The moon rests low and red on the horizon as the picketers straggle in for the Wednesday night shift at the Bermondsey 24-hour transfer station near Eglington and Victoria Park.
There is a line of nearly two dozen vehicles waiting to drop off bags of garbage. Mike and Kingsley direct traffic one or two at a time into the drop off area, where the drivers will hand off their refuse to the management on the other side of the picket line. The bags will be thrown into one of two garbage trucks in circulation.
“It’s cold out,” says Kingsley.
“It’s damp,” Mike says. “That’s when the sweaters come out.”
The group of over two dozen strikers from CUPE unions 79 and 416 are here to fill half of their weekly picketing requirement, which earns them $200 a week. Taking the night shift, an eight-hour haul from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m., means committing to only two nights instead of five six-hour days. While it nearly halves their hours, the night can start feeling as drawn-out as the strike.
Mike talks with some drivers as they wait their turn. One of them asks him how busy it gets throughout the night.
“We get it until three in the morning,” he tells them. “At about three it slows down a bit for a couple of hours and picks up again at about five.”
The driver asks Mike how much longer he thinks the strike will go on.
“They’re saying early September,” he says. “I hope not, but that’s just word on the street.”
A few of the cars driving by honk as they pass. I ask Claudius, who works in the municipal licensing and standards division, if people are honking in support of the union.
“I don’t know if they’re honking just to be fucking honking,” he says. “I think a lot of them don’t give a rat’s ass.”
I ask him if he thinks the public is on their side.
“I don’t know, man.”
By midnight the line is cleared and the street is empty.
“I just want the strike to be over,” says Dave, another picketer.
“Me too,” says Claudius.
“I hate coming here nights.”
“It’s burning me out worse than working five days a week.”
“I just want to get back to work,” says Dave. “Back to a routine.”
“Me too.”
This is Christine’s third shift. Christine, a nurse, says she found out she was on strike from watching the news.
“There’s no info,” she says. “There’s no end in sight. It feels like we’re unemployed right now. And you can’t look for other work.”
Christine’s biggest issue with the strike is the focus on garbage. She has more on her mind than the smell, or the budget.
When CUPE Local 79, which represents 24,000 mostly inside workers including public health nurses, went on strike and cut access to Christine’s office voice mail, she lost contact with the families she cares for.
“We’re not supposed to abandon the families but it feels that way,” she said. “And it’s sad.”
Still, she feels obligated to support the union.
“I value my job,” she says. “But there’s also this fear instilled in us that we’ll be blacklisted if we don’t appear.
“I don’t know. It’s my first strike. I don’t know what to expect…When this stuff comes it’s very much out of our control.”
(Continued)
Persona Non Grata 10:01 am on July 12, 2009 Permalink |
Thank You
Your observations and non biased approached was a breath of fresh air in these days of one sided journalism. I will watch your career with a jaded eye to see if you change as your bank account grows. You keep your promises and it is appreciated!
Unnamed District Picket Captain at Bermondsey Transfer Station.
P.S. Coffee is still my only friend.
Comedy and The Cameron House - Part One « Toronto Newsfix 12:29 pm on July 24, 2009 Permalink |
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