I think the time has come to create legislation that decertifies any union found guilty of employing violent tactics during a labour dispute.
Simple? Simple.
in the comments;
“I spoke with a unionized trucker this morning who told me the strikers are openly threatening the other drivers.
”They told us ‘we know who you are and where you live.’ They’re insane.”
Those who have disobeyed have been attacked at home, had their brake lines cut and of course been shot at.
My source’s company said they are even bringing in truckers from Ontario because they aren’t known to the strikers. Every one of the trucks entering the port has to be accompanied by security, paid for by the company.
The police are apparently hopeless to enforce the rule of law, and the politicians are AWOL. This is probably partly explained by the fact that all of the strikers happen to be Indo-Canadian, and no policeman or politician wants to get heavy-handed with a minority group, no matter how necessary it may be. (my wife is Indo-Canadian so if you think I’m being racist you can get stuffed.)
Meanwhile, small businesses like mine will continue to be hammered by the rule of the mob at our ports, and the local economy will continue to lose about $75 million of economic output with every passing week.
Four weeks and counting. Four weeks of mob rule and political paralysis.
How can this country even dare to call itself a member of the modern world?
I concur. It’s as simple as that. Why not make it so?
The Lib-left and MSM, however, in a lame attempt to deter such an anti-left-wing-violence policy, would automatically label it “simplistic”. However, many good ideas are the simplest in concept and often most effective. A solution need not be complicated and bureaucratic to be viable. Simple legislative tweaking is all that’s needed.
After all, most Liberal policies are so complicated they do no good and cost us billions anyway, like the hunting-rifle registry and the alleged daycare scheme (“alleged” as I doubt the people will see much of it at all, like most promised programs).
If a message is not sent to the unions that violence will never be tolerated, then what’ll eventually happen? Terrorism?
I agree, however how do you know that the union executive authorized this? If it was simply truckers that are taking the law into their own hands, they need to be prosecuted and put away. Don’t immediately assume that the top of the union has something to do with it.
Todd: ” how do you know that the union executive authorized this?”
My sister crossed the picket line at Safeway a few years back. Her truck was “keyed” (Safeway ponied up the cost to repaint/repair), her picture was blown up to poster size and posted at all stores calling her every name under the sun, she was vilified by the union and colleagues alike. She was not the only one.
When an agreement was finally reached (worse than the one the union refused to ratify), she and others that crossed the picket line were penalized by the union (Safeway had to agree to not pay some sort of bonus that others received, around $300, not much, but a “token” slap), and she was not protected from abuse from returning workers. She had to transfer to a different store, but was under a cloud from then on. She was also continually blocked from promotion and eventually took a buy-out after over 20 years.
Oh, yeah. My money’s on the union executives authorizing this and other actions against those crossing picket lines.
Watch for interesting times over the next few weeks in AB & BC with the Telus strike. The union, dismayed at the lack of support in AB, actually imported striking BC workers to beef up the picket lines here (as many Telus workers, relatively happy with the offered contract, have continued to work).
It will get ugly, I’m sure.
The story doens’t indicate a single isolated event, or people acting alone. The fact that the union heads have no control over the situation (or do not care to) is nearly as damning as being actively involved.
Teamsters wouldn’t like that much. This province is run by the unions, although not as bad as it was under the NDP. The multi-billion dollar film industry took a might hit because of union tactics until folks took their biz elsewhere (like T.O.). 80% of hospital budgets here go to paying unionized staff. Fraser Institute did a study comparing hospital workers’ wages with private sector, and of course, hospital workers came out on top. Years ago at a major Toronto hospital, the head of housekeeping was allowed to resign rather than be sacked because he got caught selling housekeeping jobs for $500 a pop to women from his own community, offending women from other communities who complained.
Sometimes the unions really piss me off, literally getting into my face saying terrible things about their employers, like not being paid enough and having crappy working conditions and poor benefits. I have NO sympathy for this attitude. They’re spoiled brats. They could care less how most people (including myself) have it who aren’t unionized, and, after all, we cannot unionize everything, otherwise the economy would crash badly and take a long time to recover. Communism doesn’t work.
