I'm one of the skeptical journalists chided by Rob Silver for pointing out the (rather obvious) political angle to yesterday's foray into waste management by George Smitherman. Still, I have to agree with Rob's broader point - the indefensible and ultimately self-defeating complaints by CUPE about a bunch of volunteers trying to clean up Toronto.
As I wrote for print, the event was perfectly conceived by Smitherman, because it's unassailable; even the Mayor's office, which had as much cause as CUPE to be annoyed, had no choice but to commend the volunteers' sense of civic responsibility. Not the union, though, which decided to sink just a little bit lower in public opinion by more or less accusing volunteers of being scabs.
Of course, as Rob writes, union leaders are playing only to their own members, not to the broader public - to whom, unlike David Miller (or Smitherman), they don't answer. But what they're not considering is that, by making themselves the enemies, they're taking at least a little bit of heat off of the Mayor, and making it more politically palatable for him to continue standing up to them.
That's a huge service to Miller, presuming he takes advantage of it, because his only hope of emerging with major concessions from the union is to wait it out. He can't afford arbitration, which would probably give the union most of what it wants, and he can't expect to negotiate a favourable deal until the union is in a position of weakness - something that's not been the case so far.
That means holding on until more city employees have crossed the picket line, and until CUPE's leaders are feeling enough heat from members who can't afford to live much longer without their paycheques. That might not be possible for Miller if he's shouldering most of the blame for the strike. But the more that CUPE makes itself the public enemy, the less pressure on the Mayor to settle quickly.
Obviously, the reaction to Smitherman's crew won't, on its own, have a huge impact one way or the other. But it's probably about time for the union to begin considering how to make a public case for why this is all the city's fault, rather than continually making the case against itself.
