Big rally to support Big Labour as it fights for bigger wages and bigger benefits for it’s already over-paid and underworked members! Job loss? Wage freeze? Janet, welcome to the real world, the one that the majority of us deal with on a daily basis!

“Black Tuesday”? A little over the top with the dramatics isn’t it? You would think they think there is going to be an attack on the actual working class of the area. Civil servants and public employees have never been a part of the working class. I say contract out ALL city work to LOCAL businesses and rehire the public employees to go to work for those companies and they will see the realities of the working class soon enough.

I had to laugh at “Black Tuesday” as well. For the private sector, nine jobs lost in a workforce of over 500 would simply be known as “Tuesday”.

nineteen of the 28 positions were already vacant and just not filled…
CUPE would have you believe that 28 people were taken out and stabbed in front of thier families… perspective is wonderful

i agree with “But” calling it black Tuesday is a bit much.

It should be called “Revelation Day”. The day the mayor revealed her true agenda and priorities and her inexperience. she campaigned on cutting 10% across the board and she would do it without laying anyone off or cutting services.

Someone must have advised her of reality after she was elected. SO she then got rid of the services she doesn’t see as a priority like the environment, parks, social programs, and community policing. The last one I don’t quite get cause she campaigned on “tough on crime” and then cut community policing?

Yup devide up the city and contract out the snow removel, park mantenace and garbage collection

Perhaps we could import Chinese workers to do the jobs?

heyyy The Chinese are already here. Didn’t you hear bout the trip our Mayor took to recruit??

Ohh godd… BIG Unions supporting the City workers.. while the rest of the country was in a recession, City workers were getting raises every year… Now tell me how hard done they are… If it take three vehicles and three men standing at a street corner debating whether the street should be plowed… what we need unions for???

This is hilarious. Black Tuesday?? You just can’t make this up.

I think Bigelow should go on a hunger strike as well. Plain old rallies are so last protest.

Will ya look at all the whiners crying about other people that have done better than they have in the work force. Go home ya babies!

Thanks Dragonmaster, but I’ll have you know that I and many others are not the “whiners” that you suggest. We are hard working tax paying people who are simply sick and tired of people that are reasonably well off constantly asking that we did deeper into our pockets in order to give them more than what we have. If I don’t get a raise, then why should I pay higher taxes to give city workers a raise? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the logic in that. Perhaps this thought is beyond your ability to comprehend??

If you feel the need to call others whiners and babies, perhaps you might want to review some of your previous posts. Have you ever heard the phrase “the pot calling the kettle black”?? No? Well, take a moment and google it!

If you do feel the need to call someone a whiner or a baby, give Janet Bigelow of CUPE a call. A protest over 9 job losses out of 500. Really??

What should the City unionised workers do? Lay down and say, “Go ahead Ms. Green cut our jobs?” So in times past the Union negotiated some good contracts with the City of Pr George…did not the City of Pr George sign the deal? What should a City worker make… minimum wage? Many of those workers are skilled workers, carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, machine operators and so forth…have any of you hired a plumber lately to do work on your home or business? Have any of you taken your car to a mechanic lately…how much do they charge? It sure isn’t minimum wage. At the end of the day what do you want? Would you rather have a City worker get paid a deceit living and spend his/her money in Pr George…or would you rather have some multi-national company who wants to make a profit, suck the money back to Edmonton or Vancouver and leave us citizens with minimum wage jobs for our children to starve on? Good paying jobs are good for Prince George, even if it comes from the tax payers because we are paying for a service we all want and the money is re-invested into our fair city which ultimately makes it a better place to live.
PS – I don’t work for the City of Pr George, never did.

What has minimum wage got to do with this cheetos? we all know they make more than that.

Bottom line is the city needs to contol costs. They can’t keep flowing it through to taxpayers in perpituity. That is a direct conflict with cupe so let the games begin.

Cheetos, I worked in a unionized government position for almost ten years. I was amazed by how many of my co-workers who were busy watching the clock. Oh, it’s coffee time, oh,it’s lunch time, oh, it’s coffee time, oh finally it’s time to go home. Didn’t seem to matter that they didn’t accomplish much in a day other than watching the clock! Many had a work ethic that simply wouldn’t cut it in the private sector. The next time you have a moment, go spend some time at City Hall and watch the hustle and bustle. Oops, wait a minute, there is no hustle and bustle going on at City Hall, at least not during the work day!

Good for you, Hart Guy and dow.. Certainly not buzzing at City Hall. Try calling a By law Officer.. they give any excuse not to go out. The City needs to think of the homeowners and businesses with their rate increases every year. Not everyone can afford to pay increases if they didn’t get a raise yearly. Our water doesn’t taste better but keeps going up.. Our garbage is limited even with recycling but that price still goes up. Not our assessments have gone up again.