I can’t believe healthcare workers, firefighters and police officers are permitted to strike. If they’re only in it for the money, or if they blow up their expenses and debts so that they need to make more, than whose fault is it? Not mine! Not their employers’! I fear, if the Lib-left has its way, eventually they’ll grant military personnel the right to strike! Now isn’t that fecking scary? Don’t dismiss it; the left is truly insane, after all!
Further, why should it be necessary to prove culpability on the part of the Union Leadership? That’s like asking that it be proven that Paul Martin knew about Adscam. Come on. We know how union leadership manipulates their membership into doing stupid stuff.
I believe it was my email that pointed Kate toward the story. I’d like to add one thing.
I spoke with a unionized trucker this morning who told me the strikers are openly threatening the other drivers.
”They told us ‘we know who you are and where you live.’ They’re insane.”
Those who have disobeyed have been attacked at home, had their brake lines cut and of course been shot at.
My source’s company said they are even bringing in truckers from Ontario because they aren’t known to the strikers. Every one of the trucks entering the port has to be accompanied by security, paid for by the company.
The police are apparently hopeless to enforce the rule of law, and the politicians are AWOL. This is probably partly explained by the fact that all of the strikers happen to be Indo-Canadian, and no policeman or politician wants to get heavy-handed with a minority group, no matter how necessary it may be. (my wife is Indo-Canadian so if you think I’m being racist you can get stuffed.)
Meanwhile, small businesses like mine will continue to be hammered by the rule of the mob at our ports, and the local economy will continue to lose about $75 million of economic output with every passing week.
Four weeks and counting. Four weeks of mob rule and political paralysis.
How can this country even dare to call itself a member of the modern world.
Whether the bosses knew or authorized the violence is irrelevent. If Joe Average union member knew he would kill the union by such tactics, then he’d be damned sure to stay inside the law.
I live close to the Port and shall try to get photographs tonight. The local media does not appear to be following this story.
If you do, consider sending them to me here, Mike.
Don’t forget that most of this violence is targeted at other union drivers who think asking for the equivalent of $75 an hour is ridiculous. This strike would be over tomorrow if the police could assure drivers that they and their families won’t be physically attacked.
Unfortunately, they can’t.
Laws are nice but…. having been involved in many strike scenes and enforcing the laws of this country at them, I have seen it time after time again in which persons who have been charged at strike scenes (mischief, cause disturbance and even minor assaults)have their charges withdrawn by the Crown Attorney once the strike has been settled. There are already laws on the book, the courts (Crown)in my area (and I’ve heard of instances in others)refuse to prosecute them. I would be niave to think the unions don’t notice this fact.
Candace –
There is alot more to the Telus strike than meets the eye. I have family members who have been employed with BC Tel/Telus for 30+ years. It will be long and ugly. The current contract I saw that was offered to the staff was scary in how much it took away. There is no possibility I will feel that Telus is uncompetitive, and is justified in slashing even more of the company. Shipping what few higher paying jobs that are left in that company over to Thailand will go real well. If they have their way, the only employess that will be left in Canada are the ones who come to your home to install the lines. You cannot convince me to feel bad for Telus and believe that their cuts they have made in the last 3 years are only for the shareholders. It is all about a bottom line. And if they are loosing money, they should have waited to buy Clearnet a whole week. Once they had declared bankruptcy, rather than buying them before they did and taking on their huge debt load.
The truckers strike on the other hand. Zero sympathy. These are the same people that came in 10 years ago and slashed their prices to drive out fair compition. They would take a loss just to get a job. Now that the “honest” companies are not involved with them anymore they turn around and cry about lack of money? Too bad, should have thought of that before you ran at a loss.
Al brings us to another issue: the Libranos have done something to the judiciary, guaranteeing that left-wing extremists like violent, terroristic strikers, will get off the hook for violence, arrest/charges notwithstanding. This is more evidence to support my contention hereto.
This reminds me of the recent SCOC ruling against Aboriginals having a “right” based on race to cut wood as they see fit. The Aboriginals vow to fight the ruling. Fascinating. I had been led by the VLWC to believe that the rulings of the SCOC were the final word in everything. It’s always the argument of the left when they get what they want. But if they don’t, then they’ll ignore it and the issue will not go away. Eventually it’ll be back before the SCOC and there’ll be a more favorable ruling for the Aboriginals. Don’t be surprised if someday I’m right, or if the Libs disregard the SCOC and let them do whatever they want.
