Lynn Martin show this morning, there was an older man who was getting very emotional about how he see the city putting money before people. I appreciate his argument and was hoping that I could have helped him reframe his argument to this:

When the Mayor (or anyone else who has the power to decide how much money and benefits other should get) says that he "cannot afford in these economically challenged times (or some other cliché)" whatever; ask him to say

I/we have chosen to spend our resources on (arena, canals, my blackberry account, and so on) and not on pensions, salaries and so on.

The point is, someone made a decision to spend money here rather than there. The city still spends money. To let the spenders get away with explaining why they cannot do things, is a cop out. I only wish that talk show hosts and journalist would have the courage to get the mayor to declare his real preferences, his real values as indicate by how he wants to spend other people's money.

Another Leak To Be Investigated

Oh no. More work for the Integrity Commissioner.

Someone had to know about this and wanted it out there in public. It is nothing more than another example of poor execution at City Hall, wastefulness and taxpayers losing out.

It is also an example of a negative story about the City never seeing the light of day in the traditional media that I can recall. Why not?

How much did it cost and how much did we lose? Does anyone have the faintest idea?

Seriously, it really happened this way.

I was having lunch yesterday when the mail came. My wife brought it in and there it was, a big brown envelope covered in stamps. Of course there was no return address. But what was the most suspicious was the handwriting for the address. Either someone tried hard to disguise his/her writing or it was written by a child of about 11 or 12 years of age it seemed to me to disguise further the identity of the person who sent it to me!

No worries. I keep sources confidential and I have destroyed the envelope!

I ripped it open and there it was. A copy of a Court of Appeal decision and the Trial Court verdict of another case that the City had litigated and lost. This time after being sued by the Windsor Family Credit Union!

Now it is no secret. And not as sexy as a strike leak. Court decisions are public after all. But it was never reported in the Star that I could remember. However, it is another case where Windsor citizens are losing out on lots of money for reasons that make no sense to me.

I wondered if he is ever interviewed by the Star about the case, the City's lawyer, Mark Nazarewich, will say as the City's lawyer Patrick Brode did in a case he lost that the spending of $29,500 for an appeal was justified:

• "It was well worthwhile for city council to decide that we should contest this before the courts," said Brode.
  
  "We weren't successful, but I would suggest to you it was worth a try."

I really like that phrase, "worth a try!"

I also trust that he will not make an unfortunate comment such as

• "Brode insisted Monday the OMB and the courts were wrong in this case and went so far as to liken their decisions to the verdict of the jury that acquitted O.J. Simpson of two counts of homicide."

In this case, the issue was simple although the facts are a bit complicated:

• "Does the Corporation of the City of Windsor (City) have an interest in a Parking Garage at 275 Pitt Street part of the Riverside Drive Lands."

This is the parking garage behind the Hilton and the Cleary that went into default. The City seems to have problems with garages failing:

• "Windsor Family Credit Union (the Applicant), in syndication with two other credit unions, agreed to lend to Pruefer $4,555,000. One of the terms of the transaction was that the Applicant would receive a good and valid first mortgage from 658Co. as security for its loan over the Parking Garage lands and building...
  
  The Applicant [WFCU]wishes to sell its security and apply the proceeds against its defaulted loan. The City has put the Applicant on notice that it believes it retains an interest in the lands upon which the Parking Garage is situated, pursuant to the terms of the Development Agreement and the Parking Agreement. It is the position of the City that the mortgage registered by Mr. Barat and his firm is not the first charge on the property...
  
  The Applicant has taken a neutral position. It wishes to convey this Parking Garage to realize on its security. It is requesting a judicial determination of whether it can do so, free from any competing interest registered by the City."

The issue is not academic. The City had an interest in 300 spaces in the garage. It claimed it had a "property" interest in the spaces and offered the Court a laundry list of ways that it could be decscribed:

• "It is offered that the court should not feel obliged to pigeon-hole its interest under any one form, but might want to consider, beyond the suggestion of lease, an easement, a restrictive covenant, a license coupled with a grant of legal interest, or a profit `a prendre."

