— Musings —03.23.2012 09:04 AM
This creep deserves to be charged with assault
There is no excuse for this. None. But get ready for more of the same, as the Harper cabal have clearly decided to pick a fight with labour.
— Musings —03.23.2012 09:04 AM
There is no excuse for this. None. But get ready for more of the same, as the Harper cabal have clearly decided to pick a fight with labour.
What is the context of this photo? I’m not familiar with it unless I missed something.
Passenger spitting in face of Air Canada worker at Pearson this morning.
While the passenger’s conduct is unacceptable, by some of the accounts I have heard, the baggage handlers initiated that kind of confrontation – not with management, but with customers. That is fairly unacceptable as well. Why exactly do baggage handlers have the right to set a picket line outside their normal place of work, and then shout in passengers’ faces?
Oh, that would be the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Charter of Right and Freedoms.
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
…
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly…
There is no way you can defend threatening confrontations (even without the context of a strike their own union acknowledges as illegal) with the general public as ‘freedom of expression’. That certainly does not empower scumbags like the one in the video to initiate their own confrontations. But by your standard, ‘freedom of expression’ should allow a gorilla like that to go up and scream in picketer’s faces too.
That picket line was harassing passengers trying to get in and out of the airport, which is certainly not ‘peaceful assembly’ either. Their behaviour overall was appalling, but one idiot managed to top it.
Slow clapping a Minister as she walks through a baggage hall should provoke this kind of response – disgusting
Obviously, Minister Raitt is the real victim here. All that slow clapping can be quite challenging for someone of Ms. Raitt’s delicate sensibilities.
As usual, Conservatives are the real victims here. In so many ways.
Disgusting, Really???? Do you know what this so-called “Minister” has done here?? Our fore-fathers fought and some gave their lives for our freedom of rights and this two-bit ^&%$# decided that her March break vacation trumps all with no regard for anything/anyone else….this, my friend, is DISGUSTING!!!! She deserved every last slow clap and then some!
Perhaps they should picket inside the closest Park instead? I guess you haven’t seen many Strikes before, because where I come from, People ALWAYS picket in front of their Workplace. Watch the video and see who incited this action…The “Spit Guy” did when he came up to the picketers and started yelling in the face of another baggage handler.
Another sign of the new, growingly selfish Canada. We used to be “cool Canada”. Now we are more and more looking like “boorish Canada”. The PM appears to want to brand us with his particular style of bullying and hate/contempt for “anyone but me”. You know: “I make the rules”. No-one should EVER pay taxes, because apparently in the Conservative “mind”, a civilized society is one where everyone only looks out for their OWN selfish piggish interests, while infrastructure collapses (unless you and I own the necessary equipment to build bridges, highways, and airports).
I read over the weekend that the two in the photo are hubby and wife. Any truth to that?
Seriously Stu, does that have any relevance here?? Does it change the fact that the gorilla who spits on another human being (or animal for that matter) should get the crap kicked out of him before being charged??
Wow. that is uncalled for and extremely disgusting. It’s a textbook case of assault.
I wonder how this illegal work stoppage has affected people though. How many people missed funerals, weddings, returns from march break, important business meetings etc etc etc. I also wonder how many of the people inconvenienced by todays illegal and union condemned strike will refuse to ever fly with Air Canada again and what this means to the bottom line of a company that was $250 million in the red last year and ultimately what this means for the long term employment possibilities for the thousands of Air Canada unionized employees.
I thought Conservatives were all about letting market forces prevail. Why is the Harper government intervening in the labour negotiations between two private parties? Aren’t they distorting the market by intervening, and worse by letting it be known that they have no problem jumping in on managements side. It hardly sets the conditions for the parties to bargain in good faith.
Last time I checked Air Canada was not an essential service. Anyone who has anywhere to travel can use a competing airline. Let the better run, better managed company prevail. Unless of course the Conservatives aren’t really all about free markets.
People can’t just fly on another airline if they’ve already bought their tickets and don’t have the money to buy duplicates.
I wonder how many NDP delegates are now missing the convention….
And I agree, assault charges should be filed.
What it means is that AC management should not have played with fire so much, because now they are getting burned.
You would think an airline would have some idea of what risk management means, but to allow their labour situation to deteriorate so far (with the help of the Harper Government) that they put the consumer’s fragile trust of the company at risk over it is terrible risk management.
The need to fly will not go away, so these experienced and skilled employees will likely have good prospects to work someday for the better managed successor to Air Canada that will fill its place when it goes out of business.
