Strike if you must... state your case and let the public be!

The summer's over - back to the routine... and back to the more regular posts. August was one heck of a month!

Support staff members at Carleton University are on strike. I suppose that it is their right to do so, but why is it that they can take more liberties with the law while striking than ordinary citizens can in their day-to-day lives?

It must be a complete coincidence that the strike began right when the school year started. They've had since late April to get affairs in order and contracts negotiated. Why they waited so long to take job action is beyond me as they're employed to make things run smoothly and effectively for the consumers of the university's product. Why wait four months to reduce access to course registration offices at the most critical time of year? Why wait four months delay them from gaining access to the campus and its classrooms? Why wait four months to end up disrupting or cancelling biology, chemistry and physics labs?

Oh yeah - few people would pay attention to the poor underpaid and overworked support workers.

Who gave CUPE and its members the right to disrupt traffic around campus - possibly causing delays to travellers who use Bronson Avenue to gain access to Ottawa's international airport?

Why unions and native bands appear to have carte blanche when it comes to: a) blockading streets and, b) delaying or denying public access to public roads while just about anybody else would get ticketed or arrested for doing the very same thing, I cannot understand. Why law enforcement officers don't step in and enforce the Highway Traffic Act or municipal bylaws, I also cannot understand. Is that not why they are there in the first place? Who doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to stand up against these "public bullies"? Why don't they have it?

Is a settlement coming soon? Who knows. The petty political games that unions and management play while posturing throughout the process is a mystery to those who have not been behind closed doors for negotiations. Union wants 12.5% over three years, management's offering 9% over the same time frame. Nobody's telling the workers that the extra 1.17% per year works out to mere pennies after tax when the pay cheques get printed... and won't offset the lost wages that they'll never recover while they chase those extra pay cheque pennies...

Oh well, I guess they are having fun delaying vehicular and pedestrian traffic onto campus and snickering each and every time an OC Transpo bus drives by, refusing to cross the picket line. Aren't them union brothers honourable?

Ask a student and see what they think. How was chem lab today, John Q. Student? How much did you pay for access to that lab? Ahhhh.... I see.

So who will win here? The lawyers on the negotiating teams! WOOHOO!!! Go strikers go!