So this place is a bit of a mess right now. We're in the midst of a civic workers strike that has been going on for a month. The people that get the most publicity out of it are the garbage workers because people are being subjected to temporary garbage dumps in their local parks. However there are people off in the strike that are even more valuable like the city daycare workers.
This whole strike makes me SO LIVID! There are people in this city who depend on city run daycare because they cannot afford anything else and they have been without it for a month. A girl at work told me about a friend of hers who was told by her job that she couldn't take anymore time off in order to stay home with her 2 year old. She has no alternative daycare for her child so what is she supposed to do? Here is a person who could lose their job because the civic workers are being greedy and their negotiators are power hungry.
I know part of the problem is that at first the city was unwilling to give them a raise. I agree it wasn't fair when the other civic workers part of other unions did get a raise and the councilors just gave themselves a raise. I have no problem with them getting a raise like everyone else. I DO have a problem with them not being willing to let go of their bankable sick days.
I can't believe that this benefit was ever granted, but since it does exist the city clearly has to get rid of this millstone around it's neck. There are so many services and so much infrastructure that this money could be used to improve and instead it's being used to pad the retirement of a group of workers that already have it better than the average Canadian.
It is completely disgusting to learn that there are civic employees that have been slowly banking sick days over their tenure with the city so that when they retire they get an extra six months worth of pay! That is an appalling abuse of a system!
Sick days exist so that if you are ill you don't have to starve yourself in order to make rent that month. If you aren't sick you aren't entitled to benefit from them that is why they are called sick days and not VACATION days.
I've had people justify to me that it's ok for them to use sick days in this way because there are people who use 20 sick days a year and aren't sick. My response to that is when did it become acceptable to abuse a system just because other less scrupulous people do? Seriously? It's the old adage of if someone else jumps off a cliff do you follow?
There are civic workers who have accumulated six months worth of sick days that they are saving for when they retire, at which point they cash them out! When was the last time you had the ability to save up six months worth of salary to be paid out when you retire? I just want to know how the hell this is legal! It is a complete scam!
Personally I hope the mayor doesn't give in to their demands and keep this completely antiquated and costly system. Hold out as long as it takes for these greedy people to be humbled and realize that we are in an economic recession! It is one group of people that need a serious reality check!
The other news story that irked me the other day was that of a Ontario woman has become the anti public health care poster child south of the border. She says that if she had stayed in Canada and waited for treatment she would have died. Instead she remortgaged her house for $100 000 and sought treatment at the Mayo clinic in the states.
The woman claims that she had a tumour that if it had not been removed she would have died. Fact checkers discovered that she didn't have a tumour and that it was a benign cyst. It still required treatment but it wasn't a life or death situation. So the reason that there was a wait time was because it wasn't a life threatening condition.
Putting aside this fact, I still think it is infuriating that she is going to the States and bashing public health care. All those crazy, conservatives there have no problem taking a story like hers and twisting it around so that is serves their greedy, capitalist purposes!
The truth is that the only reason she was able to remortgage her house to afford the surgery in the states is because she is Canadian. If she had been an American in the states she would have been bankrupted by all the appointments and tests it would have taken to discover she had a benign cyst. She wouldn't have had a house to remortgage to pay for her 'life-saving' surgery.
I can't believe that any Canadian would advocate for our public health care system to be dismantled. It's not perfect, that I will admit but it is certainly a HELL of a lot better than having a heart attack and walking into an ER where they demand your credit card before anyone would move to save your life. How stupid have people in this country become if they are honestly advocating for a pay for service system.
It's a sign that too many of us take for granted that which many other countries, the Americans included, envy. What price would you put on your life? If you can't figure that out then just try getting deathly ill in the United States and go to any hospital as they will be happy to tell you how much you need to shell out up front before they lift a finger to help you. OH and they will be sure to double bill you as well!
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