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Toronto’s unionized garbage collectors are on strike (they have been so for several weeks), and in act of solidarity for his comrades, Toronto Mayor David Miller and a large number of his cabinet apparatchiks have been abstaining from work at City Hall in order that they “avoid inflaming tensions at the bargaining table [between the union and the mayor]”. See the complete story in this National Post article.

I do so love socialists and the fantasy world they seem to inhabit: The garbage collectors (and several other civil worker legions) are striking because they aren’t allowed to bank their sick-days – a benefit which would allow them to potentially retire early or get remuneration from the city. The ridiculous nature of this claim needs no further comment and to tell you all how sickening this is would be superfluous. That Toronto’s cabinet is abstaining from showing up to work so as not to hurt the feelings of these poor, disenfranchised unionistas is incredulous.
I would like to think that I could NEVER come up with an idea this stupid, this lazy, or this blatantly standoffish to every other working person in the universe. Leave it to the civic unions to confound the senses of hard working tax-payers everywhere when they effectively tell us that it is our obligation to work hard and pay taxes so that in turn, they can retire at 50 or collect a payout for un-used sick days.

That’s not an original sentiment by any means and it has certainly been echoed by many during these past few weeks. Instead, my article focuses on the message our City’s elected representatives are sending the unions: Oh goody!!! You’re all on strike!!?? Well, we’ll sleep in and stay home too!!!

…And no doubt continue on full pay and benefits.

There will always be those members of society who see fit to coast on the backs of hard working people due to either a false sense of entitlement or just plain laziness (or both). I accept this: Union members who strike because they see non-bankable sick-days as an infringement on their rights are those people, as are our politicians who abstain from work in a mock show of “solidarity”.

What I refuse to accept is why garbage collection, a service that should be deemed essential in my opinion, is not sold off to the private sector. Before Toronto was a “Mega-City”, it was composed of several Burroughs, each governed by its own council. Several of these councils privatized garbage collection years ago – having been placed at the mercy of pirate unions, they wisely saw fit to rid themselves of these parasites. Miller, being the union-sympathizing socialist that he is, sees fit to do nothing while his comrades hold Toronto ransom with uncollected garbage, blockades of public dump-sites and general belligerence as they lay siege to public buildings, forcing people to queue up to enter buildings their very own tax-dollars paid for.

It’s nice to see Toronto’s general sentiment sliding towards “angry” when the Mayor is discussed. It’s equally reassuring that this sentiment is echoed when the topic of the striking union comes up. We aren’t close enough to election time for this issue to carry any immediate weight, but if ever there was a time to prevail bad memories, now would certainly be it.