If I'm going to keep this site (and the domain name is almost up for grabs) I should really put some posts up here on a relatively regular basis.

Work is going well. I'm pretty much responsible for the respiratory/enteric and vaccine preventable disease portfolio at work, in addition to anything else that pops up.

Ottawa is still gripped by a transit strike, which does not affect me much as I'm still biking everywhere. It's actually kind of nice not to have buses blowing by me, but as we approach day 40, it's getting a bit much. Ottawa being a fairly right wing town, most of the moaning I've heard is about the union and how they should be grateful to have jobs, blah blah blah. Working in a unionized environment and having a fairly sweet deal myself, I don't feel in a position to criticize.

---

The two big outstanding issues are scheduling of drivers and out-sourcing of maintenance. While a lot of people are criticizing the union on the first issue. After all lots of people have no say in when they work. On the other hand, relatively few people work split and swing shifts either and I can't image working split shifts from eight to midnight and two 'til six. I used to work swing shifts many moons ago and it sucked. As well, the union negotiated the right to schedule in a past contract because it was such a toxic issue. To do this, they gave up some pay requests in that contract. So I can understand that they're sticking to their guns on this one. The second issue is outsourcing of work. Why would anyone agree to lose work? Seriously, if I walked into your office and said, oh by the way, you don't need to come in on Friday because I've hired someone to work for less money. By the way, if they screw up, you'll need to deal with that on Monday. What would you say?

You might say from the foregoing that I'm a union supporter. I have been involved in union organizing and served as a union president. But, in reality, collective agreements ensure fair play and unions merely serve to help balance power in negotiation. If you don't agree, that's great that you work in the environment you do. Lot's of folks don't and feel they have no recourse.