Just to make it clear

I wanted to take a moment to address this flier thingy AUPE picketers had a few days back.

The last time this was posted, we addressed the fact that two of the people they've targeted here weren't replacement workers.

This time, let's address what AUPE is saying.

Crossing the SAIL picket line ...

First problem: they have never picketed SAIL.  They are picketing our private homes in Artspace.  So, as they admit on the supposedly-SAIL staff's twitter, it's Artspace they are targeting, not the employer.  There has never been a "SAIL" picket line, because AUPE chose to picket the community of Artspace, instead.

...doesn't just take away from someone else's job, 

Second problem; misleading statement.  As long as they are on strike or lockout, they are still employed.  As AUPE made clear to the SAIL staff before the strike started, an prolonged strike could result result in job loss.  This is a page from the package the staff were given on Jan. 22, 2014, in preparation to vote on whether or not to go on strike.

So... yeah. They still have jobs until either SAIL goes under or SAIL loses the contract to AHS.

Tell me again, who is it that's been bargaining in bad faith?  AUPE accuses SAIL, but it looks to me like it's the other way around.

... it delays resolution of the employer's lockout.

... please ask them to take work with another employer.

Third problem.  As has been pointed out previously, these are not factory workers making widgets and thingamajigs.

The replacement workers go from the SAIL office to provide care for people in their private homes.

Without replacement workers, depending on the type of care user members need, it means:

• not being able to transfer between bed and wheelchair
• not being able to shower 
• not being able to use the toilet
• not being able to get dressed
• not getting medications on schedule
• not being able to eat
• not getting meal preparation
• not getting help with housekeeping or laundry
• not getting to medical appointments
• not getting to DATS pick-ups on time

It means denying all the things that allow user members to live independent lives, rather than being forced to live in institutions.

The SAIL staff may have been willing to turn their backs on user members in their demand for more money and benefits SAIL can't afford - with a mediator's recommendation of more than even LPNs are getting in comparative jobs; thankfully, the replacement workers are not.

AUPE would have user members denied the basic necessities of life, in order to force SAIL to accept a recommendation that would result in ending everything they fought to have; a model of care that gives them autonomy and independence.  A model of care that has resulted in user members needing less medication, fewer hospitalisations, plus all the psychological benefits having control over their own lives gives.

AUPE has no problem holding Artspace members hostage, and their ransom is not only SAIL itself, but the independent care model user members fought so hard for; a model that gives them control over their very lives.

Thankfully, the replacement workers are willing to provide what the striking SAIL staff walked away from; care.

It could be your job next."

Unlike the placid tones of this pamphlet, where picketers are supposed to "ask" the replacement workers not to come in, they have threatened and harassed.  The picketers have hurled verbal abuse at the replacement workers and told them that they will never work in health care again; a punishment for crossing what should really be an illegal picket line.

If anyone should be worried about their jobs, it should be the "care" workers on the picket line, who have shown themselves to be anything but caring.

Because this sort of abusive behaviour does not happen in a vacuum.  People who behave this way rarely isolate their behaviour into compartments of their lives.

As anyone familiar with psychology - or anyone who is a survivor of abuse - recognises, if someone is abusive in one area of their lives, chances are they are also abusive in other areas of their lives.

That is incredibly concerning.

To them, it's about money, which they seem to believe will purchase them "dignity" and "respect."

To Artspace user members, it's about their lives.