And the MSM will have mass amnesia wrt the original ruling. Such is the awesome power of the VLWC.
Home-grown terrorism.
Mark
Ottawa
Wow- Chip says the violent union drivers are demanding SEVENTY-FIVE BUCKS AN HOUR? For what- driving a truck and loading and unloading the truck? That’s worth $75/hr.???? Now I’ve seen it all! What’s next? Some guy taking a dump into a can and calling it art and actually selling it for thousands of British pounds? It happened. What next? The Cdn gov’t paying for the production of a porno movie starring Nina Hartley? It happened.
Wow- if I was paid just half that per hour… I can only dream… these trucker feckers are fecking nuts! They can bite my ass!
Why bother to have unions in the first place? If there weren’t unions, more people would be gainfully employed and there’d be greater equality of income among workers. Therefore, unionization reduces employment and equality.
Let the leftofascists put that in their collective pipe and smoke it!
Truck drivers @75.00/hr.
Wow, wheres that? Mars.
A number of years ago 1986 I was driving for $8.00/hr
In 2003 I was making $15.00/hr.
This is city driving non union.
Mike, if you get pictures of union violence, please do send them to Kate. If the MSM covers up any violence in an attempt to protect, aid and abet their leftist brethren, then let’s use the power of the blogosphere, which is the only power we, the people, have to get the truth out to the people that wouldn’t otherwise get out.
This is a great idea. Ordinary citizens photographing and filming such shocking acts and, if the MSM covers them up, taking the truth into their own hands and using the newfound power of the blogosphere. Come on, people, visualize the future. It belongs to you now. Take advantage of it. Up! Up!
REMEMBER, AFTER ALL, THIS IS OUR COUNTRY!
Im sick of truck driving so maybe I should cross Telus pickit line downtown Calgary and see if they want to hire a fat old bald truck driver,I have a brain like new, never been used.
Should I cross telus line I would expect violence, verbal and physical.
Telus lost me as a customer today. My internet access went fown, they wouldn’t or couldn’t answer the phone so I dug out my old shaw connection gave them a call and bamm I’m back online. Now I need to find a Voip provider here in Vancouver, any suggestions? As for the truckers if I didnt already have work I would cross the line in a heartbeat!
Anyone who is fairly tried and also found guilty of cutting a trucker’s brake line should serve the penalty for attempted murder of everyone who was on the highway the driver would have taken.
Anyone who is fairly tried and also found guilty of cutting a community’s telephone cables should serve the penalty for attempted murder of all 911 subscribers in that community.
Telus is cutting back on certain services in calgary,for example incoming calls but against law to cut off outgoing such as 911.
A couple of days ago in calgary my buddys aunts incoming calls went dead, shes 88yrs, my buddy thought it was just the battery so off he goes to radio shack/future shop for new battery, installs it, still doesnt work so he phones telus and sure enough they are cutting back on some services and various areas at their choosing.
Telus was formed from the merger of Alberta Government Telephones and BC (goverment) Tel, which were the state monopoly operators in that era.
Neither the organizational culture nor the under the table relationship with the state has changed in the resultant institution. For de facto purposes, this is a public-sector labour dispute.
Therefore, expect anti-public behaviour.
In case you missed it Doug:
Telus labour dispute heats up
Broadcast News – July 22, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/7tjkh
KAMLOOPS — It appears the labour dispute between Telus and the Telecommunication Workers’ union is getting nasty in B.C. Bruce Okabe, Telus vice president of business solutions confirms 500 people are without service in Pritchard, near Kamloops.
Okabe says it looks like someone has cut a cable line with an axe. And there are disturbances in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island with 150 people affected after Okabe says a cable was cut in two places.
The RCMP are investigating both areas.
_______________________________________________
Maybe VOIP will give Telus a little competition for residential service,Shaw cable now offers residential service, $50.00/month and I believe that may include long distance of some sort.
I guess VOIP and Shaw cable have in effect crossed the Telus picket line.