The picture is kind of a metaphor of how executive elites and the party that supports them treat workers in this country. It is organized capital spitting in the face of organized labour.
Yes! A Liberal Operative undoubtedly.
@MJH – please see above (smelter rat’s instruction to you)
Don’t let these guy’s scare you off MJH. Some these delusional libs need to hear this stuff. Don’t worry about the rat fellow. He’s all about telling you where to go, but rarely has anything intelligent to say. Great having you here, hope you stick around.
To be fair, the lady kinda antagonized him: http://www.cbc.ca/video/watch/News/Canada/ID=2214097568 (start at 0:46)
(Although he isn’t a saint or anything but still…)
But yes, spitting on someone is uncalled for.
The video seems to show the passenger pushing or striking out at a striking employee, and she swats him afterwards, and he spits in her face. As for why they walked out – how about a Federal Labour Minister who can’t legislate unions back to work fast enough? Three times in the last 8 months (twice Air Canada and once Canada Post) This is a power that was exercised about 30 times in the last 50 years.
It doesn’t look like there was physical contact to me between the passenger and the first picketer, to be honest it sort of looks like a spit there too. She initiated a physical confrontation, but neither of them seem to have taken any steps to avoid it. Looks like charges all round to me.
You should really keep you comments about charges to yourself when you have no clue what you are talking about. As far as instigating, she was only standing up for herself and her co-workers after this idiot gorilla decided to walk through the crowd of angry strikers calling them awful names and trying to provoke an argument,. Your lesson for the day…..Shut Your Mouth when you don’t have all the facts. You and the rest of the public have no clue how corrupt Air Canada is and how these people are treated!!!!
3 times in the last 8 months. Yeah Canada Post at Christmas and Air Canada at March Break. Thanks Conservatives for sticking up for consumers and the regular public and not caving in to the terrorist like demands of entitled union leaders. (Give us what we want or there won’t be Christmas, Give us what we want or there won’t be March Break – Times of the year when thousands of Canadians spend their only disposable income to spend time with their families)
Madrid, Northern Ireland, 9/11, Gaza Strip, Brievik? Don’t bum *me* out: I DON’T GET TO ARIZONA FOR MARCH BREAK.
FML!!!
Well put sir. Game, set and match.
It’s called collective bargaining.
Aka extortion.
How is collective bargaining extortion? On what planet does the instance of two sides negotiating a contract constitute extortion? Both management and unions are responsible for how contracts are made and how they are enforced in the workplace. It’s funny how “bad” contracts always get pinned on the other side but “good” contracts are always the result of one’s own negotiating team.
But keep on playing your victim card if it makes you feel any better.
Watch the video again… The A-hole(Spit guy) went there to ANTAGONIZE these underpaid people. I don’t know if you understand about people coming up to your face and SCREAMING at you, but it is Assault as far as I am concerned, entering into your personal space, and I certainly would have struck the man, as he WILLFULLY caused this. She was sticking up for a comrade, and this guy is LUCKY that he didn’t get punched out for his actions. Police have the video, lets see if they do something about this…
If they do, many of the picketers will be charged too – they were shouting in the faces of anyone entering or exiting the terminal.
Shouting is a crime in Harperland? Who knew??
Yes, you are a criminal because if you shout you’re are a radical extremist terrorist. Part of Harper’s Prison Expansion Plan entails a labour camp for those that raise their voices above the level of a hearty chuckle. So those pesky strikers, and all other protesters for that matter, can be wisked off and put away.
Did you even read barry’s post? He was the one suggesting that “people coming up to your face and SCREAMING at you, but it is Assault”…or are you suggesting that the picketers should be viewed differently for the same behaviour?
Hey Ottawacon, who do you work for…..Lisa Raitt???? Seem pretty one-sided to me and totally clueless to boot!!!!
If a full scale strike started you would be hollering “Why doesnt the Govt do something?”
Is that you, Mrs. Harper?
Agree with you completely MJH.
Harper is doing exactly what the majority of people want. Someone is finally standing tall against these unions that think they run the show. The taxpayer is running the show right now and I’m lovin it.
Union’s are the definition of greed and have drove 100’s of thousands of good paying jobs from Canada.
Bill,
Can you cite proof that Harper is doing exactly what the majority of people want. As we’re finding out with robocall that majority might not be real.
Aka
Provide proof or its just bollocks
What a load of horseshit. Or should I say Billshit. Let’s see if the AC CEO turns down his $5million bonus next week.
Harper still has very strong support, as shown is resent polling. Robocall, robocall and more robocall, that’s all you libs think about. If the robocall thing is real then lets get to the bottom of it. However, in the mean time you guys need to keep your eye on the prize, governing.
