Published On Mon Mar 19 2012
The sweet-faced 28-year-old public service assistant from Cedarbrae Public Library holds up the bullhorn to rally the troops.
“What do we want?” Tina Gillard doesn’t quite yell.
“A fair deal!” the group of mostly women around her apprehensively chant back.
“Thank you very much,” she replies. “Okay, when do we want it?”
“Now!”
For the 1,200 library workers picketing at city hall Monday — which, to generalize, was a group of pasty skinned men in Gilligan hats, grandmotherly types wearing small-rimmed glasses, and young twentysomethings in ponytails and Converse sneakers — just four Toronto police officers stood watch.
It’s a sympathetic-looking bunch, and CUPE Local 4948 knows it. When the union walked off the job at 5 p.m. Sunday, they did so bolstered by internal polling that showed the public is overwhelmingly on their side.
So the question for the city and its library board is: Do you really want to pick a fight with librarians?
Courtesy Margaret Atwood, Doug Ford learned the answer to that question the hard way last summer.
It’s a precarious optics dilemma for negotiators, one that political experts say both sides need to navigate with considerable care. The Fords risk appearing like book-hating simpletons carrying out a vendetta. It was a storyline the administration’s political opponents were quick to pounce on.
“The Fords are still smarting from having their butts kicked by Margaret Atwood a few months back. To them, she’s a symbol of socialist gulags and Deepest Annex,” said Liberal attack dog Warren Kinsella via email from a business trip in New York Monday.
“By going after libraries — by going after reading, in effect — they are getting back at their latte-sipping, Volvo-driving pinko overlords. I think they plan to let libraries be shuttered for a while, so they can say nobody misses them. But, as usual, they're making a mistake. Torontonians — even the conservative ones — value learning and reading.”
The library union is still riding a wave of public goodwill after last summer’s core service review. Activists successfully framed the debate as an assault on communities and thoughtful people, rather than as an exercise of fiscal restraint. The Ford administration quickly retreated.
But the library union should be careful not to overplay its hand, said University of Toronto politics professor Renan Levine.
“My hunch is that they saw they’re emboldened. They won a fight last year. They won a big fight: little librarians against the big mayor.” But, he cautioned, “there is a difference here, (between) a resident who is upset about a branch library in their area going to close and them helping the workers in that library protect certain workplace and pay rights.”
The fact is, Levine said, some people who use libraries have as much interaction with the people who work there as they do the staff at the grocery store.
Levine said the city negotiating team needs to convince the public the city isn’t out for blood.
Library board chair Paul Ainslie said he thought the city was trying to do just that with an 11th hour offer that he felt was fair and offered considerably more job security than Local 416 was recently given. Ainslie said he was “shocked, flabbergasted … breathless” when the union rejected it.
Unlike the outdoor and indoor workers’ unions, who dealt directly with the city, the library union is at the table with its board, which is split between private citizens and councillors and is chaired by Ford ally Paul Ainslie.
But it will be the mayor who wears a victory or failure. As was shown during police board negotiations, Ford has the sway to loosen the purse strings and facilitate a deal.
John Capobianco, a veteran conservative strategist, said that in the short term, Ford may pay a political price, but there are considerable long-term benefits to not backing down.
“I’m not sure Mayor Ford really wants to pick a fight with librarians … but I also believe that the appetite that Torontonians are having for strikes now is also getting to a point of impatience. The economy is tough. Work shortages are happening. Jobs are frail,” he said.
“I think if he keeps focusing on what’s best for the taxpayers of Toronto he will win on that.”
“What do we want?” Tina Gillard doesn’t quite yell.
“A fair deal!” the group of mostly women around her apprehensively chant back.
“Thank you very much,” she replies. “Okay, when do we want it?”
“Now!”
For the 1,200 library workers picketing at city hall Monday — which, to generalize, was a group of pasty skinned men in Gilligan hats, grandmotherly types wearing small-rimmed glasses, and young twentysomethings in ponytails and Converse sneakers — just four Toronto police officers stood watch.
It’s a sympathetic-looking bunch, and CUPE Local 4948 knows it. When the union walked off the job at 5 p.m. Sunday, they did so bolstered by internal polling that showed the public is overwhelmingly on their side.
So the question for the city and its library board is: Do you really want to pick a fight with librarians?
Courtesy Margaret Atwood, Doug Ford learned the answer to that question the hard way last summer.
It’s a precarious optics dilemma for negotiators, one that political experts say both sides need to navigate with considerable care. The Fords risk appearing like book-hating simpletons carrying out a vendetta. It was a storyline the administration’s political opponents were quick to pounce on.
“The Fords are still smarting from having their butts kicked by Margaret Atwood a few months back. To them, she’s a symbol of socialist gulags and Deepest Annex,” said Liberal attack dog Warren Kinsella via email from a business trip in New York Monday.
“By going after libraries — by going after reading, in effect — they are getting back at their latte-sipping, Volvo-driving pinko overlords. I think they plan to let libraries be shuttered for a while, so they can say nobody misses them. But, as usual, they're making a mistake. Torontonians — even the conservative ones — value learning and reading.”
The library union is still riding a wave of public goodwill after last summer’s core service review. Activists successfully framed the debate as an assault on communities and thoughtful people, rather than as an exercise of fiscal restraint. The Ford administration quickly retreated.
But the library union should be careful not to overplay its hand, said University of Toronto politics professor Renan Levine.
“My hunch is that they saw they’re emboldened. They won a fight last year. They won a big fight: little librarians against the big mayor.” But, he cautioned, “there is a difference here, (between) a resident who is upset about a branch library in their area going to close and them helping the workers in that library protect certain workplace and pay rights.”
The fact is, Levine said, some people who use libraries have as much interaction with the people who work there as they do the staff at the grocery store.
Levine said the city negotiating team needs to convince the public the city isn’t out for blood.
Library board chair Paul Ainslie said he thought the city was trying to do just that with an 11th hour offer that he felt was fair and offered considerably more job security than Local 416 was recently given. Ainslie said he was “shocked, flabbergasted … breathless” when the union rejected it.
Unlike the outdoor and indoor workers’ unions, who dealt directly with the city, the library union is at the table with its board, which is split between private citizens and councillors and is chaired by Ford ally Paul Ainslie.
But it will be the mayor who wears a victory or failure. As was shown during police board negotiations, Ford has the sway to loosen the purse strings and facilitate a deal.
John Capobianco, a veteran conservative strategist, said that in the short term, Ford may pay a political price, but there are considerable long-term benefits to not backing down.
“I’m not sure Mayor Ford really wants to pick a fight with librarians … but I also believe that the appetite that Torontonians are having for strikes now is also getting to a point of impatience. The economy is tough. Work shortages are happening. Jobs are frail,” he said.
“I think if he keeps focusing on what’s best for the taxpayers of Toronto he will win on that.”
No comments:
Post a Comment