They've changed their "work" hours, it seems. We were wondering why they were staying through their 4 hour "lunch" break. Turns out they changed the official times of picketing our homes and are now laying siege from 6am to 4pm on weekdays - for now. Their website says they'll update weekly, so we're still going to be left not knowing when we can go about our lives without having the make our way through the gauntlet, or be taunted and verbally harassed as we go by.
Oh, and they brought out the bull horn again, playing its various sound effects, early in the morning.
They've also split up the ranks, with one bunch hanging out on our raised bed garden - just leaning on the walls, now, rather than sitting on them, at least. An improvement, but still not something the beds were designed to withstand for such great lengths of time. Then there's another bunch that sometimes hangs out in the lane beside the SAIL office. Thanks to the police talking to them, they're not trespassing quite as often or as blatantly (they're still doing it), that means they're leaning against the guardrail on the side of the lane itself.
That means they're basically picketing on a public street; one that sees a LOT of traffic, even though it's just a back lane.
Which also means they are disrupting DATS (Disabled Adults Transit Service), too, which uses that lane for every trip. It's just plain not safe for such a large vehicle to pass by while people are on the guard rail. Plus, if a driver decides they won't cross the picket line, that means they have to go through elaborate measures to get to the front of the high rise to drop off/pick up passengers, like going around from the other side, then turning around in the parking spots on that side - if there is space for them to do so - to go back again in the other direction.
Then they play the twitter game, claiming...
Ah, gotta love the condescension. Abuser Tactics Bingo, anyone? Denying/invalidating reality, triangulation, minimizing, etc.
I wonder if this twitter visitor was another one of their plants, like the people posting on their Facebook page, claiming to have been to Artspace and/or know someone who lives here and saying they've witnessed Artspace members abusing picketers. Rather hard to make that claim, since it's never happened (and no; responding to provocation doesn't count). Funny, they shut up pretty quick when it becomes obvious they're lying.
No idea when this visitor is supposed to have been here. Maybe is was that truck that pulled over to the left, blocking most of the street, while the driver talked to a giggling gaggle of picketers.
I wonder if this twitter visitor was there to see the other picketers over in the side lane, verbally harassing people who drove by?
Our own Artspace insider just couldn't let it slide, though.
Do people really think that if they show up and talk to the picketers, as AUPE invites them, they're going to see the real thing? Try showing up without them knowing you're there and watching when, say, DATS drops off one of our members that they love to harass while she is trying to leave or come home.
Of course, with all the negative attention they're getting, they have quieted down, as if that makes their picketing of our private homes somehow less wrong. The damage is done, and is still being done.
Then there's another lovely bit of game playing. Don't be surprised to see something on the AUPE website about Balconies in Bloom soon, if it's not up there already. It seems they made a deal with one of our members to get votes for his balcony through their website.
So, they get to play the public image game, try and manipulate our members against each other, and even manipulate the voting process of a local contest.
Quite the trifecta!
Meanwhile, members noticed AUPE trying to rewrite history in their own time line of their siege against Artspace members.
MAY 15, 2014
AUPE notifies SAIL Inc. that staff wish to suspend the strike and provide care for Artspace residents over the Victoria Day long weekend over concerns that temporary staff could be difficult to secure.
Well, that didn't sound right. Perhaps because...
May 16, 2014, Edmonton Journal
...the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which is representing the aides, said workers decided to suspend the strike out of concern for residents’ well-being.
Then there's...
Global News
The workers chose to return to their jobs Friday because they said they were worried their clients weren't being properly cared for by replacement workers.
Oh, and...
May 17, 2014. Edmonton Sun
The 30 workers were on strike but had agreed to return to their jobs over long weekend, because the union says they were concerned “for the quality of care that their disabled clients had been receiving from replacement workers.”
I suppose AUPE had to change their tune, considering how many SAIL user members are saying the care they are receiving from the replacement workers has been superior to the "care" they were getting from the striking staff.
Meanwhile, the suggestion that SAIL would have had difficulty securing staff for the long weekend is just plain silly. Especially since, even if the striking staff hadn't completely destroyed any trust user member had in time through their actions on the picket line, SAIL still couldn't have had them back on such short notice due to conflicts with the replacement staff schedules.
May 15 – With 19 hours notice, AUPE notifies it’s employees will be returning to work without a collective agreement in place. SAIL responds that it needs five days to plan for an orderly transition of replacement workers to SAIL employees; a transition which ensures the user member’s health care needs are met.
Ah, AUPE. Still playing the game.
Too bad their game pieces are the people living Artspace, our neighbours, friends and family.
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