Saturday, August 4, 2001
The struck strike - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- The bus strike that had brought this town, transportation wise, to its knees for the last four months is over. Wednesday last, the provincial government legislated an end to the strike. The entire exercise in labour disruption and political acrimony was an interesting one to say the least. Clearly it polarised the city.
On one side, those not inconvenienced by the labour disruption really couldn’t have cared less. There weren’t those cumbersome busses you had to yield to etc. On the other side, there were those that complained vociferously that the strike affected the elderly and non-drivers, turning them into permanent shut-ins.
The powers that be, were stubborn all around. The newly elected provincial Liberal government skirted blame to the previous NDP administration. Which the Liberals claim, they appeased their union buddies by not imposing a cooling off period prior to the May election call. The Liberals didn’t act until last Wednesday, the other side says, because those permanent shut-ins were generally not of the ilk that would vote elitist Liberal in the first place.
TransLink, the quasi board that oversees transportation in this town, ducked all blame. The company it controls, Coast Mountain -- the direct employer of the transit operators -- stuck to its guns by refusing to budge on the principal issue. That issue -- the possibility of allowing part-time drivers into the fleet -- was opposed by the auto workers union.
George Puil, was the pivotal point man during the whole mess. As a Vancouver City Councillor and the chairman of TransLink, he was stubborn to the very end. He took the line that he had nothing to do with the strike. Hogwash! Puil, as Chair of TransLink is the paymaster and such could have directed Coast Mountain to accept the independent mediator’s recommendation to settle forthwith.
His stubbornness and arrogance earned him much hatred from the chronic bitchers and it was no less than one ton of horse manure that found its way to his front stoop. And because a bunch of rabble rousers shouted down a recent city council meeting, physical altercation nearly ensued when Mayor Owen and Councillor Puil headed for the nearest exit.
George Puil, for all his faults, is a conservative. A prolonged strike would have saved more money for his cash strapped TransLink. The drivers, for all their faults, were looking out for job security and all those other socialist goodies.
I was not terribly inconvenienced by the strike. I was one of the many that adjusted their lives to the reality that there were to be no busses. If I need to go to lunch, downtown or whatever, I either walked, got a ride from someone (since I don’t drive) or just didn’t go at all. Being the ever-optimist (you know, half filled glasses) I managed to get some exercise from the mess, as I walked more.
The multitude of arrears and unpaid mortgages, that of the strikers, are sad but not unexpected. The drivers felt so strongly about their concerns they wished to spell it out for all of us. Yet, there are those that consider them greedsters for wanting so much money. Such is public opinion.
One sort of sympathises with George Puil himself. Everything from the derogatory ‘King George’ to the local ‘Napoleon’ has been lobbed at him, and he remained defiantly arrogant claiming virgin hands. He had to have armed police officers escort him about town, even himself leaving town, when those fed up with the strike decided to have a picnic in front of his tony house. Such is the price paid by those that seek public office, I guess.
The strike was a revisit of the whole East Side/West Side debate and it wasn’t pretty. Puil and his ilk could have been nicer, whilst the rabble-rousers and their ilk could have been less harsh.
What worries one the most is that absolute power’s corruption is without those checks, thus anarchy ensues. Little old ladies blocking traffic or defecating George Puil’s house unites a segment of the population, but it serves no greater purpose. George Puil never budged. Those who had to drive their own cars -- to work, to school, whatever -- racked with road rage, didn’t apply pressure anyways.
The protesters managed to burn off personal steam by raising hell, but it wasn’t their actions that ended this. What should scare us, is that there are those that will think that causing undue chaos will bring forth the desired ending. It doesn’t. And it shouldn’t.
The drivers are back to work, but the issue of part-time is still unresolved. Both sides claim victory and George Puil awaits reluctantly the verdict of the next ballot box two years down the road. It’s too damned bad, we all couldn’t rely on the ballot box itself. I’d much rather see our anger expressed at the ballot box. Turning our city into a battleground, serves no purpose whatsoever.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .