The cynics were right

Don’t forget – the Amherstburg Ice Cream Festival is tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

http://www.icecreamfest.ca

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The City of Windsor has posted their response to CUPE’s application to the Labour Board that alleged bad-faith bargaining on the part of the City.

For reference the documents are here:

CUPE’s submission            The City of Windsor’s submission

As is increasingly the case, the Windsor Star will report comments made by Mayor Francis and weeks later – after the intended purpose of those comments have borne out – do we only learn the opposite was true.

This is how public opinion is manipulated – avoid directly answering a question.  Wait for the desired outcome and then admit the facts.

The Star’s Don McArthur wrote an interesting piece today, which, based upon my read of it, the city has been attempting to foment negative public opinion  regarding CUPE:

The response, submitted by fax to Ontario’s Labour Board Monday afternoon and released to the media prior to Monday night’s council meeting, concedes the union’s allegation that the city struck an 11th-hour deal to prevent picketing of the Red Bull Air Race and suggests Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis was misquoted, or had his words taken out of context, when he reportedly told The Star that the union wanted job security for life, as opposed to the life of the agreement.

Remember back on June 11, 2009, when Mayor Francis called those who questioned the timing of the city’s surprise decision to return to the bargaining table, conveniently just before Red Bull, “cynics?

“We’ll try to do the best we can — nobody is happy with this situation,” he said.   Asked about possible perception on the timing of the announcement, the mayor replied: “You know what I think about cynics.”

As to the job security issue, McArthur points out what the Mayor said. 

Misquote?  Not likely, as you can’t misquote the overall meaning of a statement:

The comments by Francis that city lawyers now say may have been taken out of context were published in the May 25 edition of The Star.  Francis is reported as saying the outside union wanted job security for life — a demand the union denied making.

“It’s just — it’s unheard of,” Francis is quoted as saying. “The city would lose all flexibility. It would be binding future councils forever. They would not be able to reduce the workforce, if circumstances were so dire.”

Looks like this cynic was correct with my assessmentand only reaffirms my belief the contempt Mayor Francis has for anyone who dare disagree with him, has been reflected throughout the CUPE negotiations. 

And based upon my limited experiences with the City, and indirectly the Office of the Mayor, you can’t negotiate for a glass of water in that type of environment let alone a labour contract. 

Not unless you have a team of lawyers behind you.

An amazing coincidence?

Nothing earth shattering, but an amusing observation.

At 10:02 AM I sent the following email to the city clerk:

—–Original Message—–

From: chrisxxxxxxx@xxxxxx [chrisxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx]

Sent: June 30, 2009 10:02 AM

To: Critchley, Valerie

Subject: City Submission to Labour Board

In the spirit of fairness, openess and transparency, I am requesting of copy of the city’s submission to the Ministry of Labour in response to CUPE’s application – which had been posted on the Windsor Star website and provided to me through the Mayor’s office.

If you go into the PDF properties of the city submission to the Labour Board, you see the PDF file was created at 10:10 a.m.:

Who dun it? 

Another casual observation.

For the City to state that leaking information to the media is not demonstrative of bad-faith bargaining; the city certainly goes to a great extent to argue that no one – either councillors, the Mayor or senior administration, “leaked” the information to the media.

Don McArthur points out that,  “Francis has said affidavits would be sworn by the councillors and administrators who were privy to the city and union proposals, but that has not yet been done.”

So who could have? 

The city submits (line 62 of the City’s response):

The City denies that the only manner in which the proposals could have been leaked to the media was through the City’s representatives. It could have been leaked by a member of the Union bargaining committee. Furthermore, prior to the first meeting of council setting out the details of the proposals the President of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 616, which represents the hourly employees of Transit Windsor, was in possession of the particulars of both offers, notwithstanding that he was not a member of any bargaining committee.   Prior to disclosing the particulars to others he indicated he would get the details from “CUPE”, which he apparently did. This raises several additional possibilities with respect to how information made its way to the media, particularly as this individual did not, on at least one occasion, hesitate to share the details with others.

Wow – I hope the City has proof of this allegation since they did post the document on the city website for all the world to see.

I wonder if the Star will attempt to interview the President of the Transit Union.