The City was to receive a revenue stream for the spaces until 2011.

• "the City and 658Co. entered into a new arrangement whereby the City transferred its parking rights back to the numbered company in exchange for a yearly fee for space. Rather than take possession and operate the spaces themselves, the City instead elected to receive a revenue stream per space and, in turn, the numbered company was free to operate the entire Parking Garage."

Unfortunately,

• "On July 2, 2005, 658Co. defaulted on its obligation to make payments to the Applicant. The Applicant took steps to realize on its security, and to collect the outstanding loan indebtedness."

A Receiver was appointed by WFCU:

• "The Receiver ceased making payments to the City for any sums owed under the Parking Agreement. Instead, it applied the receipts from the parking operation firstly to the taxes owing and secondly to the Applicant’s interest and principal payments under its defaulted loan. The Receiver has not paid any of the receipts from the Parking Garage to the City for any obligations under the Parking Agreement."

The case does not set out what the revenue stream is that the City has lost since 2005 but it has to be a substantial amount for 300 spaces, probably more than enough to pay for the cost of PRBs for the few recently hired CUPE members. If it was one dollar per day per space as an example, well you can do the math. Remember at Canderel:

• "An agreement between Chrysler and the city sets a monthly rate of $32.50 for the majority of its spaces. [325] Other tenants will pay $75 per month, plus taxes."

Or was the City only to get 5 cents a day as they negotiated with the Keg?

In the end, the Court held that dismissing all of the City arguments:

• "I conclude, therefore, framing my findings in terms of the relief sought in the Amended Notice of Application, that the Corporation of the City of Windsor has no rights or interest arising from a Parking Agreement dated September 2, 1986, or any amendments thereto, in the lands known municipally as 275 Pitt Street West, in the City of Windsor, in the County of Essex."

Now that decision in itself is unfortunate. It demonstrates to me again the inability of the City to draft documents properly to protect its interests. Blame it on the previous Administration. You better believe it.

However, there is a wrinkle here that shows me that the present Administration is no better. Can't the City ever do anything properly.

As you may recall,

• "On March 7, 2007, the City sold the Cleary Auditorium and the lands on which it was located to St. Clair College. The City presently owns no other lands which are or were the subject of the Development Agreement.
  
  The City did not assign or purport to assign its interest in the Development Agreement or the Parking Agreement to St. Clair College as owner of the Cleary Auditorium lands. The Development Agreement and the Parking Agreement are not registered on title to the Cleary Auditorium lands."

The Court said the following and here is why the way City Hall operates scares me so much:

• "It is clear, then, that I do not believe the City acquired an interest in land as a result of those agreements. However, even if I am wrong in that conclusion, I believe the City’s sale of the Cleary Auditorium on March 7, 2007 terminated any potential interest it may have acquired...
  
  The plain reading of paragraph 7.05 is that the obligations of Pruefer or any succeeding owner vis-a-vis the City continue as long as the City retains ownership of the Cleary Auditorium. Similarly, any responsibilities under the Development Agreement terminate upon the sale, as it is then impossible to any longer benefit the City. The City’s sale to St. Clair College in no way assigned to the purchaser any of the City’s existing parking rights at 275 Pitt Street.
  
  I conclude, therefore, that whatever parking rights or potential property interest the City might have maintained in 275 Pitt Street was terminated on March 7, 2007."

DUH, did the City have a position or did it not? In 2007, it knew that it was owed money since the garage was in default. If it did have a property interest, then why did it not protect itself when the sale took place? If it did not, then why did it litigate and spend who knows how much money in fees to fight the case?

The Court of Appeal wrote a very short APPEAL BOOK endorsement:

• "[1] The appellant raises for the first time on appeal the issue that the City has rights of enforcement to parking spaces that are statutory rights under s. 41.1(10) of the Planning Act.
  
  [2] We agree with the respondents that arguing this ground for the first time on appeal is not open to the appellant, both as a matter of practice in this court, as well as because the factual record in the Agreed Statement of Facts and appended documents does not include all of the evidence necessary to fully and properly consider the argument for the first time at this level.
  