Smelter rat,
What you have to say is almost always ratshit. You have not a clue and have little to add but insults. Times are a changing and the way you think is existent:)
“resent polling” is a Freudian slip…I’m sure….
If I were you, I would check that “resent” polling before making your statements. To quote you, “Times are a changing and the way you think is existent:)” whatever the fuck that means: they NDP are tied with the CPC and it shows the Cons have been losing support:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/john-ibbitson/ndp-tie-tories-in-popular-support/article2377342/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2377342
I didn’t say they didn’t have a lose of support, I said they still have very strong support, which they do.
The NDP have peaked, in 2015 the Bloc will eat half the sandwich. I consider the rats way of thinking to be extinct, simple as that.
(dam spell checK…)
I think you will see a 5-7 point up swing in the Harper government when the budget is released, alot of people want a budget that is tough and addresses some of the gravy trains currently in place.
We will die without unions.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You are DAMN RIGHT, Nadine. When there were NO UNIONS there wasn’t a thing called MIDDLE CLASS and The Harper Government, and THE RICH would like it to RETURN to the “Old Days”…
It blows me away that so many mid to low income folks are anti-union – what do they think will happen if unions are gone?
95% of jobs will be minimum wage with no security or benefits – and there will be plenty of people desperate enough to do them.
Is this a desirable outcome for this country?
What a load of crap. 95% of jobs will be minium wage? Chris, did it hurt when you pulled that stat out of your ass?
LOL – hilarious Jon. Poor Chris is just supporting the white wine socialist uber-twat Lumley. She lies all day and all night to support her whacked out agenda. Pssst- she is also a “Truther”
If Unions want more support (and I tend to be sympathetic), we need more unionized workers in the general population. Instead of watching unions get attritioned with an aging workforce in manufacturing and living off the glories of the past (the 40 hour work week was established a very long time ago), they should try to organize fast food restaurant workers, and other menial proffessions.
Any work is honourable work……I deplore your use of the word “menial”….
When I worked as a nurse, the labour minister of BC at the time referred to hospital housekeepers as “toilet cleaners”……this statement angered me to the extreme….as I saw how hard those housekeepers(the majprity of them women) worked to get a room clean and sanitized in order that we could give a patient a bed…..sometimes in as little as 15 minutes…..I couldnt perform my job properly without all the work of housekeepers and dietary staff working along side the nursing staff…..no job is “menial” as far as I am concerned……maybe when you’ve emptied a bed pan, you’ll understand that…..
Precisely. Organizing some of the lower paid workforces would be much easier if the corporatists hadn’t stacked the deck against it.
AC shares are essentially penny stiock, but the AC CEO is about to receive a $5 million bonus next week. What planet are we living on?
I would say charged is a bit severe, but the creep and all of her accomplices sure do deserve to be FIRED for their illegal and highly disruptive strike.
For the vast majority of people working in non-union jobs it is getting harder and harder to have any sympathy at all for these “entitled to their entitlements” whiners.
Why do you support a race to the bottom in terms of working conditions for your fellow Canadians? And you realize that the “creep” who did the spitting is not a protestor, right?
Non -union job holders deserve to have lower wages the answer is to collectively bargain!
Instead of insulting people who work non-union jobs (ie: McJobs), you should try to actually get them to unionize instead of telling them they deserve their plight.
That is the major problem with Unions in general, they have a “we have ours, screw you!” attitude.
You can attract a lot more flies with honey.
Are you kidding? Unions all over the world advocate for all workers, non-union or not.
Anyone who has ever worked as a temporary (and therefore non-union) worker for the Government know you are full of crap. They claim to be advocating ‘for workers’ while doing their level best to see that you are marched out the door.
Anglo-American unions systematically have not even wanted to keep their unemployed members on their rolls for longer than a few months. Can you imagine how differently the CAW would have conducted itself in the face of the systematic erosion of the North American auto industry if it kept all the discarded workers on its rolls and acted in their interest too? If that sounds absurd, ask yourself why Sweden still has a steel industry
I am sure they are only trying to maintain their standard of living…..what would have them do…..be chained to their workbenches, and earn starvation wages?……
Thank-God for unions for attemptiing to maintain wages and benefits or else a lot people of in non-union jobs would be earning a lot less, let me tell you…..
People with McJobs generally dont buy houses, go out to restaurants, pubs, or for entertainment either, or shop in my kind of store….when wages are forced down, we all suffer…..
In other words, your job sucks, why shouldn’t their jobs suck too? Can’t say i agree with that approach.
