One for the union-bashers

Two strikes come to mind as this post is written. Yesterday the management of the Woodbine racetrack locked out their workers story here. This is a shocking development! And what is worse these folks are earning not much more than minimum wage. But the most telling part of the story and our society is the report that one of the workers, who has been working there for 25 years has seen his wages only double in that time.

TOStar quote "Tony Bennett started working at the racetrack 25 years ago as a stand attendant and earned about $6 an hour. Today, he earns $13.90 an hour and is now locked out.“We are not asking for everything — just enough to have a decent life,” said Bennett, 48, who also holds down part-time jobs at Winners and Home Depot."

In another development the strike at Vale-Inco enters its seventh month. This formerly Canadian company was purchased by a Brazilian company and immediately was forced on the picket line by a management that refused to bargain.

G&M quote"More than 3,000 employees at Vale's mill, smelter, refinery and six nickel mines in the Sudbury area have been on strike for seven months. At issue are proposals by Vale Inco to reduce a bonus tied to the price of nickel and to exempt new employees from its defined-benefit pension plan, moving them instead to a defined-contribution plan. Workers complain they shouldn't have to give concessions to a company whose parent, Brazil-based Vale S.A., earned $5.35-billion (U.S.) in 2009."

We have here two examples of disgusting behaviour by management and the workers are getting it in the neck. Both issues illustrate the modern way of dealing with unions - just ignore them, intimidate them and wait for them to quit on you.

Visit the strikers webpage here

As you all know the readership of the BurdReport is varied in its opinion so we welcome all comments knowing that some may be more inflammatory than others however those comments designed to incite will be flagged and identified as such.

In the interest of fairness please visit the Company's website (try to find any mention of the strike!)

A postscript

Here is a link to a report of another mining dispute, the circumstances are so similar the strategy must have been dreamed up at the MineOwners' Convention

No Mea Culpas here

Congratulations to the Olympic competitors, they have performed well. Some more than others and some below expectations. In one post it was pointed out that a silver medal was not good enough for one of the downhillers, I still stand by that and the reasoning has been proven by other spectacular failures since. But on the other hand we have had many personal bests and outstanding efforts from others. The benchmark I would see as as success is simple - set a personal best and you are a winner. As for the funding question - keep it up. It is an employment programme and we should all be in favour of those. This one beats chopping down trees as an occupation because it encourages personal and physical development and makes us all feel good when it works.

An interesting proposal

Tucked away in this story here, about the activities of the Port Hope Pier Group is an interesting statement - "And finally, due to 2010 being an election year, a community action task force is looking to find and support candidates for the next municipal election."
Hmmm, not only is this growing group looking to the community in its grass roots activism, but it is also looking to make sure that it gets its way in landuse decisions, which affect the area, by making sure they have the votes. This move may well succeed as it is being driven by well known civic activists who are known for their heritage tendencies. this is an intelligent move and has a precedent in Cobourg. Prior to an election a couple ago (I can't remember which one, but it may have been Delanty's first mayoral race) a few of us used to gather at various places in Town to discuss the elimination of train whistles. Peter D started to appear and support us, not long after that, and he has obviously conveniently forgotten, I will not mention the word "dotage", Bob Spooner turned up at the meetings. After the election a 2300 name petition appeared at Council and a "champion" who was socially acceptable to Council spoke about the elimination of the noise and thus they were banned. So with a mixture of the votes, friendly candidates and the right social movers the Pier may be saved after all.

BTW if you want to support the Pier Group go to the Rally:
"The rally takes place on Wednesday, March 3 between 7 and 9 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre's AK and Bob Sculthorpe Room. "

This event may not be so local after all!

Intrigued by a story that proclaims that the icon of contrary, Farley Mowat, has consented to lend his name to a Green Party fundraiser, here, the readers of the BurdReport deserve some opinion and more details.
Firing a full set of cannons "It's time we had some democratic government in this country and it seems there is very little possibility of getting it from any of the other parties," he said. "So I am supporting Elizabeth May, who may be the only honest-to-God, functioning democrat on the federal scene." it is obvious that Farley's long association with the NDP is over.
However are the Green's, in this event, really funding the local association or Elizabeth May's next run for a Federal seat, in BC against Minister Gary Lunn?
This release, found on the Green's main website makes it quite clear that Farley is being used for a high priced fundraiser designed to attract the wealthy from the City.

Details: (taken from the Green's website)
Gourmet food and wine, casual chic dress
$550/person minimum donation, VIA Rail tickets from Toronto can be arranged for an additional $50/return ticket

So the Greens, in a move reminiscent of the artsy fartsy trips to Stratford, on the train, are now selling tickets for $550 bucks a pop for the opportunity to meet an 88 year old literary icon who now believes that democracy can only be delivered by the truly green and politically pure. I wonder just how many locals will pay this price? And if there are few locals there can it still be called a local riding event or just a bunch of rich folk getting together at a posh house in Port Hope to meet and greet the leader, who happens to be tilting at windmills in far away British Columbia.?