  [3] The application judge fully considered the issues raised before him and determined that the appellant has no interest in land referable to the parking spaces that are the subject of the application. We see no error in his conclusions and findings.
  
  [4] The appeal is therefore dismissed with costs fixed inclusive of G.S.T. and disbursements on the partial indemnity scale of $25,000 to the respondents represented by Ms. Daly and $4,500 to the respondents represented by Ms. Farlam.

Ooops, someone did not make an argument at trial. Too late to make it in the Court of Appeal for the first time! Can you imagine if it was a winner of a position! What a shame.

Is this a cost that should now be added in to the sale of a City asset to St. Clair College as part of that deal? It makes that deal look even worse than it did before.

Who is the whistleblower and how much more information will be placed by this person and others in my mailbox. I can hardly wait!

Did Windsor Make Ranger Leave

Hi Ho Silver....away! After 35 years of service, Deputy Minister Louis Ranger retired.

Except for readers of this BLOG, few in Windsor will know who he is. Yet he has played a very important role in the files that impact our City the most. He retired from Transport Canada:

• "The Prime Minister took the opportunity to express his gratitude to Louis Ranger , who is retiring after a very distinguished career in the Public Service, for his strong leadership and the many significant contributions he has made to Canada and Canadians over his 35-year career. In particular, the Prime Minister thanked Mr. Ranger for his exceptional work on the infrastructure stimulus program. The Prime Minister extended to Mr. Ranger his best wishes for great success in his future endeavours."

Without knowing exactly what his role was, he has to be one of the key people on the border file given his long stay in a senior position at Transport. He was there through a number of Prime Ministers. What is truly remarkable is that no matter which party was involved, they all learned quickly how to oppose the Ambassador Bridge Company! Bill C-3 (note the number showing its importance) was effectively a Liberal piece of legisaltion that the Conservatives adopted as their own. Now that took real mandarin skill

• "Unlike most deputy ministers who spend a couple years in a job before moving to the next, Ranger spent his entire career dealing with transportation and public-infrastructure issues and knows the department -- which he joined in 1981 -- inside out."

His replacement is from Agriculture and Agri-Food. It seems fitting since the file needs someone who knows how to handle the BS!

Read this excerpt from a Toronto Star article:

• "Trouble at Transport: Clashes over spending
  
  Bruce Campion-Smith, OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
  
  OTTAWA – In the lobby of the towering Place de Ville headquarters of Transport Canada, department employees are paying tribute to their departing boss, veteran bureaucrat Louis Ranger.
  
  "For your passion, your dedication and your leadership, thank you! Best wishes for a well-deserved retirement," reads a sign set next to the elevators.
  
  But behind the happy words, is a department in turmoil, sparked in part by Ranger's retirement as a respected deputy minister.
  
  Ranger was a by-the-book bureaucrat who fell victim to political impatience and a Conservative government frustrated with the pace of infrastructure spending, observers say. Unwilling to bend the rules, Ranger is retiring this month, leaving behind unhappy colleagues upset at being "bullied" and "pushed" by the Conservatives on the infrastructure file, they say.
  
  Transport Canada employees – former and current – and observers familiar with the department paint a picture of bureaucrats struggling to balance demands for accelerated spending while trying to live within the Conservatives' accountability rules. Ultimately, it was a struggle that pitted Ranger, a 35-year bureaucrat, against Transport Minister John Baird.
  
  "He works by the book. He's memorized the book and you've got a guy (Baird) who wants to rewrite it on a daily basis, so you could see where there would be a clash," said one source."

What's the Windsor connection: the canal. Can it really be that it would meet the Government infrastructure stimulus rules for projects yet both MP Jeff Watson and the Transport Minister himself seemed to be supportive of it.

• "Canal can get federal cash
  Not too late, minister says
  
  The deadline has passed, but Windsor still has an opportunity to receive federal funding for a $48-million downtown canal project, Canada's transportation and infrastructure minster said Wednesday.
  
  City council declined on Friday to place the canal on a list of federal stimulus projects, missing a May 1 deadline.
  
  But John Baird suggested Wednesday the project could be included when Ottawa reveals its infrastructure allocation to the city.
  
  "The deadline was Friday, but we hope to come forward in short order on further economic stimulus for Windsor which badly needs it," said the minister, in Windsor for a border transportation conference at Caesars Windsor.”

Why would Ranger at the end of his career take a hit for a mere politician if the Auditor General undertook a report and it was critical:

• "Canada’s best-known spending watchdog laid out her expectations for the management of stimulus money in a recent letter to Treasury Board Secretary Wayne Wouters as her office prepares for a sweeping and unprecedented audit into the expected spending frenzy of the next two years.”

And then there is the border file itself. Tranport created a wonderful fiction about how important the Ambassador Bridge was and that the Government was taking no actions to hurt them. Then the Minister opened his mouth:

• "Minister links new bridge, jobs
  Rival proposal for twin span dismissed
  
  Federal Transportation minister John Baird said Wednesday his government is committed to building a downriver bridge in Windsor and dismissed the Ambassador Bridge's twin span proposal…
  
  Asked about the Ambassador Bridge's twin span proposal, Baird responded: "I don't think it works for the community's best interests or environmentally."

After 35 years, who needs the misery. The pension is a good one and I am sure there are lots of consulting and teaching positions around. Why it would not surprise me to see him go to Carleton University in Ottawa. In case you are wondering why there, Herb Gray, another border figure from the past, is the Chancellor there. Moreover, Herb was a member of the group chaired by Louis that authored Canada's Ultra-Secret Playbook about how to bamboozle the Americans:

• "Advancing Canadian Interests in the United States: A Practical Guide for Canadian Public Officials."

He may be gone from Transport but will not be forgotten. I would expect that we will hear from Mr. Ranger again and will get to know much more about him and his work.

Readers' Comments (Part 1)

The postal worker may have a bad back carrying all of this mail!

There is a spot reserved just for you. Feel free to write to me so I can let other readers know your opinion.

1) Who are the people picking up trash after special events as shown on the video... Seems these people come out of nowhere to handle these jobs. They are very well organized.

2) [RE the video] how much was spent on this?

3) "I would say our business has grown substantially in the last week," Mike Thorne, president of justjunk.com, said yesterday. "We're starting to get backed up a couple of days and I've noticed people booking online for pickup over the next five or six weeks."

There are even "garbage parties" springing up where neighbours get together and bring their trash to one central location, saving money by having it all picked up at once.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2009/06/30/9976536-sun.html

Hey! Windsor likes to party! Let's organize these all over the city!

4) [Copy of a note to Councillor Halberstadt sent to me and many others] I just read your blog and quite frankly, I think it's the other way around. It is our Mayor and city council members, people like you, who are the bullies in this Cupe strike! All of you knew long before, as far back as 1938 when it was first provided, this was to be funded by the city and what did our council members do? NOTHING! Nothing at all. No funds set aside for the future. Now because council members like you and before you did nothing, you wish to strip union members of this benefit! Yet, you wish to maintain it for yourselves! Shame on you!

Union members only make up 26.77% of the labour force fund, the smallest portion in the city's employment liability count! Cupe is weak so they will be the first stepping stone in stripping this benefit away! I would be interested in knowing how many actually use the post retirement benefit out of the Cupe membership? How many actually make it to the point of being able to use it? What is that percentage compared to the whole of Cupe members? What is the Cupe percentage in comparison to ALL entitled members? We know Cupe members are paid the least in comparison to other members of the city. Cupe members would be the one's least able to afford or save for this benefit. Many Cupe members are sole-supporting single parents! The new trend for the past decade.

I can hear your circle meeting now..."Council member: "We will take it from Cupe, then proceed to all other members in our city employment. We will eliminate it for everyone. Who cares about them anyway by then, they no longer provide a service to the city so why should we continue to pay it? They are not people, but a liability that needs to be eliminated. We will spend much during the 2009 strike, more than it would take to fund this benefit, but we will strip this benefit anyway. It will be worth the cost spent in the long run." Council members will keep it as deserved.