First of all the people on strike in the Truckers strike are NOT A CERTIFIED union.Therefore normal union/strike rules don’t apply. They are a loosey goosey group of independant truck drivers. Most are of one nationality, a nationality that thinks violence is OK to solve problems.
I’m not pro-union but I do think they have a valid case.They may be asking for $75 per hour but that includes the truck. If you go to rent a backhoe or similar peice of equipment the rate is $125 per hour.Also the setup at the ports is screwy.Some of thse guys wait in line up to 3 hours without pay to pick up a load. The govt should be looking at ways to settle the strike, not try and force people back to work.They can’t be forced back anyway because they don’t have a contract. One trucker said he had turned in his liscense and cut off his insurance. Now how the hell do you force him to go back. When the lawyer for the group was told the feds were going to issue an ultimatum to go back or “ELSE” he just laughed. They have no contract to be enforced and the feds can’t come up with 1000 trucks to replace them.
Having said all that, from the stories I heard on open line radio the cops basically do NOTHING. Hmmm, now thats strange.According to one truck company owner who had an injunction allowing him to legally pick up a container the police stood around watching while striking drivers damaged his truck.
If someone does damage or violence they should be treated like any other thug or criminal,thrown in jail, charged and hopefully fined heavily or better yet sent to jail. But it won’t happen.This country is so mamby pamby when it comes to this ethnic group I would be surprised is any arrests were made.Besides the cops are probably to busy following Gurmant Grewal.
As an aside however, the lack of container truck traffic on the road is very noticable. And here is a suggestion to Vancouver and Burnaby city councils”you don’t want the Port Mann Brige and freeway twinned/expanded which is necessary to handle the ever increasing truck traffic from this port because you feel increasing the road capacity will just encourage more people to commute into Vancouver.So instead of punishing those people who wait in the daily 8 hour “rush hour” on this fereeway/bridge to get into Vancouver to work, cut the port in half. “Bingo”, the traffic problem will be solved. But that won’t sit well with the Vancouver left wing pinko city council.They want the increased business/port taxes all the while limiting the traffic created by them. You can’t have it both ways”. Thankfully the Prov.Liberals, who are somewhat right of center, are ingoring Vancovuer city council.But then that gives vity council them more time to figure ways to waste taxpayers money like buying “designer” man hole covers or hiring out of work musicians to sing a little song at the start of council meetings. Figures!!
I must say though, even then they don’t appear to be as far out in left field as Toronto council.
Hrony Toad
First of all the people on strike in the Truckers strike are NOT A CERTIFIED union.Therefore normal union/strike rules don’t apply. They are a loosey goosey group of independant truck drivers. Most are of one nationality, a nationality that thinks violence is OK to solve problems.
I’m not pro-union but I do think they have a valid case.They may be asking for $75 per hour but that includes the truck. If you go to rent a backhoe or similar peice of equipment the rate is $125 per hour.Also the setup at the ports is screwy.Some of thse guys wait in line up to 3 hours without pay to pick up a load. The govt should be looking at ways to settle the strike, not try and force people back to work.They can’t be forced back anyway because they don’t have a contract. One trucker said he had turned in his liscense and cut off his insurance. Now how the hell do you force him to go back. When the lawyer for the group was told the feds were going to issue an ultimatum to go back or “ELSE” he just laughed. They have no contract to be enforced and the feds can’t come up with 1000 trucks to replace them.
Having said all that, from the stories I heard on open line radio the cops basically do NOTHING. Hmmm, now thats strange.According to one truck company owner who had an injunction allowing him to legally pick up a container the police stood around watching while striking drivers damaged his truck.
If someone does damage or violence they should be treated like any other thug or criminal,thrown in jail, charged and hopefully fined heavily or better yet sent to jail. But it won’t happen.This country is so mamby pamby when it comes to this ethnic group I would be surprised if any arrests were made.Besides the cops are probably to busy following Gurmant Grewal.
As an aside however, the lack of container truck traffic on the road is very noticable. And here is a suggestion to Vancouver and Burnaby city councils”you don’t want the Port Mann Brige and freeway twinned/expanded which is necessary to handle the ever increasing truck traffic from this port because you feel increasing the road capacity will just encourage more people to commute into Vancouver.So instead of punishing those people who wait in the daily 8 hour “rush hour” on this fereeway/bridge to get into Vancouver to work, cut the port in half. “Bingo”, the traffic problem will be solved. But that won’t sit well with the Vancouver left wing pinko city council.They want the increased business/port taxes all the while limiting the traffic created by them. You can’t have it both ways”. Thankfully the Prov.Liberals, who are somewhat right of center, are ingoring Vancouver city council.But then that gives city council more time to figure ways to waste taxpayers money like buying “designer” man hole covers or hiring out of work musicians to sing a little song at the start of council meetings. Figures!!
I must say though, even then they don’t appear to be as far out in left field as Toronto council.
Horny Toad
Wasn’t the MSM on PMPM’s case for using foreign workers on his ships instead of high priced unionized Canadian workers?
The fundamental human right of freedom of association implies that voluntary labour collectives are legitimate, as is any individual’s volitional withdrawl of their services. Non-volitional (closed shop) unions are, on the other hand, a principal manifestation of collectivismist evil.
It is interesting to note that outside of communist countries like Quebec (where the state enforces non-volition unions by extortion at gun-point), only about 20% of private-sector contracts with individuals, for their property (their services), are connected to union-like operations. However, in the public sector, about 80% of such contracts are so connected, with a high occurrence of requirements for non-volitional compliance.
I think working hard to do an honest job for an honest dollar is good. I don’t think that being forced to be compliant is good.
At the rist of dragging out the same quote twice in three days; since everyone seems to like it so much:
“Neither one person, nor any number of persons, is warranted in saying to another human creature of ripe years that he shall not do with his life for his own benefit what he chooses to do with it. All errors he is likely to commit against advice and warning are far outweighed by the evil of allowing others to constrain him to do what they deem his good.” –John Stuart Mill
To the degree that any collusion between the state and mandated non-volitional union-like collectives creates situations that violate Mill’s Law (if I may coin a meme), they must be put down, as you would a dog in unsufferable, unfixable pain.
“I think the time has come to create legislation that decertifies any union found guilty of employing violent tactics during a labour dispute.”
How about we just prosecute the strikers who are threatening people and shooting at them under current laws rather than creating new laws that have ominous implications for our democratic rights?
Think this one through by applying it to some other situations, Kate. A couple of nutters kill some abortion doctors. Next thing you know the Libs will pass laws banning Christian organizations. If that sounds far-fetched, remember how we wound up with the gun registry.
The right of association is precious and we should not give the government excuses to remove it from us.
Dera readers,
just wanted to point out that the striking truckers in Vancouver are not asking for $75/hr merely as drivers. These individuals are owner operators. That is to say that they want $75/hr revenue to cover all the costs of the truck that they own personally (fuel, insurance, taxes, licencing and in some cases hired drivers).
This is actually a generous rate if they were located in Edmonton or Calgary for example (usually going rate in both these cities is approximately $40/hr). However, I cannot vouch for this rate in Vancouver. It may still be only on the cusp of adequate.
cheers
Frankly, folks, it doesn’t matter what price they’re asking for their services; that’s between them and the customers of their services. In a free market, if they ask too much or too little the problem will be corrected by economic gravity.
On the other hand, if we don’t have a free maket… well there’s your problem. To the degree that contract prices are manipulated by elitist corpulent felines, the concept of fairness is detached from reality.
“Telus lost me as a customer today. My internet access went fown, they wouldn’t or couldn’t answer the phone so I dug out my old shaw connection gave them a call and bamm I’m back online. Now I need to find a Voip provider here in Vancouver, any suggestions? As for the truckers if I didnt already have work I would cross the line in a heartbeat!”
This sort of thing happened wrt the Aliant strike in Saint John awhile back. Lost lots of customers, they certainly did. Unionists shot themselves in the foot.
Hey anon, you’re wrong about the Telus offer. A family member of mine works there and he says it’s pretty fair. As for the workers impression of it, he says that if the union actually allowed it to come to a vote, the BC workers would vote 40to49% for it, but AB workers would push it over the 50% mark for acceptance company-wide. Last week before the official strike began many of the workers tried to hold “study sessions” but in AB more than half the employees ignored it and went to work anyway. These are rank & file members. It’s a pretty good contract offer, the union just refuses to let their members vote for it.
