Both the Vancouver Province and the Globe & Mail reported this morning that the Ipsos Reid poll has now been fully released. The poll reveals that public opinion is fairly evenly split between support for the unions and support for the City.
For the full stories, see “Poll Shows Nobody Wins” (Vancouver Province) and “Strike Support Split Down the Middle” (Globe & Mail).
The full results of the Ipsos Reid poll are now available on the City’s website. There is a link here to a .pdf version of the full report.
The Vancouver Sun’s editors weighed in on the public relations aspects of the current labour dispute in an editorial entitled “Both Sides in Strike are Long on Retoric and Short on Leadership.” Both the City and the Unions come under criticism.
CUPE BC responded to the ads appearing in the weekend editions of the Vancouver Sun and The Province, providing their own counterspin to statements made in the advertisements. CUPE’s reponse addressed allegations concerning paid days off, wages and the term of the contracts under negotiation, seniority and other union issues. (see http://www.cupe.bc.ca/4151)
On the good news front, CBC read the following letter on-air during last Wednesday’s broadcast of “Morning Edition” (we have the writer’s permission to reproduce it here):
“On the Tuesday morning show (August 14, 2007), I listened to your misguided attempt to introduce humor into the discussion on illegally dumped garbage in Vancouver neighborhoods as a result of the civic strike.
Your proposal to have a contest to submit photos of the most unsightly neighborhood garbage mess, with the prize offered being to have the Morning Edition crew act as scab labour to clean up the site of the “winning” entry only serves to trivialize this strike. In the meanwhile, there are serious issues NOT being addressed by the media such as the library employee’s demand for a pay equity clause to be introduced into their contract — pay equity for a predominantly female workforce with wages below that of equivalent male-dominated jobs.
This strike has gone on for far too long because the demands of the various bargaining units have not been taken seriously, with a will to resolve them. Your program should be promoting the need to find a resolution to this strike, and keeping the public informed on the real issues, not making fun of a situation that has caused financial hardship to the workers and hardship to the general public as a result of the withdrawn services.
As a citizen of Vancouver, I expect to hear the “real” news from the CBC — something that might even encourage the public to demand that the City managers, the GVRD, and the CUPE bargaining units sit down and bargain in good faith for fair contracts for their employees and to restore vital public services withdrawn as a result of this needless strike.”