Blah blah blah bus strike continues yada yada

Big surprise that the strike vote went 75% in favour of rejecting the city’s offer. Not.

Most people that I’ve talked to today are even less supportive of the striking bus workers than they were before, if that’s possible. There is some bitterness but mostly it’s a firm, don’t-give-in-to-the-union, hunkering down for a long seige kind of thing. I expect this to go on for a long time.

More news from last couple of days:

• CBC (January 7, 2008): OC Transpo head appeals to union via YouTube before transit vote
  
• Ottawa Citizen (January 8, 2008 – Randall Denley): There are 30 million reasons why city turned down bus union’s wage demands“The bus union leaders have also seriously misread the mood among city councillors. This strike was based on the premise that councillors would quickly fold because they didn’t have what it took for a fight. Even now, workers are being told that rejecting the city offer today will have them back behind the wheel of a bus next week, because councillors will give in. Wrong, and wrong again.”
• Ottawa Citizen (January 8, 2008): Strikers confident they will reject contract
• Ottawa Citizen (January 8, 2008): What ‘essential’ really means

And other sites:

• ATU Local 279’s strike site – Chock full of yummy union goodness (OK, “goodness” isn’t the word I was really thinking but I think you knew that)

[This post was originally written mostly on January 8 and partly on January 9 for intended publication on January 9, but technical issues prevented me from doing that. So it was pre-dated and published on January 13 instead.]

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