There’s no question that this is an ugly strike, but there’s lots of ugly all around. AC loses $250 mil a year, and apparently have over a $billion in UNFUNDED pension liabilities, Yet, CEO gets bonus. Every time a legal strike or lockout is imminent, the union gets legislated back.
No one is going to win this. Except AC execs.
Most airlines around the world are unprofitable.
But air travel is practically essential in this modern world.
I don’t know what the solution is.
As for “Paul”, I can identify somewhat with his point of view regarding his job situation. I used to work crummy jobs myself and I would see all of the well-paying middle class jobs in my old hometown being taken by middle aged union guys who complained about their pay and benefits.
Air travel is essential in Canada and should be low cost, subsidized by the Government, and declared an essential service with a well-paid working force (too expensive? One can always eliminate the CEO’s bonus, right?). Canadians depend on air travel, they do not have the options Europeans have.
Try taking the train from Vancouver to Calgary, for example: “First, book your train trip from VANCOUVER to Edmonton with VIA. Next, book your motorcoach trip from Edmonton to CALGARY with Red Arrow Motorcoach.” (VIA Rail). Okay, let’s see how we get to Edmonton by train. Departs 20:30PM from Vancouver, arrives in Edmonton 23:00PM the next day… Kilometers travelled: ~1057. Super Saver fare: $213.92. It takes more than 24 hours!
Now travel by train from Paris to Florence (High Speed Thello/Trenitalia): Departs 7:45PM in Paris. Arrives 5:38AM next morning in Milan. Departs Milan 6:20AM, arrives in Florence at 8:05AM. Kilometers travelled: ~1200. Comfort T6 shared cabin fare: $205. It takes less than 12 hours!
The top two comments made by posters in the commentary section of the CTV article are spot on…..worth a read……..
The government has been spoiling for a fight. Now it has one. if the labourers cave to this government edict then use are back to indentured servitude like in the 19th century. The thing to remember is commerce now trumps all. If you stand up in the face of commerce prepare to be cut down.The people in china building ipods work 14 hours a day, six days a week for 18 dollars a day. This is the face of commerce today. This is a form of slavery just the slave has a choice, work for nothing or starve. So it’s coming to a town near you. Firemen, army, police, paramedics, teachers, nurse, doctors, scientists, you are staring your future in the face. If we do not fight this now and with heart we will find it unstoppable once the fear sets in. Steven Harper has said he likes to see fear in the eyes of those that report to him and in a way all these people ultimately do. So how do you like the new boss?
Well said, Mr. Deberg!
I sense a LPC merger with the Dippers coming on. Not much ideological sunlight between you anymore. Solidarity forever comrades.
Reacting to what it was-the spitter is lucky, because if he did that to me or my wife ( I presume the spit recipient was a woman ), I would stomp the guys teeth out-a week or two later when he didnt expect it and there were no witnesses.
When I am King, man, there are going to be big, big changes and you Warren are in charge of my Kingdom’s political and legal matters.
Don’t forget where the blame really lies – on the Crime Minister and his cronies who cannot manage their way out of a wet paper bag. Never seen a CONservative government with a lick of business sense. Harper started this whole mess and now he is off spending more of OUR $$$$$ trying to give away more of Canada. Air Canada can spend millions on new 787’s, bonuses, etc. then they can afford to pay a decent wage to their employees ;p
Bravo Kitte, so well put!! Hat’s off to you, at least somebody on here understands and is able to sum it up 🙂
White Trash
by Fred Eaglesmith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C2re3oG1y8
When I met her she was a beauty queen
Who wanted something more
Now she’s hanging out with me
In front of the liquor store.
And it won’t start when I shut it off
So she has to get the beer
She puts it in the back seat
And she quietly says to me…
When, exactly, did we become white trash?
How come we’ve got seven dogs living in the g’rage?
How come the only eight-track in our car is Johnny Cash?
When, exactly, did we become white trash?
She tells all our friends that I’ve got my Ph.D.
But it stands for post hole digger
It ain’t exactly a degree.
And there’s curtains on the windows
And we hardly watch tv.
And that double wide is triple wide
Now that she’s with me.
And she says,
When, exactly, did we become white trash?
How come we got seven dogs, who burned down the g’rage?
How come the only eight-track in our car is Johnny Cash?
When, exactly, did we become white trash?
Girls: (falsetto) When, exactly, did we become white trash?
Boys: (deep bass) When, exactly, did we become white trash?
(Insert your village/town/city/venue) When, exactly, did we become white
trash?