SHAME ON YOU! SHAME ON ALL PAST AND PRESENT COUNCIL MEMBERS WHO DID NOTHING AND WHO VOTED TO ELIMINATE THIS BENEFIT FROM YOUR DEDICATED WORKERS AT A TIME WHEN IT IS NEED MOST! Liability, not people. Hogwash!

Perhaps it is your wish to see all your "valued" employees retire and having to apply for social assistance due to lack of retirement funds for benefit coverage. What a way to continue a cycle! So much for dignity, there will be none!! None while working, none when retired.

You should take a lesson from the LCBO establishment. They are INVESTING in their people, not STRIPPING them of what they already have!!! Take a stand for investment in your people! They provided well during their employment.


Another thing to keep in mind......the baby boomers are starting to retire, as noted before. They will require more for their retirement and......THEY STILL CAST A VOTE! Many younger people do not tend to vote at all. Food for thought.

5) This comment

"We believe that the new crossing should be subject to public oversight, and that would mean, in effect, a publicly owned bridge," said Mark Butler, a spokesman for the federal agency Transport Canada, on Thursday."

does not require a publicly owned bridge. The government has many oversight responsibilities of private firms, to wit, the financial sector so recently collapsed. What a good oversight job the feds do!

6) [Re The Invisible Bridge Company Lawsuit Against MDOT] Glad you posted this. I was particularly humoured at the shot taken at you in the comments section today in the Windsor Farce.

7) [RE Security guard wages] I thought this article was particularly interesting.

I have a university degree, college certificate and hundreds of hours in additional training as well as seminars. Yet, I still don't make this much money working for Ontario Works.

So much for "what is good for the goose, is good for the gander".

8) tell me if you don't see the same thing that I do in the first minute and a
half of this video? Was I wrong in thinking it was something against CUPE that those fences went up? Could it be that it is really not about CUPE at all? Yes, CUPE was barred and Carrousel BY THE RIVER and the Corvette Show were also denied access to our waterfront with the "lease" of our parkland to Red Bull but wasn't it really all of Windsor who lost out?

Is it only my eyes that see regular everyday Windsor people look like cattle in a fenced-in enclosure in contrast to the open & airy spaciousness of the elite of this city? And when contrasted to our neighbours across the river, where in appearance anyways, all people are being respected, well it just makes me want to jump into the river and swim over to someplace that might welcome me. My eyes must be going with age but I don't think that I'd be swimming alone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-WTtvB5j3I

9) re: The planning effort for new crossing of the Detroit River began in 1999 with our colleagues in Michigan."
Planning for the new crossing was started before the ink on the Agreement with the Bridge Company was barely dry!

Okay, so a bunch of big shots realized that there was a problem with our crossings back in 1999. One group liked the idea of fixing what we have and another group behind the scenes had "a better idea" and was maybe insulted that their suggestion was not approved? So this behind the scenes group starts working on damaging the efforts of the first group? I don't get it.

To me there is no other way of clearly saying what I am witnessing here
before my very eyes.... we idolize and make heroes of them [this behind the scenes group]like they have risen from the ashes of failure to save the day? The very "ashes of failure" that they alone have created by undermining, anti-lobbying, failing to help the upfront, out in the open project succeed, tripping up, poisoning, the list is too long so etc?

What have we come to that we idolize blind-siders...

Maybe love affairs aren't the only secrets hidden in the BlackBerry files.


10) On a brighter note something you will never read in the newspaper. A Union member brought by water and stated the employees at Costo where she purchased the water from were assisting her in load the water into the van told her a story. They stated that [a Member of Council] and his family went to Cosco last week he was given such an unwelcome greeting from the shoppers that he stopped his shopping and left the store. Another person I told the story to said she heard it was Supercentre, wouldn't that be something if it happened twice? Thanks for keeping up the blogs, look forward to them everyday.

11) I am just sick tonight of what's happening in our world !!
Ed McMahon first..........
Then Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson !!!!

12) re: HONOURING THE MAYOR
Doesn't Eddie understand that they were giving him an idea about how to get the Winter children's games here by creating an "elevation." They even came up with the idea of naming it for posterity in his honour.
Why is he so rude about it now when he took their idea?

