In all of the hubbub and excitement that is my day-to-day life I have neglected to mention one of the main things that has caused disruption - Toronto's municipal workers have gone on strike. They walked off their jobs at midnight last Monday, making today the 10th day of work stoppage. Basically anything that is serviced by city workers has been brought to a halt - fun things like Canada Day celebrations/fireworks, city-run daycares and camps, all types of licensing and permits [boo to no weddings! least romantic strike ever!], park maintenance and of course...garbage collection. While all of the others truly suck [especially the daycare one - I can't imagine how families are coping with that] the garbage collection is really the one that is hitting home for me. Because now instead of just being mostly homebound I am now mostly homebound...with garbage friends! We regularly have garbage collection every other week [one week is recycling, one week is garbage - every week we have organic bin collection] but as of right now I have one month's worth of garbage in my house. And I don't have many options - our outdoor bin is filled [there are three units sharing one bin] and any of the parks that have been transformed into temporary garbage dumps [this whole concept is just so gross] are not a walkable distance [the idea of taking my garbage friends with me on public transit isn't entirely appealing, though I may have no choice].
I've gone through this before in Toronto. Back in aught-2 we were moving into our cute new apartment during the garbage strike. It was a problem. Our landlords graciously offered to take our garbage to a transfer station for us as they had a car. But our boxes hung around so long that I did indeed draw faces on them and they became such fantastic imaginary friends that it was difficult to let them go. That strike was eventually called off when our provincial government legislated the strikers back to work. The reason? The Pope was coming to town and we had to show him that Toronto cleans up real good. This summer the Pope ain't coming so it's highly unlikely the strike will be resolved any time soon [Windsor is currently in week eleven of their garbage strike]. The thing is - we don't produce much garbage - every two weeks we barely fill one kitchen bag. Once you recycle and separate organic material - there isn't much left. However, there is something left and I'm not wild about it sitting in my kitchen for months. Also, with no collection of organic materials the fruit and regular flies are starting to camp out. At least they are having a nice summer.
The thing is - I'm not even going to go on a rant about unions. It's been said by more articulate folk than I. But what really grinds my gears is that unions always aim to depict themselves as truly salt of the earth, blue collar heroes. In a city as economically diverse as Toronto, you can't get away with that. The average garbage collector earns $45K per year, plus benefits [yes, I'm aware that means some make more, some make less]. I've never earned that much money and I'm willing to bet that the majority of those who are being impacted by this strike - and other fun Toronto strikes like public transit - do not earn that much money. Precious little is done to protect lower level "pink collar" employees to say nothing of those in the food service industry or retail. And yet, just as Toronto needs garbage collectors, we need people to pour our coffee and help us find the right size of jeans @ The Gap. I'm not saying that the unions are wrong because others have it worse, but I think they should open their eyes a bit. The people who are hurt the most by this [and other] labour disruption are those who need the service the most because there are no alternatives for them. Unfortunately, these are also the same people who have no voice.
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Yes, my sympathy on the strike! This is definitely going to mess up a lot of people's summer - daycare and summer camps are needed in the summer. (Yes, some kids go to camp for fun, but some go to camp because that's what their child care arrangements are.) But the garbage has got to be a mess. It doesn't inspire me to visit Toronto anytime soon. And, like our transit strike this winter, it will annoy everyone but hit the poorest people the hardest.
ReplyDeleteOh man, that's horrible. I can't imagine...
ReplyDeleteI'd not heard about the strike before I read your post (thanks for the information!) Sanitation workers may make a lot of money, but they do a job that most people don't want to do. I don't begrudge them their money, but it doesn't seem fair that they can bring things to a screeching halt by going on strike.
ReplyDeleteIs there a hidden corner somewhere close where you can start a compost pile for your organic trash and keep the fruit flies out of your place? I once "made" a table by arranging a tablecloth on top of a pile of boxes. Wonder if you could do the same thing with your trash :-)
Kathy - yes, I didn't mean to say that I didn't think the money was deserved [that's the wrong type of elitist] - although apparently a lot of people *do* want to do the job here in Toronto. My concern for the sanitation workers is health/safety. It's a physically demanding job and there are obvious health issues. However, recently the city bought all these fancy new bins which should make their jobs safer and a bit easier. If I were union, I would fight for things like that to improve my job quality.
ReplyDeleteColette - you are right about the daycamps for sure. My parents used to send me to daycamp for one month out of the summer as it was way cheaper than paying a private baby-sitter. And yeah, the reason I didn't visit Vancouver last fall was because of their garbage strike!