Unions tell teachers they must NOT volunteer outside of regular hours in order to allow after-school activities to continue. Students picket the teachers! What is wrong with this picture? In this case, they are angry at the wrong people – or at the very least, the students should give equal attention to the union offices!
Our City Council approves huge infrastructure projects like Lansdowne Park or Hi-Speed Transit and it seems they had NO idea how far in the red the city already is just trying to keep up the maintenance on the existing infrastructure. Today’s Ottawa Sun looks at the books and the city needs to double the already millions of dollars needed to maintain existing roads, sewers and facilities. How and Why do they make these large-dollar decisions without having what, to me, seems like very basic information??? Can you imagine this type of bookkeeping and decision-making in private industry? Fix what we have. Build new once we can actually afford it!!
Jason Spezza playing for the Swiss team? Rats are abandonning a sinking ship in fast order!
Nobody comments on my blogs anymore! Is anyone reading them? Does nobody have an opinion out there?
justbitchinrantsandraves 
Sue, I read all your blogs and enjoy each one. Keep up the good work.
Don’t get me started on unions. Their time has come and gone. It’s all about money now that safety and employee rights have been met.
Hockey players can fob off. They make a stupid amount of money to play a game, while a worthy profession such as nurses and doctors make a fraction.
I have no love of the lying Liberals. They are a bunch of schysters, but teachers should not be allowed to strike. Education is on of the requirements in the Declaration of Human Rights. It severely irks me when unions think they can toy with that.
Do you think safety and employee rights were EVER a significant issue in the public sector???????
Oh Sue, please don’t get me started. Unions HAD their place. The public sector? Well, yes and no. Not all public sector jobs are in an office from 7am-2:30pm. I’ve worked with Public Works employees who are out in the field, in the boiler rooms, where conditions are not as cushy as looking at a computer monitor. For them, yes.
But for the office workers, no. For the teachers? No. They don’t need a union. All they do is hold children hostage to demand more money and other frivolous things. I’m really tired of unions being bullies because they want more money than the cost of inflation or what a company can pay. These days, with so many people out of work, demanding more money is an insult to those people who *want* to work.
Remember in the 80s when the air traffic controllers went on strike grinding air travel to a halt? Regan fired all of them and hired people who wanted to work. If union Joe wanted his job again, he had to apply. That’s how it should be. That’s real 21st century world.
Unions in the past have done a great deal to ensure fair wages, benefits and safety to those jobs that need more visibility for safety. However, they still have a 1930s attitude while not looking at the economy and state of the world. They have truly outlived their usefulness.