Add this to the garbage pile

The striking Inside and Outside workers in Windsor have now kept us piling our own trash for seven weeks. Garbage piles abound, the grass isn't cut anywhere on any city property, no city services except the essentials are being provided, and right around the corner is our festival season. Yeah.

Art in the Park, The Red Bull Air Races, Summerfest, Blues Fest, and countless other events that always bring the promise of a boost to our economy. And with the current recession, man do we need the boost. But the question now begs itself, what will this strike do to the events? Will CUPE allow them to happen? So far during this strike there have been several incidents of assaults against contractors, strikers actually showing up at the mayor's house to picket, alleged attempts at sabotaging contractors, and more. It's getting nasty. Neither side is budging on the issues, and neither side is making any allies. They are ridiculously far apart on the issue of post retirement benefits. In a nutshell, the city wants to end benefits to new hires in order to save money. Benefits that would only affect people hired from ratification onwards. Hey, I don't have benefits, neither do thousands of others. While I applaud the union's efforts to protect the future of their members (or future members), come on now. This is not exactly an issue that will affect anything now, let's get back to work and figure that one out after the trash is picked up. We're talking about something that won't be an issue for 40 years!

On that note, here's how one union member has earned her place in this dispute. Draw your own conclusions:

I'm not making any comments on this. It speaks for itself. I do however, feel that everyone needs to see this.

This needs to end now, before someone gets hurt. We are all residents of Windsor, regardless of what side you're on. I believe this is the straw that will break the camel's back on this strike. Maybe it's the impetous to get back to the table and resolve it. Neither side is going to like seeing this crap, and if this gets swept under the rug, more is bound to come.