Archive for July, 2009
As City Workers Return to Work – Councillors Need to Act Responsibly
I have had a number of conversations with people about how difficult it would be to be a Councillor who opposed the concessions Miller gave in on. While often the best plan in opposition to a government in politics is to vote against it, risking defeating a labour agreement and forcing a management lock out is totally irresponsible and would result in the City being taken to the cleaners at arbitration.
A Councillor voting against the agreement, is in fact voting for a management lock out. It is plain and simple. Voting against the agreement means that you’d like it to fail, if you’re a Councillor and you want it to fail, its because you want a lock out. Let’s hope that the Councillors who disagree, at least are wise enough to slam the Mayor and company during the debate, but not vote against the agreement. Leave the Chamber if you have to, but don’t demonstrate irresponsibility by fanning the flames in favour of a management lock out.
Citizens need their services back, they need garbage pick up, daycares open, pools, rec centres and parks open, clean and safe for children. Voting against what is a done deal won’t make it any better, and risks making it a lot worse.
We’ll find out today what Councillors decide to do, let’s hope its the right thing.
4 Comments »City of Toronto and CUPE 416 Need to Take the ‘water under the bridge approach’ to Retaliation
This is a no-brainer. The City of Toronto needs to forget about trying to fire workers who acted up on the line during the strike. CUPE 416 decided not to vote today to ratify the collective agreement when the City refused to agree not to take measures against workers who misbehaved on the line. Generally the Union and the City agree to overlook the misbehaviour and wrongs each commits during a strike as part of a collective agreement.
There are over 600 workers who crossed the line who need the City to protect them from expulsion proceedings that would see them lose their jobs for crossing the line, but the City seems prepared to risk the jobs of those individuals to go after some militant strikers.
What the City should have done is called the police if there was objectionable behaviour happening on the line that they wanted addressed. Waiting until the strike has ended to decide to go after workers who misbehaved seems to me like a bad idea that both risks serious and irreversible harm to the City’s allies in both CUPE 416 and 79 and the City’s relationship with unions.
I think all Torontonians want this strike to end, we want our workers back at work and our Council to get the job done – the City needs to get out of the way and let it happen.
Let’s go guys, shake hands, agree to move forward together, and repair the relationship through a mutual protection of those each side would otherwise seek to punish.
4 Comments »Oh Those Law Breaking Fools… Toronto Hydro Is At It Again Breaching Your Privacy With Their Incompetence
Police have been called in to determine how a breach in Toronto Hydro’s e-bill system resulting in the private information of 179 000 Torontonians happened. Individuals, name, address, phone number, account information were released to unknown sources for unknown purposes. This is obviously a very serious matter.
Based on my previous writings on Toronto Hydro it’s pretty clear that I do not believe anyone on their executive team has the skill set or intelligence to confidently change a light bulb let alone run the largest utility in the province. While everything Midas touched turned to Gold, it seems everything Toronto Hydro touches turns into an unnecessary legal situation brought on by a unique mix of callousness, ignorance and incompetence.
These guys have once again breached the privacy of Torontonians, this time through their online billing system. It seems the folks at Toronto Hydro are incapable of working technology if it was developed after 1992 (the internet, wind turbines, adobe – let alone 90 year old hydro poles).
They knowingly allowed their infrastructure to electrocute and kill people’s family pets, promising to fix that problem over the course of months while more pets needlessly suffered electrocution. They denied kids could be electrocuted until many were one afternoon. They’ve lied left right and centre as part of their illegal application for the installation of an anemometer off the Scarborough Bluffs. They breached hundreds of individuals privacy during that process, and now 179 000 of their client’s private data is breached through their website.
When their lawyer reviewed my writings on Toronto Hydro’s illegal application, culture of lying and general inability to operate with the slightest bit of competence during a public consultation process – she agreed that the application I had linked to constituted a violation of law, did not dispute any of my charges and merely asked me to change the link to a new illegal application that was missing some of their privacy act violations.
The scary part is these guys are involved in very serious business and clearly well over their heads.
They’ve already killed people’s family pets, failed to act immediately to prevent further deaths, electrocuted children who were just playing in the streets, committed over three hundred violations of law as part of their anemometer application, and now failed to properly secure their 179 000 client’s private data. If this represents the last few months at Toronto Hydro – what’s next?
They still have done nothing to address their breach of privacy for the over three hundred individuals including myself affected by their illegal application’s breach of privacy in April. If you’re one of the 179 000 clients whose privacy has been breached, my only words for you with these guys is ‘good luck’.
Toronto Hydro Corporation attracts scandal like sugar attracts ants.
It’s a good thing they aren’t responsible for the drinking water.
It isn’t known how the privacy breach occurred this time, but the Toronto Police and the Privacy Commissioner are investigating.
For more on their latest privacy breach (the second in three months) see the links below:
