It's still insanely short, but at least the got some of the security footage in. Thank you, City TV.
Our story begins at about the 3:35 mark in the video below.
One thing I find interesting is that the piece begins with the anchor saying, "We've seen a rash of care facility strikes in Edmonton in recent years."
The first irritation is that, once again, we are being compared to a care facility again.
WE ARE NOT A CARE FACILITY!
Seriously, people. Is that too difficult a concept to grasp?
Besides that, however... Just why have there been to many care givers going on strike? An interesting question.
As for the bits of video footage shown in the clip, that's just a tiny portion of what we have been experiencing. That air raid siren was used for 3 days before the police finally responded to complaints. [Correction Sept. 26: we have video of 1 day using the air raid siren, and another day of attempts to use it. For now, it appears that people were mistaking sound effects from the bull horn as the air raid siren.] The woman threatening another care worker? She and others like her are why people send things to this blog anonymously. What isn't mentioned is the reason her photo was posted on that page, and her identity sought, was this:
That's right. She has been threatening people for quite some time. She's been one of the nastier picketers. Most of us had no idea why she was even there, as almost no one recognized her (she's also threatening the wrong person, as someone else had already identified her). She didn't seem to be one of the AUPE picketers. While her threatening and bullying behaviour was quite at home with them, AUPE's rent-a-picketer crowd has never been a particularly diverse bunch. Turns out she was casual staff with only a couple of shifts a month. Considering how much she's been seen on the picket line, she is probably making a lot more from her hours on the picket line - tax free - than she has earned for her hours as a casual worker for SAIL.
As for AUPE, there still has not been any "official" response. The most they've come up with is posting this on their website.
That's right. A news story finally shows just a tiny bit of what they have been doing to us, and they whine about how it's "one sided" and "overstated. Oh, and *gasp* some of it dates back to the first week of the strike!
Excuse me, but how can anyone possibly "overstate" an air raid siren? Or yelling at a father whose son has just come back from the hospital for daring to object?
As for it being a "handful of incidents", they know better than most, considering they have their own professionals controlling their media image, just how severe constraints are when it comes to how much time the media has to show in a clip, and how sharp the editors cuts can be. They try to imply that this is somehow all there is, when these are just tiny clips of a very few incidents. AUPE does know there is more. The reporter showed them more - and even that was just a fraction of security footage collected. They had demanded proof. When it was given to them, they said nothing.
Notice that what they are really doing is deflecting. They refuse to take responsibility for the picketers actions. Instead, they turn around and try to claim that is is Artspace members who are the bullies; that picketers are the victims. It would be laughable to read their claim that "these caregivers" (no mention that the majority of picketers are not striking staff members, but are AUPE rentals) are "endlessly attacked" as the blatantly false statement that it is, if they weren't causing so much harm.
(note to AUPE: if your picketers have been hurling verbal abuse and threatening people, mobbing their vehicles and generally causing mayhem, acting surprised that people don't like it, then claiming to be the victim, doesn't work. It does, however, make you look really, really stupid).
And then, the funniest part of all, is their attempt to claim some sort of high ground by not commenting on the story.
Let's make a few things very clear, hear.
This video footage (and this story) is not the employer's perspective of the strike. It is the perspective of Artspace members. Artspace does not employ any care workers. We are not the "employer's representatives and supporters," either. We are Artspace members representing ourselves, because it is us that is being targeted in this strike, not the company, SAIL.
AUPE doesn't seem to be able to figure that out - but then, I'm starting to think it's beyond their collective intellectual capacity to comprehend the notion.
Oh, and the accusations being made against us? Bad mistake, AUPE. We have plenty of video, audio and reports to back up our position. They have been constantly taking video recordings of us, as well. You know what their video would be showing? Their own bad behaviour and their own attempts to provoke people into violent responses.
Given their accusations, however, I've gone through extra effort to investigate their claims. What I am finding out is truly enlightening.
And not very good for AUPE's position at all.
The first irritation is that, once again, we are being compared to a care facility again.
WE ARE NOT A CARE FACILITY!
Seriously, people. Is that too difficult a concept to grasp?
Besides that, however... Just why have there been to many care givers going on strike? An interesting question.