Indeed, Stephen: it’s a queue at orthopedics in the ER.
The titular leaders of the members of the Shaw collective appreciate that their success depends on customer satisfaction. They try.
The titular leaders of the members of the Telus collective don’t think that. They fail. Or they would, if either (1) they weren’t brown-nosing the state, or (2) the state appartchiki weren’t so pleased by it.
Sean wrote:
“How about we just prosecute the strikers who are threatening people and shooting at them under current laws rather than creating new laws that have ominous implications for our democratic rights?”
Implications for democratic rights? Well, if you think Canadians have democratic rights, then I’ll have to give you a long lecture on the PM’s commitment to such.
Besides, unions create inequality as well as higher unemployment due to greatly increased costs to businesses. It’s fundamentally unfair to nonunionized workers. After all, we can’t unionize everything- many businesses would then simply disappear, like that Wal-Mart in Quebec, I believe.
Plus, wrt your suggestion that a couple of wackos shooting abortion doctors would lead to Christian organizations being banned, Judeo-Christians are already persecuted by the leftist state. In some ways today, more tomorrow under continued Librano totalitarianism.
Barcardi –
Ask them about changes to the pension plan for current and RETIRED employees, ask them about mandatory overtime changes, ask them about the changes to contracting out rules, and the list goes on and on…..
Why should I ask them, Anon, when I can ask you, since you brought it up?
Scabs are cocksuckers.
Why?
Because they want all the gravy and non of the pain of staying out. Others are SUFFERING for the short term, in order to get a deal they can survive on, which by the way THESE PARASITES WILL GET TOO! Hope fully without doing anything to achieve it. Cocksuckers. And so others get mad and try to show the errors of their ways!
They better do their part, and not undermine the sacrifices others make. Independent operators My ass!!
If they won’t work with the association or union, they should quit. Take up knitting or pottery!
I’m not a trucker, but fuel and other costs have an impact on my work. Luckily I can pass the costs on. Can’t afford to subsidise anybody, period.
I always support someone who is forced to tear apart an unrealistic situation, which this is, as far as fuel prices go.
In fact ALBERTA truckers have reached a deal with construction contractors. They were in basicly the same situation. Only their members seemed to see that they were ALL in the same boat. And worked together.
scabs are vermin.
They’d sooner drive right over you than suffer a short delay in THEIR schedule…..SPIT on them when ever you get the chance!! They see the short term and are only out FOR THEMSELVES.
Flame on!!!
As for TELUS “Telus was formed from the merger of Alberta Government Telephones and BC (goverment) Tel, which were the state monopoly operators in that era.”
Ahem:
Majority owner in this case is in fact a listed company.
Ever heard of IBM?
Public Sector despute?……NOT!!!
But I WILL agree that public service unions have pretty lame beefs, generally speaking.
I was a member for 21 years or so.
Economic Gravity is alive and well in Calgarys trucking industry.
Rates are defying gravity.
Supply and demand,currently demand is outstripping supply.
“Shaw cable now offers residential service, $50.00/month and I believe that may include long distance of some sort.”
I had Shaw’s VOIP service in Edmonton just before we moved. It was $55/mth and included unlimited LD calling in North America 24/7. The service was mediocre. Connections would drop for no reason. The sound quality was bad. It was incompatible with our alarm system. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone until they’ve had some time to work the (numerous!) bugs out.
“Implications for democratic rights? Well, if you think Canadians have democratic rights, then I’ll have to give you a long lecture on the PM’s commitment to such.”
Please don’t — I’m already feeling ill. I’d like to preserve what little we have left in the way of rights, but I’ve got a feeling that I’m trying to close the barn door after the horses have left. 🙁
“Plus, wrt your suggestion that a couple of wackos shooting abortion doctors would lead to Christian organizations being banned, Judeo-Christians are already persecuted by the leftist state. In some ways today, more tomorrow under continued Librano totalitarianism.”
I realize this. It would be even worse, however, if the Liberals could create laws banning groups that offend their sensibilities. Please don’t encourage them to engage in that sort of behaviour.