OMG ... nearly peed my pants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lololololololol hahahahahhahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

13) HEY ED, No, you may not stop reporting the news...

i know its tedious and everything, but i cannot believe you would stake a claim to not write about the strike anymore. is this not the most disruptive thing that has happened to windsor since the norwich block downtown was demolished? its news. its happening here. for you to make such a claim would be tantamount to ignoring your responsibility to respond to the preposterous and absurd yet thoroughly destructive policies being implemented by the city of windsor upon its employees -- a burden you were tasked with when you elected to begin doing what it is that you are doing with windsorcityblog. you can't turn your back on what's happening. please do not join the ranks of the majority who are turning a blind eye to these events. the future public record needs you to help account for the many falsely reported imbalances and discrepancies taking place as much as the grave injustices that are being perpetrated on all rank and file city workers. like it or not, we are in the grip of a series of events that are awash in historicity. you must bear witness! you must respond! ED, the poor saps in this city need you. i kid you not.

14) as for your question:

If "citizens are not faced with the prospect of trash-strewn, foul-smelling streets," then why is there the panic to threaten people with $5,000 fines or to take trash home on fireworks night? I wonder if some of the trash was taken away by front-end loaders in the middle of the night especially in the Red Bull area.

no, a pack of about 25 managers and supervisors in janitor garb, under the close watchful eye of i don't know how many police, on bike, in cruiser and in unmarked vehicle -- i'm guessing at least thirty; plainclothes and detective -- spent the hours between midnight and three am scouring this area with their little streetsweeper kits. i know cos i was there.

it was hopping, it was intense, and felt like a surreal scene from some long lost fellini film, or something. (it was far more repulsive and insulting than all of that. this city is already severely damaged, and it is becoming more and more damaged by the day, with every new nefarious scheme like this that becomes 'rolled out' to demoralize and slowly "obsolece" we workers. (my job has nothing to do with debris; nor should the managers', in my estimation.)

so, do fold that decadent cost into your estimated price tag on this strike. cops guarding a managerial class of scab-workers as they work to rid the festival plaza/dieppe of all the trash and refuse abandoned by the fireworks revellers. managers at 53 dollars an hour. cops at who knows how much? etc. etc. -- silly me, i thought we were in a recession and saving money was the order of the day ?!?

this city is getting weirder and weirder, if that's even possible.

15) My strike shift just ended. I wanted to share some observations with you concerning picketing by the river after fireworks.

I have never seen so many police in Windsor in one place in years. (not since the OAS conference) Riverside drive was swarming with management and hired private security personnel and what looked like young students picking up garbage and emptying barrels. They were under police escort! At one point about 22 strikers were standing around a large big bin with about 9 or 11 police watching them. There were police on bikes and on motorcycles and in marked cars and a magnum and an SUV.....I had no idea that a group of mostly female picketers could appear so intimidating that at least nine officers were needed!

Suddenly there was an ambulance siren and they were gone! I am not sure why they left but there appears to have been some sort of an incident on a nearby street involving a head injury lots of blood and an ambulance. So while a guy is being beat up or whatever downtown the police are babysitting us! If downtown Windsor had that kind of police presence on the streets after the bars close it would be a far safer spot!

Seriously, how much money did the city waste on tonight’s garbage pickup downtown? Besides the security and the video guys and the police presence what about the manager’s overtime! I saw [Nmae of Manager] himself throw garbage bags into a bin! Imagine the overtime!

Looking forward to reading your next blog!

16) Hi Ed, I was reading your blog today, and it is interesting what you say about the garbage numbers. I for one, doubt that 75% of people are taking it to the dump themselves.

My picket group has recently been putting information flyers in South Windsor neighbourhoods this week. And I have to say, I see alot of garbage piled up in garages which were open, or sides of houses.

Although we did hear that on a certain South Windsor street... those residents are lucky enough to have a garbage bin delivered once a week for a specific time period in which they can dump their garbage in and then it is taken away quickly.

