About the only thing we can be thankful for is that they're being quiet.
A member sent these screen caps from the AUPE Facebook page.
Here, AUPE is still trying to pretend that what has been done to us for that past 100 plus days can just be disappeared, because LO! Behold! They have long, boring video of picketers behaving.
While we can appreciate that the backlash has forced AUPE to get the picketers to at least tone down their behaviour in front of their cameras, they still refuse to acknowledge a couple of things.
First off, they are still picketing our private homes (and brazenly trespass). In fact, the camera they are using to record these videos is on our private property, so every video from that camera is evidence of their trespassing.
They continue to treat our home as if it is a care facility; a work site.
These are our homes.
Second, the incidents haven't stopped. Off camera, people are still being stalked, harassed and entrapped.
The staged videos AUPE is putting up only proves that, when the picketers are in front of their own cameras, they sort of behave.
I say "sort of" because this morning, they still engaged in verbal harassment by yelling at them from across the street, despite being repeatedly told not to engage this family.
They continue to call out people by name, when those people do not know them (in regards to misconduct, this demonstration of personal knowledge falls under intimidation and infiltration).
They were seen stealing flowers from our garden beds.
They blocked the replacement workers for so long, a SAIL user member missed a medical appointment.
The fact remains that, as long as they are picketing our private homes, blocking traffic in our private parking, etc., they continue to cause harm to members who live here. The effects of psychological abuse do not go away just because the abuser isn't actively engaging in overt abuse. So much damage has been done to our members, the mere presence of the picketers continues to cause harm.
Here we have AUPE once again trying to manipulate public image through misinformation.
First off, the mediator didn't say SAIL had enough money. The mediator only compared with other collective agreements - with large facilities like hospitals - and basically dismissed SAIL's financial information as irrelevant.
There was no compromise.
Why would a mediator recommend something that would bankrupt SAIL? Why would a mediator not even consider the actual amount of money SAIL gets?
We have no idea.
Also, "SAIL" did not vote against it. AUPE is either demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of how SAIL works, or deliberately misleading the public.
Let's explain it again.
SAIL is run by a volunteer board. The board looked at the mediator recommendation, discussed options, figured out which would be the best to choose.
The board presented this information to the SAIL user members, fully informing them in regards to the recommendation and the different options, then presented their own recommendation.
Members then discussed options and the user members voted to accept the one the board recommended.
A media statement was released the next day.
AUPE already had professionally printed pamphlets ready and picketers began their retaliation against Arstpace, as they had already threatened to do, immediately. Which rather implies they knew the recommendation was not financially viable, and that SAIL and SAIL users had no real choice but to reject it.
Back to the screen cap above; AUPE next plays the public image manipulation game. It is the care staff that is being bullied, you see. How? By being offered "pennies" and with a lock out. As if the lock out were some sort of punishment, rather than to protect our own user members from people they no longer felt safe allowing into their homes.
Never mind that those "pennies" - plus benefits - where the best SAIL could offer and still remain solvent (especially before SAIL even know how much the new funding from AHS was going to be - funding that has actually decreased, because there are fewer user members).
Never mind that the care workers were already being paid highest in their field, when comparing apples to apples instead of apples to watermelons.
Never mind that, had SAIL accepted the recommendation, it would have bankrupted them and those same care workers AUPE claims to defend would be out their jobs.
Then they really lay it on by saying SAIL's "allies" are claiming their "legal right to a picket line is terrorism and abuse..."
No, AUPE. We've never tried to deny anyone their right to picket. We've said it time and again; we want the labour regulations for picketing to be enforced.
1) peaceful (and that means always, not just when posing for AUPE cameras)
2) at the place of employment (not on private property, not our homes)
3) no unlawful activity, no misconduct.
And, given the actions of picketers - most of whom are not the striking/locked out care staff - we would also like to see accountability for those unlawful acts and misconduct.
AUPE, what's done is done. The videos (including so much more than we've been able to get online) are the evidence.
At this point, AUPE is starting to sound like Baghdad Bob.
The person they were talking to seemed to catch on to that.
I have to admit, I don't know where this person got that particular information; the driver was a visitor helping a pregnant woman who was moving in, and they were leaving. The driver also was very careful to drive *between* picketers (who should not have been blocking him in the first place), and it was the picketers who put themselves in harm's way by jumping in front. No one was hurt.
The writer is correct, however, in that the people being hassled have already been diminished and hassled all their lives. It was through their efforts to reclaim their dignity and independence that Artspace and SAIL came into existence.
These are the people that AUPE is attacking.
These are the people who fought for Artspace to be built - a place with many accessible units aimed at providing affordable housing and designed for the independence of people with disabilities.
The people who fought to have an in-house care company, consumer driven and volunteer run, that would allow them to control who provided them with the care they needed, who could come in and out of their own homes, control their own care, and have help available, 24/7 should unexpected needs arise.
These are the people AUPE claims are bullying the care workers.
These are the people AUPE is targeting.
They especially like to target this person.
And this person.
That fact remains that AUPE has chosen to target a community filled with some of the most vulnerable people; people with both visible and invisible disabilities, the elderly and even children and our pets.
They are not picketing a company. They are not picketing an employer.
They are picketing a community. Our families. Our friends. Our homes.
And they have done so so aggressively, that it has caused medical harm to many of our members.
They have done so in such a way as to create an atmosphere of fear and anxiety within our own homes, to the point that members cannot look outside their own windows are enjoy their own balconies and patios without being harassed.
They not only continue to pretend that their actions have been "peaceful", but they even stepped it up with another invasion of our street; an illegal block party that they call a "picket line." - and STILL pretended they were being "peaceful."
Then they bag about it.
Know that this picture is from a day when our community was overrun with strangers, when people felt trapped in their homes, while AUPE members and their "guests" trespassed and assaulted us with high levels of noise.
This event that they so proudly show off was actually held 101 days into this dispute, in an obvious punishment for our own silent vigil at day 100.
We at Artspace remain under siege by an hostile force, intent on taking control of the care company that provides personal care to a few of our members.
We at Artspace still cannot enjoy the peace of our own homes.
All because our members dare to want control over who enters those homes.
All because our members are fighting to keep the in-house care company that allows them to live independent lives outside of institutions solvent.
All because we refuse to bow down to bullying, intimidation, coercion, provocation, threats, abuse and unlawful acts.
AUPE - in between blaming others for their picketers' behaviour, or justifying it by saying that sure, sometimes things get "heated" on the picket line - tries to pretend that they are just trying to do "what's right"
By that statement, they seem to be saying that the abuse of our community - which they admit they have done at senior's centres, too - for more than 100 days is perfectly acceptable
It is not.
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