Velvet Posted December 25, 2008 Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 One piece of news that emerged during the hearing is that the transit union is having some difficulty getting union members out on to picket lines' date=' though they must do picket duty to collect strike pay. Mr. Larkin testified that only about 200 of the 2,300 members are showing up for duty on the picket line.[/quote']SOLIDARITY!Not surprising given that only 1,300 of the 2,300 union members voted whether or not to strike in the first place. (numbers extracted from the union website Mr. Dinghy linked to) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
can-o-phish Posted December 25, 2008 Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 I have lived in both Ottawa and toronto and I disagree can'o'phish. The ttc is much better than Ottawa's transit system in my opinion. It's not the drivers fault but when I lived and worked in ottawa a 10 minute drive would take me 2 buses and 50 minutes to get to work by transit. In toronto a 15 minute drive takes me 10-20 minutes by transit.Sorry, I wasn't referring to "commute time"; I was referring to general mood on the TTC, which I've found borderline hostile many times, both passengers & drivers...many times I would exit before my stop so I wouldn't have to listen to people arguing, yelling, pushing or just snarling...Unless the snow is really coming down I'm on my bike and only use my car once or twice a week...and my commute time is always quicker :content: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted December 31, 2008 Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 Labour minister orders transit voteFederal Labour Minister Rona Ambrose has ordered a supervised vote for striking OC Transpo union members on the City of Ottawa’s last contract offer.Ambrose made the decision late Wednesday afternoon, putting in motion a vote by 2,300 bus drivers, dispatchers and mechanics. The vote must be held by Jan. 9.Aloha,Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberdinghy Posted January 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 Weaksauce.I'll forever lose my beauty 11-7 shift!If you want to see what the new shifts will look like, check it out at www.ottawatransitstrike.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 Part of me thinks that if I were the head of the union, I'd call for that vote to happen as soon as possible (e.g., today, Friday, Jan. 2, 2009). If the head of the union believes that the membership will overwhelmingly reject the offer, the vote will flip things right back at Mayor O'Brien; on the other hand, if the membership accepts the offer, then the strike will at least be over, albeit at the cost of the union head having lost some face.Are there any heady (or non-heady) rides available to Irene's tonight?Aloha,Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberdinghy Posted January 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 Sorry, this is a better link.... Here. The head of OC Transpo in his latest letter said there will be no "Triple Shifts"A blatant lie as there are over 20 "Triple Shifts" in this proposal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 Part of me thinks that if I were the head of the union, I'd call for that vote to happen as soon as possible (e.g., today, Friday, Jan. 2, 2009). Do you know how hard it is for the 2300 union members to arrange for car-pools to get to that vote? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberdinghy Posted January 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 Yeah...there ain't no buses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freak By Night Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 What do you think the result of the forced vote will be Dinghy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberdinghy Posted January 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 It's really hard to say at this point. Many of the drivers online are saying NO....Mind you that only represents about 200 of us.However, there are alot of drivers out there that need to get back to work to make money.It'll be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcane Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 Bus strikes suck, and I have no working stroller. Ugh. At least I'm in Hell and not Ottawa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Voting day ThursdayThe bottom line is family life. Family, family, family. If we let this go through, it's the end of you and your family, it's the end of the union, it's the end of everything. That is what (management) wants. They want control of you. We have a little bit of that control, and they want to turn our system upside down.Aloha,Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hux Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Can it pass with a simple 50%+1 majority? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattm Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 I think this little article is a good read:http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090102.wagendamorgan0105/BNStory/Business/homeThen again, could just be personal opinion but I think what she's saying is fairly sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Can it pass with a simple 50%+1 majority?I saw an interview with the union head, and he seemed to think that all he needed to reject the offer was 50% + 1 against it, so I'd assume yes.Aloha,Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattm Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 I have a question but I think only rubber might be able to answer it. What is a no vote considered? If you don't vote, does it get counted as a vote IN FAVOR of, AGAINST or not counted at all.In other words, if only 1300 vote again, will the other 1000 get counted as votes to keep striking or to stop striking (or just not be counted at all)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 how could a non-vote be counted as a vote in favour or against? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 how could a non-vote be counted as a vote in favour or against?If the 50% figure is a percentage of the membership rather than the total number of votes cast, maybe? (That is, a constitution might require that a contract only be accepted if more than half of the union's toal number of members vote in favour of it. So if only 49% of the members voted, even if they all voted in favour of it, the contract would be rejected.)(I don't think the union is set up that way, but I don't see any reason they couldn't be.)Aloha,Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattm Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 (edited) The reason I'm wondering is that only 1300 of the strikers originally decided to vote. Now, there may be some borderline people that either don't care either way or just don't want to put in the effort to vote (especially if they have to go somewhere to do it and can't get there). So if the case were that if you don't vote, that means you want to go back to work, that would force those that are really dedicated to the strike to head out to vote. If, however, a non-vote is considered a vote to keep striking or isn't counted, then I think it's much more likely that the same 1000 or so that didn't vote last time (or others), might also not vote this time. I wonder about the post or article on here where someone, velvet I think, talked about the mob mentality and it got me thinking that if a non-vote were considered a vote to go back to work, that would force the union members to actually take a good look at what's going on, at the offer on the table, and would lead to much fairer and more realistic results. I also believe that people can change when they are part of a group and will exhibit different behaviors than otherwise, probably because it's easy to feel empowered when you have lots of other folks to feel it with you but when it's just you, it's not so easy. Also, Ollie, I agree with what you had said to that in that we are all responsible for our actions but I have observed riot-like behavior and it does change people, even if it brings out their true selves, people do act differently for whatever reason while a part of a mob (my opinion). Bottom line: I figure that if the case were that a non-vote is a vote to go back to work, there is a higher chance that the buses will come back then if the vote doesn't count or is considered a vote to keep striking. This is from observations such as 1300/2300 voting in the first place and ~200/2300 picketing. Doesn't show all that much effort being put into it all from the majority but if forced to go back to work unless they vote otherwise, I think we'd either see the effort that should be there or we'd see some buses rolling down the road. Even shorter version: It's easy to avoid doing something if you don't absolutely have to do it but it's not so easy when that's not the case and you have to put thought into something and make a decision from it, good or bad. I want the buses back Edited January 5, 2009 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davey Boy 2.0 Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 i would expect a big turnout considering the impact the strike has had on the drivers' daily lifethen again I said roughly the same thing for our last federal election, but that's a different ballgame entirelyanyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 then again I said roughly the same thing for our last federal electionExcellent use of the jab and weave because I was about to throw a haymaker your way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcane Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Voting day ThursdayThe bottom line is family life. Family, family, family. If we let this go through, it's the end of you and your family, "If you don't do as I say, you will die." Yeeaaah, okaaay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberdinghy Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 A non vote is just that, a non vote...It doesn't count either way.50% + 1 vote "no" Strike continues.50% + 1 vote "yes" back to work.You all know how I will vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberdinghy Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 I will also make this face when I mark my ballot<--------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Not to be a smartass, but no Mr. Dinghy, I don't know how you'll vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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