Gee, why don't they do that in my neighbourhood? I have 10 weeks of garbage in my garage too. Have a nice day.

17) [Name of local employment agency] is hiring scabs.

All those heros who said that they would pick-up garbage for 10 bucks/hour can start applying within.

18) I wonder how much air pollution Eddie has saved Windsor from right now.

With the grass being so tall it will help clean more air. By not cutting the grass Windsor has lessened the carbon exhaust and stopped gasoline fumes from escaping into the atmosphere, thereby, helping the ozone.

Eddie is on a friggin roll! Go Eddie Go!

Just a second, I have to shut off my morphine drip.......

19) Read your blog every day now since local media has proven itself to be of such low quality & integrity. Thank you for building your blog Ed! You sure know how to see through these childish political facades and tell it like it really is!


Now regarding your blog about the Moroun opportunity:

Since when have we become a war & destruction area rather than a shed & rebuild community? That is what I would like to know. Roadblocks for every progress effort and it doesn't even make a difference if it is efforts by public or private people. Just put up the roadblock first and ask questions later. This is suffocating! Time for Windsor to do a 360 and start saying YES to opportunities for improvements and NO to roadblocks!

20) Ed I just want to tell you that you are doing a great job and I like your blog better than reading the dam Windsor Star. I agree 100 percent with Cupe on cancelling the paper on the bases of false bias reporting. I know for fact I have been a witness to the events and reports that have been going on and I can’t believe the misguiding reports that go in the paper. AM 800 is not any better. I fear for Red bull coming knowing there is so many unstable people out of work because of unfair treatment from our beloved mayor and our elected councilman. I don’t know what they expect from the people but the longer this has gone on its not breaking down the union its making us stronger and more willing to fight for our rights.

21)

Take a look at these strike headlines over at Global Ontario Ed. Sometimes pictures really do speaka thousand words. What do you think is going on? Almost appears that Francis & Miller are being compared and Polls being used to topple Miller? Or groundwork for no more Mr Nice Guy?

22) Keep it going. You're my daily fix. I am a junkie. :)

23) [RE MDOT dirt on the ramps to the Bridge] Great pics too...thanks for providing "context" in this debate!

What if MM dumped a pile of junk in the middle of the bridge? Canada would have their Navy Seals roping up the bridge piers! Unbelievable the resentment for MM

24) "We thought it was dirt or clay or construction debris -- but no, it is only retaliation" has to go down in the border file as the most classic quote to date. Priceless.

I just love Dan's sarcasm.

It's too bad that MDOT had to get so remarkably ugly with this mess. It amazes me the craziness that goes on in politics and the incredibly stupid wasteful spending of taxpayers money.

Moroun will win eventually and he should. I wish they would just let them get on with his business - on both sides of the border.

25) [Note to Dwight Duncan sent to me] To the Honourable Mr. Dwight Duncan,

I read an article in the Toronto Star that stated "That could put Duncan and Pupatello, who this morning said there's been no request from either side in the Motor City dispute for legislation, in tough spots because both favour a bargained resolution in the Windsor strike". That statement is not true. I e-mailed correspondence to you on [Date], requesting your assistance, and I did not receive a response. I have a very difficult time believing that no one else from Windsor requested your involvement in terminating this strike.

I am sure that you totally understand that Windsor’s Mayor, Eddie Francis, makes unilateral decisions and defends them to the Nth. Degree... This strike is almost three months old in Windsor, the union workers are seriously in financial difficulties, Francis takes off for Greece, Germany, and who knows where, and the rest of the City is left dangling and needs your help.

For heaven’s sake, if CUPE has not contacted you by now, don’t you think it is your duty to contact them and ask our executive if they require your assistance in legislating us back to work? We have been requesting arbitration and we have thousands of signatures on petitions requesting arbitration, but the Mayor refuses to cooperate.

Back to work legislation is necessary in order to resolve the issue of post retirement benefits. I am one of your constituents, and a member of CUPE Local 543. If I am not important enough to receive a response from your office, then I suggest you contact my Union President, Ms. Jean Fox. She can be reached at [Phone number]