If you want to see the Shelter valley Folk Festival win an award vote for them

a submitted notice

The Shelter Valley Folk Festival has made the Top 40 list but needs your vote now! (link below) Shelter Valley is on the Top 40 list but votes are needed!

You can help tell the world about our amazing Festival by voting in the CBC 3 Searchlight Contest for "The Best Music Festival in Canada" through our home page link (www.sheltervalley.com) or direct through this link http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/searchlight

Vote every day and tell 3 friends! 20 finalists are to be announced Wednesday February 24^th on CBC Radio 3, and voting continues!

N.B. you will have to be prepared to register on the site, if you are not a member already, to vote.

The pic that soared around the world

This is the pic that was used by all of the major news agencies when filing the Col. Williams story. With the exception of a couple of major outlets credit was given to the photog - Bill Tremblay from the Brighton Independent, a section of the Northumberland News, a Metroland paper. I even picked it up on the CBC National, with a credit that was displayed all over the Country.
Bill, who is in line for many awards for this story and pic, should be feeling good when he sees his handiwork on the cover of Macleans Magazine staring back at him from every newspaper stand in the nation - well done Bill

If only it was that easy

The Toronto Star blares out "EI claims drop" here, implying that economic conditions are improving. They may be in other parts of the province but here in the good old Muskokas-Haliburton-Northumberland region the stats tell a different story. Check out the monthly report here

In January 2009 there were 9,900 people declared as unemployed, one year later we have twice that many, 18,400. We also know that very few of the unemployed got jobs in January as the employed workforce only expanded by 1500 people. So the stimulus package hasn't kicked in yet!

The slogan, "Come to the Muskokas - Ontario's playground" is really ringing true as this area's unemployment rate is third highest in the Province behind Windsor and Niagara Falls.. Unfortunately the unemployed have little to play with. Perhaps this is something MPP Loo should be looking at as he goes about bragging what a wonderful place N'land is. Sadly those poor folks whose EI has run out will probably disagree!

You can't win for losing

Following up on the County leasing situation here one cannot help that the County Boss can't win for losing. By attracting non-profit agencies into his brand new empire Bill Pyatt has contributed to the loss of commercial rent in the Fleming building by offering discount rents. Is this what we are after - government putting the boots to private enterprise? If we own the building, as pointed out in a previous post, why are we charging rent at all to our own departments and not charging commercial rates to the others? The idea was to save taxpayers money not increasing inter-departmental chargebacks to inflate a budget that taxpayers have to pay. In addition we now find that the County will do this at the expense of one of the biggest landlords in Cobourg - LinMac.

The Puffster strikes again

In this Youtube video we see Senator Mike asking for money using the Olympics as a backdrop. Strange to see when the Cons said they would keep politics out of the Olympics.

Nobody Wants to Know

A few months ago I heard a song by that venerable songwriter Kris Kristofferson. Called "To Beat the Devil", it was about a crusading singer feeling discouraged to the point of giving up in his quest to compel his audience to listen and heed the message in his songs. He's broke, hungry, and listening to the Devil who's telling him to just give up; nobody is listening, nobody cares.

By the end of the song he concludes that he will keep going, that somewhere, somebody will hear the message and his travails will not be in vain. That song spoke to me, having spent a large chunk of my life in essentially that same struggle. I marvel at my friends who manage to keep going, seemingly never discouraged by the lack of results and always maintaining hope. At this point I am like the guy in the song, ready to just pack it in and forget it. But somehow, I and we never do. We keep going.

What motivates us that is not present in other people? A co-worker once told me she admired our commitment, noting that in her own life she really didn't care about anything but her immediate family and the next vacation. She thought she should be ashamed, but admitted she wasn't. That conversation has stayed with me, and for years I have tried to figure out how to reach people like her, to make them understand that caring about our fellow humans is our only hope. It is what separates us from the other creatures on the earth who just exist to hunt down their next meal.

It would be much easier to coast through life that way; nothing to keep you awake at night except deciding whether to holiday in Mexico or Florida. Trouble is, for some of us, that just isn't possible. But why? What makes us different? Why do we bother at all? The loving spouse of a friend of mine thinks we're crazy, tells us we should mind our own business and that absolutely nobody wants to hear from us.

Is that spouse right? I don't know, but I sure would like to figure it out. Any thoughts on this topic are welcome, it could be quite a discussion. Or maybe nobody cares...