Injustice

Oh, these days there is much need for long walks & for singing "Baby Beluga" with Olive. We went for a 4 hour hike in the woods yesterday & it was a balm for my soul.

We have been on strike for 78 days. Our primary issues are around pay equity & rights for our part-time & auxilliary workers (who represent half of our workforce). Pay equity is a human right. We, as a primarily female workforce, are asking our employer to join with us in evaluating our jobs using a gender neutral model to establish if we are indeed earning less than equivalent jobs in male dominant workforces. Hmmm, in Ontario they have pay equity legislation & the librarians at Toronto Public Library make $7 an hour more than we do. B.C. is one of only two provinces to not have pay equity legislation. We went to a mediator last week, a man, who indicated that he was very supportive of our cause. His job was to return a set of recommendations that reflected a fair balance of the desires of our employer & the workers. Then the recommendations came back & we were all slapped in the face by the incredible injustice of them. He made every effort to accomodate the employer & to split the workforce. He claims to have given us pay equity by giving the upper 40% of the workers an increase of one pay grade. I suppose that he expected us to turn on each other, to only care about ourselves. I feel surrounded by bastards. This city only cares about people with money, about making money, about spending money on completely ridiculous events like the Olympics. Why would they want to pay their workforce, who provide invaluable public services, fairly? Why would they give two hoots about affordable housing?

Thanks be for my sisters & brothers. When our bargaining committee recommended rejecting the mediators recommendations we cheered, hollered & cried. We banded together to say, "No, you greedy bastards, we will support each other until we receive a fair deal". We have to fight this, like we have to fight so much of what is wrong in this greedy, dirty, dead-end world. How else can I raise Olive? I have to believe that we can fight this, that we can become sustainable, inclusive, caring.

Naomi Klein came to the line on Friday, but I missed it due to a wee sleeping babe. Here it is. Can't wait to read the book.

Hold on sisters & brothers. Hold on. I'm with you.