The Ottawa transit strike - Attitude is everything

Posted in response to this article:

I remember some of the early news coverage of this strike, where picketers were purposely exacerbating the traffic problems caused by the strike by blocking traffic on a major thoroughfare.

A reporter pulled aside one of the picketers doing this and asked him about this practice. I will paraphrase here because I don't recall the precise wording, but I know it's very close if not exactly word for word.

Reporter: We understand that you're striking, but aren't you basically just antagonizing the public by doing this? I mean, isn't the traffic bad enough as it is?

Picketer (a huge smirk crossing his face): Yes, absolutely. It's all *about* antagonizing the public and making it as inconvenient as possible. We're getting our message across.

This is where they lost me, right there, from day one. In this man's mind, not only was it okay to target the public as innocent victims, it was downright hilarious to do so.

Now, I understand he doesn't represent all ATU members. But first impressions stick. And there were plenty other picketers in that lineup so he's obviously not the only one with that attitude either.

I have long held the belief that unions are good and help protect the plight of the common worker against corporate tyranny and greed... things like labour law abuses, discrimination, keeping an employee for many years and then finding a reason to lay them off just before retirement or when they get sick in order to avoid paying promised benefits. But what I have seen so far from the ATU so far seems just as abusive, callous and wrong. They seem to have started off flouting the public, but forgot one fundamental truth: historically, strikes have stood the best chance of succeeding when they have the public's support. So now that they seem to be realizing this, they feel "beat up" and want sympathy from us. Too bad they started out with two left feet and stuck them both in their collective mouth.