1 | 2 | 3

(Continued from part one)

A little after 1 a.m. Tim Maguire, first vice-president for CUPE Local 79, arrives to boost the picketers’ morale. The strikers, however, give Maguire a little more than he’s bargained for.

“The reality is we’re a picket line trying to affect change, and change is not happening,” says someone from the crowd. “Now we’re hearing things like August 16, Labour Day, Caribana.”

“The thing that will make it shorter is to strengthen the lines,” says Maguire.

“Is it true that only 40% of the locals are out picketing?” someone asks. There are rumours of picket lines being crossed; Maguire says to expect social repercussions for such actions.

“If you’ve crossed the picket line, I’m not your friend anymore,” he tells them. “I had a friend of 10 years I told that to today.”

Another calls out, “We can’t pay our rent. We can’t pay our mortgage. What are we supposed to do?”

“There aren’t other funds from the union,” Maguire replies. “That $200 is costing us a million dollars a week. We gotta remember that we’re under attack. We take zero now and it’s going to be like the 90s with no wage increase for 8 years.”

The questions persist. “Why aren’t they talking more to us? Really we don’t know why we’re out here.”

“We’re going to be putting out a leaflet in a week,” answers Maguire.

“What’s the reality?” Claudius demands. “You’ve got no prediction at all?”

“I’ve got no prediction at all,” Maguire admits. “I know it ain’t easy. I know it ain’t. Just remain strong.”

The group disperses after that, settling quietly into their fold-out chairs or else wandering by a fire that burns in a rusted metal barrel. The district picket captain, whose name he says “is not important,” wanders the site with a large coffee in hand.

“This is our most important friend,” he tells me, pointing to the cup.

The fire borders the picket line, where the management sits waiting to transfer garbage. They are actually his bosses, the captain explains.

“Not many captains are brave enough to picket their own [workplace],” he says.

Despite this, the captain says he manages to keep up a casual liaison with management.

“We say hi and bye to them,” he says. “We don’t talk business.”

Just then a white pickup truck owned by the city pulls in and drops off six pallets as firewood.

“That’s something you’re not going to see very often,” says the picket captain. “That’s management, dropping off the wood. Very strange, eh?”

(Continued)

1 | 2 | 3