Sunday, January 24, 2010

Strikes




One of the daily activities in this society is striking. Employees are on strike at one corner of this country every week. Once there're transit employees. Another time you hear about food court people. This is called a sign of democracy in a nation. I'm not against strikes. It's good that people can stand and speak up but most of the time it's really stupid and hurting to the society. Strike works only if it's well organized, has a good leading team and there's unity. One guy whom I worked with in Alberta told me once that they were on strike and the business owner simply shut the plant and left after a few week calling the employees back and they refused! Strike at times leads to clashes between two groups of employees, the ones who wants to carry on under the circumstances and the ones who demand more. It happened at Lakeside Packers in Alberta a few years ago.
At times these strikes are so stupid. A good example of it is the recent hospital cafe workers' labour dispute. There were a bunch of Punjabi women working at hospitals that I had to go to a few times. One day I saw the cafe closed and saw them outside with banners. Nobody gave a shit! The coffee shop is still closed and they probably work in another place. I really don't know what those women wanted. You work at a coffee shop and all you do is pouring beverages and giving the change back. You don't even know how to great. What do you expect? A $35 an hour wage?! ... I mean ... be reasonable. You are not here all the way from Punjab where you had to work to your death, to go on strike! This is ridiculous!
(Photo: Sign at a hospital in Brit"Shit" Columbia shows a coffee shop closed due to labour dispute)

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