The Vancouver Sun reports this morning on the results of an Internet poll conducted by the Innovative Research Group (“Support waning for City strikers: poll”,Vancouver Sun, August 31, 2007, pp. B1, B8).
According to Mike MacDonald, a senior research associate with the Innovative Research Group, the company polled between 225 and 299 people over the Internet from July 25th to August 29th. The poll asked respondents which side they felt was being the “most reasonable” in their conduct during the strike. The results suggest that public support for the unions’ positions in the current labour dispute has declined. However, the article reveals no details on how this “Internet poll” was actually conducted.
In addition, Mark Hancock, CUPE BC Secretary Treasure, reminds us in the article that strikes are invariably unpopular, and he points out that this strike poses particular challenges “… because the issues are too complex to describe in concise media friendly sound bites.”
The first ever strike by the Vancouver Public Library workers has garnered some international attention. Library Journal has provided some coverage of our ongoing situation (”No progress in long-running Vancouver Library strike” –http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/ca6473375.html)
In addition, Kathleen de la Pena McCook, a professor of library and information science at the University of South Florida, Tampa, has been following developments very closely and providing extensive coverage of the strike via her blog, Union Librarian (http://unionlibrarian.blogspot.com/). The blog offers numerous links to CUPE 391 resources, photos from the frontlines, and links to our popular videos.
Keeping an eye on future developments …
The Media Clarification Committee has learned that BCLA will publish an opinion piece by president Deb Thomas in the next issue of the BCLA Reporter. In addition, CLA president, Alvin Schraeder, has announced that pay equity will be discussed at the next CLA executive meeting on September 16th.
The Media Clarification Committee will be off this weekend but will be returning to action on Tuesday. Watch for our next hotsheet then.
Happy Labour Day, everybody!