Where's Rob Ford when you need him
Rob Ford is a bombastic populist who is obsessive about Council and public servants' salaries. he also lives and works in Toronto so why should we care about what he thinks? Because sometimes he may be right. In these days of public suffering and the impacts of high taxes anything that can set the public mood is well received. One of his siren calls is to freeze public salaries and for Councils to take a wage cut. Whether that is a correct thing to do is debatable, what is not is the sentiment that wage increases for one sector are not on. With the private sector being hammered with job losses and a poor recovery, wage increases are just a pipe dream for most people.
So what do we find on the Council agenda tonight? A proposal to give the non-union staff a 2.5% increase in their wages. Is this setting the right example for restraint and if salaries are 75% of out municipal tax billl what is the tax impact? And more importantly as we come into the bargaining season is this the minimum raise to be given, or do we pick favourites and give the cops the 2.5% and then force the Public Works to accept half of that as is done most bargaining seasons.
3 comments:
Why are we so obsessed with the mentality that shouts "the burger on my plate has to be the biggest and the best" at every turn?
In every case, someone HAS to be at the bottom of every list. We'd all be better people if we took turns, so that we'd also get to be at the top now and again, instead of climbing over each other day after day and sometimes never getting to the top at all.
Time after time we've seen the non unionised folks working for the Town granted these respectable wage increases while the unionised workers lag behind.
It's always seemed to me that the Town is rewarding the suit and tie types for not forming a union.
It's always bugged me too.
funny enough, when this came up at council today, the DM's rationale was that it was a "catch-up" to keep non-unionized staff on par with the unionized employees. Round and round we go, and where we stop, nobody wants to know - 'cause it means somebody thinks they're the loser. Insanity!
Post a Comment