Saturday, January 21, 2012

ORNGE You Glad?

Well, I'll be jiggered. A few bad headlines for Dalton and Co. and things start looking up for the PC's. Now  the same media won't talk about Tim Hudak's plan to slash out of control public sector spending and horrific examples thereof because the media is notoriously unreliable, so that's where I and this blog come in. Do ye the same.

Stratford firefighters: In December 2011, an arbitrator awarded city firefighters and dispatchers retroactive pay hikes of three per cent in each of 2007, 2008 and 2009, and pay increases of 3.6 per cent for 2010 and 3.8 for 2011 and 2012. Total estimated cost: $1.5 million – which has delayed approval of the City’s 2012 budget and raised the threat of a tax increase to finance it all.

University professors and librarians: In October 2010, arbitrator Martin Teplitsky rejected the Liberals’ plea for wage freeze, saying he refused to be “a minion of the government.” He awarded U of T employees a 4.5 per cent salary increase over two years, explicitly saying he did not take the university’s negative financial situation into account.

Hydro workers: In March 2010, arbitrator Kevin Burkett awarded 3,400 unionized OPG employees increases of six per cent over two years. Burkett said that without legislation backing it, there was “no binding force or effect” to the government’s plea for a wage freeze.

And, um, this ORNGE story is going to get a whole lot worse. And then, there's still this.

I wouldn't start celebrating yet because the media, as I said before, is notoriously unreliable. And we don't want to be the federal Liberals, who broke out the champagne  this week because they are still in third place, but not by as much.

People are mad at Dalton. That doesn't mean they love us.

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