As for the bits of video footage shown in the clip, that's just a tiny portion of what we have been experiencing. That air raid siren was used for 3 days before the police finally responded to complaints. [Correction Sept. 26: we have video of 1 day using the air raid siren, and another day of attempts to use it. For now, it appears that people were mistaking sound effects from the bull horn as the air raid siren.] The woman threatening another care worker? She and others like her are why people send things to this blog anonymously. What isn't mentioned is the reason her photo was posted on that page, and her identity sought, was this:
I have written up my incident report from the day this employee, without me doing anything to her but asking her to stay out of a convo I was having, threatened to call social services to have my children apprehended because I'm not a good mom.
That's right. She has been threatening people for quite some time. She's been one of the nastier picketers. Most of us had no idea why she was even there, as almost no one recognized her (she's also threatening the wrong person, as someone else had already identified her). She didn't seem to be one of the AUPE picketers. While her threatening and bullying behaviour was quite at home with them, AUPE's rent-a-picketer crowd has never been a particularly diverse bunch. Turns out she was casual staff with only a couple of shifts a month. Considering how much she's been seen on the picket line, she is probably making a lot more from her hours on the picket line - tax free - than she has earned for her hours as a casual worker for SAIL.
As for AUPE, there still has not been any "official" response. The most they've come up with is posting this on their website.
Posted July 11, 2014 in Union Updates
A news story on the ongoing lockout at Artspace Housing Co-operative in Edmonton used one-sided and overstated footage, some of it dating back to the first weekend of the dispute more than two months ago.
The footage shows a handful of incidents, solely from the employer’s perspective. The news story fails to show incidents where cars have plowed through caregivers on the picket line, or show when a picket line supporter was chased with a 2×4, or the daily verbal abuse endured by our members on the picket line.
These caregivers have been endlessly attacked and provoked by a very small handful of individuals for demonstrating their constitutionally protected rights outside the workplace they have been locked out of.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees chose not to comment on the story in an effort to prevent tensions from escalating in the community, and to protect the mediation process that has been under way for more than a week. A handful of the employer’s representatives and supporters appear intent on sabotaging AUPE’s efforts to negotiate a resolution to this dispute through the mediation process, by using the media to inflame the conflict.
The union’s focus has been and continues to be on resolving the dispute as soon as possible.
Caregivers have been locked out by Supports for Artspace Independent Living (SAIL Inc.) since May 19.
That's right. A news story finally shows just a tiny bit of what they have been doing to us, and they whine about how it's "one sided" and "overstated. Oh, and *gasp* some of it dates back to the first week of the strike!
Excuse me, but how can anyone possibly "overstate" an air raid siren? Or yelling at a father whose son has just come back from the hospital for daring to object?
As for it being a "handful of incidents", they know better than most, considering they have their own professionals controlling their media image, just how severe constraints are when it comes to how much time the media has to show in a clip, and how sharp the editors cuts can be. They try to imply that this is somehow all there is, when these are just tiny clips of a very few incidents. AUPE does know there is more. The reporter showed them more - and even that was just a fraction of security footage collected. They had demanded proof. When it was given to them, they said nothing.
Notice that what they are really doing is deflecting. They refuse to take responsibility for the picketers actions. Instead, they turn around and try to claim that is is Artspace members who are the bullies; that picketers are the victims. It would be laughable to read their claim that "these caregivers" (no mention that the majority of picketers are not striking staff members, but are AUPE rentals) are "endlessly attacked" as the blatantly false statement that it is, if they weren't causing so much harm.
(note to AUPE: if your picketers have been hurling verbal abuse and threatening people, mobbing their vehicles and generally causing mayhem, acting surprised that people don't like it, then claiming to be the victim, doesn't work. It does, however, make you look really, really stupid).
And then, the funniest part of all, is their attempt to claim some sort of high ground by not commenting on the story.
Let's make a few things very clear, hear.
This video footage (and this story) is not the employer's perspective of the strike. It is the perspective of Artspace members. Artspace does not employ any care workers. We are not the "employer's representatives and supporters," either. We are Artspace members representing ourselves, because it is us that is being targeted in this strike, not the company, SAIL.
AUPE doesn't seem to be able to figure that out - but then, I'm starting to think it's beyond their collective intellectual capacity to comprehend the notion.
Oh, and the accusations being made against us? Bad mistake, AUPE. We have plenty of video, audio and reports to back up our position. They have been constantly taking video recordings of us, as well. You know what their video would be showing? Their own bad behaviour and their own attempts to provoke people into violent responses.
Given their accusations, however, I've gone through extra effort to investigate their claims. What I am finding out is truly enlightening.
And not very good for AUPE's position at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment