Location, location, location.

One of the biggest issues of this strike is that AUPE is not picketing SAIL, a company, but Artspace, our home.  The address for picketing given on their website is the address for the high rise.  The SAIL office, a converted 2 bedroom unit, is located at one end of the high rise.  Everything else about Artspace is private space.


To illustrate:

This is where the SAIL office is located. It is on the Eastern side of the high rise, and has its own entrance.  It has a patio by the entrance, some flower beds, stairs to the entrance, and a nicely shaded grassy area members and SAIL staff can enjoy.

This lane is part Artspace property, part City owned land.

This is where the SAIL office is, in relation to the address given by AUPE for the picket line.  You can't actually see the office from here.

Every part of the high rise you see here is private property.

That includes the raised bed garden the picketers are leaning against, ignoring the "private property" signs.  This set of raised beds has a pathway dividing it into two, about half way in (not visible because of the strikers leaning against it).  Those private property signs had to be placed all over, because AUPE picketers were wandering all over our grounds and, on the second day of the strike, even inside the high rise, apparently invited in by a member.

There is a 4 foot easement that allows picketers to step off the sidewalk without being charged with trespassing.  They regularly take advantage of this by hanging around in the easement, often well past the 4 ft limit, and sometimes going in between the two sections of the raised bed garden.  One picketer was even observed "tending" the beds!

The picketers, however, also hang out on the townhouse side.  The townhouses all have different addresses from the high rise and are not part of the picket line.

Since Canada Day, the picketers have been almost exclusively on the townhouse side.

Aside from a few times when they get up to block the security vehicle, wander around a bit, make some noise and generally hassle passers-by, this is where they have been camping out.

That is all private property.  There is even a private property sign right next to them.

It is also not the picket line.

So not only do they do very little picketing anymore - you know, actually walking around with their signs on the sidewalk, which is public property and technically the only place they are allowed to be - they are spending much of their day lolling in the shade.

Not on the official picket line, which is a private address.

Not the company they are supposedly picketing.

On private property across the street from where the official picket line is.

There is a set of stairs next to them.  While they are not blocking them in this photo, their very presence, and their habit of verbally harassing anyone who passes by, makes it extremely uncomfortable for members to use those stairs to get down to their front doors, or even just walk past.  Especially those members with young children, who have been forced to hear and witness the abuse, harassment, intimidation and even assault by AUPE picketers.  Not just the paid picketers, but our own striking care staff.

That's quite the gig, being able to sit in the shade all day and get paid for it, tax free, on someone else's property, for hours.

AUPE union member dues, at work!

Or play, as the case may be.