I have worked both in union, non union, management, and operations. People with a great work ethic exist in all those positions mentioned, as does dead weight. If you don’t like the union……leave, or climb the ladder out into management. I found it funny, in a non-union plant, when someone from the office walked in the dead weight would grab a broom and start to hustle until the brass left the building, then they would back to dragging the crew down.These people would get the promotions and the hard workers would get the hard jobs as they could keep the production up. Nepotism was also rampant. 2 sides to every coin.

Yes Hart Guy whiners and criers! You don’t see union members whinning and crying about non union people do you?

It’s always the non union workers and employers calling down, (whinning and crying) unionized workers that have stood together as one, who have fought for their rights.

If it weren’t for unions, all non union employees would be lining up at your employers lunch line chanting “please sir can I have some more more!

All the whinners and criers should be thankful to unions for their standard of living they enjoy.

Dragonmaster’s comment was brought to you courtesy of the union rhethoric handbook.

Unions were needed to keep greedy corporations from turning us all into low paid slaves, but they have now taken a page out of the corporations handbook and turned just as greedy and corrupt. Unions are a good example of a good idea gone bad.

Ideology is a funny thing. We are trying to stay on the road. Some people want to pull to the left, some want to steer right. No matter which side pulls harder, we still wind up in the ditch!
Now if we could just find a driver that can see the corners ahead and keep the car in the CENTRE of the road.

First there’s the cry for ‘work and wages’. Then, after that’s achieved, it diverges into “less work for more wages” on the left, and “more work for less wages” on the right. And nobody ever takes the time to look whether either more ‘work’ or more ‘wages’ are really getting either side any further ahead.

Dragon, do you remeber the moment that the giant syringe came out of the sky and sucked out all your grey matter and pumped it full of union swill?

I owe unions the square root of dick. However, they owe me for funding their relentless pay and benifit increases.

dow – it was the same moment that the union saved his butt when everyone else was working harder but management could not get rid of him ;)

Actually, think we started off being disgruntled bout city workers. Now we’re talking union swill….hahhahah
Honestly, the City does need to curb it’s spending, whether it’s wages or frivolous stuff, example is the green car. Like we benefited from it.. look how much they spent to determine what we need … Outsourced it then ask what we thought of it.. that 350 grand would better be spent on reducing taxpayers costs to their pocketbooks

Wow, absolutely baffled by the anger and resentment towards men and women working and being paid a half arsed living wage. The name calling and attacks are particularly entertaining.

28 jobs, whether not filled or warm bodies fired is still 28 LESS JOBS.

The real gem is that Mayor Green hacked the jobs a. contrary to her election statements b. prior to the high priced sham of core review even started c. to fulfill an election promise. Yep, real good reason to axe people’s livelihoods.

Is everything about unions good? No it is not.

Are there crappy employees that don’t work as hard as the rest? yes

Are there crappy employers? absolutely.

Both in public and private funded workplaces.

Is the average City worker wealthy? Not by any stretch. Nice middle class supporting income. Our friends that work at the City that take pride in their job still have to save for a vacation, the kid’s education, to take care of their aging arents, and to retire somewhere above the poverty line after 40 to 50 years of service, before death.

We need good paying jobs to support the middle class, folks. The “trickle down” effect is BS.

It is a fact that people will set down roots in a community where they have a good paying job and businesses will only set up shop with a good pool of potential customers, whether service or retail, and that means employed people with disposable income. The growth of a community and success of small business along with the standard of life for everyday people are based on the same thing: good paying jobs.

I will never berate someone for making a decent wage with benefits to take the kid to the eye doctor and dentist when needed. Why would I? I prefer to invest my tax dollars towards working families as opposed to some businesses revenue line and profit margin.

The old joke, you know why there is a minimum wage law, right? Cause they’d pay you less is they could.

Folks really need to do some labour history research and check out working conditions around the world (Mexico, India, China) and see if that is the world they would prefer for their kids and grandkids.

Go Janet and company. You work full time and actually volunteer for this crap. As one of your employers and demonstrative of the large silent majority, IMO, I support you.

This council can/could have save billions elsewhere – the examples have been posted by folks on this site at nauseum.

Cutting even more good jobs in this sh*thole of a town (and not to save money, don’t fool yourselves – it is to bust working people and flex muscle) will be one more reason to pack it up.

Before you right wingers flip out, no I am not a union member and do not work for the City and am not wealthy…just a literal working stiff that lives in a house built in 1961 and bought my first new truck at aged 57. I read and have learned how to think as opposed to what to think.

As much as some people may not accept this. The Union movement rose out of necessity, as greedy employers continued to oppress it’s workers. If it wasn’t for the union, people would still be hanging off office towers on rope swings cleaning it’s windows for a sum of four dollars a day…..hey they still are…China is the country….didn’t Mayor Green and Company recently spend 25 grand of tax payers money to vacation there…opps I mean work there….the new 75 million dollar police station has a lot of windows…did the 350000 core review look at that…after the hefty pay raise in Mayor and Council wages…can’t forget the 2015 Canada winter games equipped with a 15 million dollar skating rink….I mean you don’t need to look to far to find out why our taxes are going up…no just blame it on the working man/women…by the way the attrition rate in China for window cleaners is really high, I’m sure anyone looking for a non-union job could get one….such a window of opportunity!

BCNorth: “Wow, absolutely baffled by the anger and resentment towards men and women working and being paid a half arsed living wage.”

… on the backs of taxpayers who can no longer afford big government. It is not the taxpayers duty to ensure people are employed.

BCNorth: “We need good paying jobs to support the middle class, folks.”

Agreed… in the private sector. Hiring more federal, provincial, and municipal employees with above average wages and pension plans is going backwards.

BCnorth250, you have some great analysis of how to build a community. The big point your missing is that it is not for municiple governments to be the driver of this through employment. Tricle down will work in the northBC when the pipelines and facilities are built on the west coast. The LNG plans are awesome for the north.Learn to run equipment, the wages will be huge.

Increasing my taxes every year has got to take a break.

Johnny: “… on the backs of taxpayers who can no longer afford big government. It is not the taxpayers duty to ensure people are employed.”

OK, quantify for me Johnnybelt. Let’s keep it to the municipal level for now. Are our tax dollars not collected, from citizens, as the stakeholders in our municipality to ensure that certain functions that benefit us all i.e. water, sewer, garbage and the like in addition to the operations and infrastructure that is publicly owned so that it does indeed benefit the majority of citizens, such as parks, rinks and all that? Does it not take a workforce to ensure that all this gets done? So by virtue of the whole system, our tax dollars are supporting those working people and one could construe that yes, the municipality does have a responsibility to its workforce? The question remains is who do we pay? A publicly owned and funded workforce or do we contract the same work out to private for profit operated businesses and corporations?

I know I have my opinions about that. I would, however, like to see the numbers and examples of both scenarios. I have been told by more than one city manager that contracting out work does NOT save money in the end. Further, the biggest benefit to operating a publicly funded workforce is that we, collectively and represented by our elected officials (in theory) have a say in the structure, quality and nature work of the said work force.

Your argument about relying on the private sector to get’er done? I can give numerous examples and proof of corporate Canada failing miserably when it comes to being counted on to contribute to the economy, municipal or otherwise – as opposed to the collective buying power of the middle class.

IMO, we can save millions/billions dow7500 that will give us all a taxbreak eventually (after a few decades at status quo in the hope to catching up what needs to be done around here i.e. roads)and that is to quit spending money on pie in the sky projects and writing cheques for hair brained projects that I have yet to see who came up with the business plan i.e. the DES and others (you know them all by now). I have yet to see how spending this money has any kind of ROI to benefit spending my money on it.

I do, however, witness a massive injection into the local economy every time a citizen buys groceries, that second vehicle, house insurance, buys a larger house or down-scales, books a trip, goes to a restaurant on a birthday or anniversary, buys the kids the necessary winter wear, purchases fuel, takes in a movie, volunteers or takes up a hobby….

On the line of ever increasing taxes, wasn’t a full one percent of our recent tax increase over the next few years, just to fund the CWG? Was it a third of the overall increase? I cannot recall, but it was close. A great idea, but it’s a party we cannot afford and mark my words, will come and go with little fanfare other than the bills.

Anyway, I respect the point of view of others and do appreciate hearing it. Sometimes it makes me change my mind and other times it doesn’t.

BCNorth: “Your argument about relying on the private sector to get’er done? I can give numerous examples and proof of corporate Canada failing miserably when it comes to being counted on to contribute to the economy, municipal or otherwise”

I could prove just as much how government is full of inefficiency, you see it every day if you have two eyes or read any news. But that’s not really the point.

BCNorth: “I do, however, witness a massive injection into the local economy every time a citizen buys groceries, that second vehicle, house insurance, buys a larger house or down-scales, books a trip, goes to a restaurant on a birthday or anniversary, buys the kids the necessary winter wear, purchases fuel, takes in a movie, volunteers or takes up a hobby….”

So, using that line of logic, all our economic problems could be solved by hiring more government workers, right? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way, no matter how much you want it to.

Just like you say, there are lots of different viewpoints. Personally, I believe government is too big and has too much influence on our day to day lives. That presence and influence is very expensive.

CUPE exists to make sure things stay the same or get better for public employees. How much better can you afford to make their lives? The money has to come from somewhere.

BCNorth: “Are our tax dollars not collected, from citizens, as the stakeholders in our municipality to ensure that certain functions that benefit us all i.e. water, sewer, garbage and the like in addition to the operations and infrastructure that is publicly owned so that it does indeed benefit the majority of citizens, such as parks, rinks and all that?”

That’s a part of it, yes. And a part many people support. However, the city is involved in far too many things (District Energy Systems, Real Estate Deals, IPG, etc.) that also require workers to oversee. That’s where I have a problem.