“Scabs are $#@!suckers.”
So is anyone living east of Manitoba. >:-)
Sometimes demand outstrips supply. Sometimes supply outstrips demand. The pendulum swings back and forth. What do people want, a zero-latency system? Oh yeah? You try changing your behaviour overnight!
For the record, scabs are protective crusts that form over wounds. I’d rather be a scab than a streptococcus.
And, Paul, did I say IBM was immune to the siren call of state welfare in our modern world? If you can’t afford to subsidize anyone, why are you willing to subsidize the elitist corpulent felines of the unionism collective?
Actually, BC Tel was majority owned by GTE. Since the merger, Telus is 24% owned by GTE, which has since merged with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon.
The advent and adoption of the internet is causing significant problems for traditional telephone service providers like Telus. As an example, I make voice calls all over the world, almost daily, via the internet for a reasonable flat monthly rate. It’s not perfect, but it is definitely improving. And, I fully expect prices to decline because whoever gives me the best price will get my business. That’s the market.
Telus is faced with very stiff competition, and as the industry is changing rapidly, any company that wants to play must be very nimble. Union shops like Telus will have a very tough time.
go back to capitalizm….or to India…haha
Ahh yes, GTE. That was a piece of work, wasn’t it.
The big problem I have with Telus, from where I sit, is incompetence. They’re sitting on an equity infrastructure that is immensely valuable to those who wish to manage the risk of monoculture technologies, and they’re not selling it.
How many people know that Telus land lines have an end-to-end power supply that is indepenent of the mains? I will not have as any principal telephone a mains-powered device that does not allow me to call for help, should I need to, when the mains power is out. Remember, a disaster is twelve little problems that happen in just the right order. An indendently powered communications link can be the link that safely breaks the disaster chain. (By the way, have you checked your fire extinguishers lately?)
Why isn’t Telus selling this majestically important detail like their life depends on it? Their life does depend on it, otherwise, they’re going to end up just another overpriced antiquated buggy-whip factory being propped up by the state on our tax dollars. That’s not live, that’s zombie.
eastern Paul, you write “are only out FOR THEMSELVES”. What? And the union members aren’t out for themselves? Gimme a break. Union members are inherently lazy. Good for scabs!
anon, the workers are voting with their feet if half of them are still showing up for work as was reported here in Alberta! I don’t need to ask them if they’ve got the courage to pass through the union goon picket line.
The union needs to change with the times. Period. Contracting out provisions are paramount. If unions weren’t so inflexible in their work arrangements then contracting out wouldn’t be an issue. I’ve worked the mgmt side in govt before when negotiating with the public service unions. The big issues weren’t pay, but flexibility in work arrangements. That’s really the only reason contracting out has become so popular. Contractors are flexible. As for mandatory overtime changes, I’ve got no sympathy for the union there either. I’ll give you the point about the retirement plan changes to those that are already retired though. That just seems unfair to me.
No point in bolggers bickering.
Government is avoiding it’s duty here.
Gordie should decree a fifteen percent across the board intrim increase and allow trucking to clear up the backlog, save many small businesses, and thus allow talks to continue without bullets flying.
You can’t skin-flint on this one for five years as with Telus you cheapskate, Gordie.
Get off your ass! Do your job, or get ready for a non-confidence vote if truckers get shot.
73s TG
If there has been contractual retirement plan fraud then the victims have a case to take to court, they should not be potentially creating new victims by axeing community’s telecommunications cables.
And, Breezer, I strongly disagree that all union members are inherently lazy, I know non-volitional union members who are not lazy at all. I do suspect though that the organizational staff at non-volitional unions are greedy.
One thing about the so-called truckers union. It was only cobbled together recently and bizarrely only includes Indo-Canadians. It’s less a union than a glorified street gang.
They have a contract, which they’re now ignoring, and they’re asking for $90 for each container they haul, up from the $60 they currently get. They ignored an offer of $70.
It’s not a normal strike in any sense of the word. They’re simply holding the economy hostage until they get what they want.
As much as my business needs this thing resolved, I don’t want the companies to cave in. It would be the mother of all precedents and effectively hand this province over to thugs who are willing to break any law to get what they want.
That can’t be allowed to happen.