strike

Thursday August 5, 2004

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Thursday August 5, 2004 Union Bribery Just Before Olympics Start Hotel workers in and around this Greek capital staged a strike Wednesday to demand double wages and an Olympic bonus as has been promised to security personnel for this month's games, Xinhua reports. It was the sixth strike in the past month by the union, which includes cleaning staff and kitchen personnel.Ê The hotel workers' union is demanding that monthly minimum pay rise for workers in hotels to compensate longer working hours and shorter holidays. The government has already promised bonuses to other personnel providing security for the Aug 13-29 Olympic Games. Despite the Olympics, tourism in Greece has dropped sharply, prompting government officials to call for an overhaul of vital services. The government, however, is trying to keep costs down as Olympic spending has skyrocketed. A total of 14,670 hotel workers are employed in greater Athens. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) Athens, Greece, Olympics, ancient, greek, urn, vase, history, pentathlon, javelin, discus, labour, strike, union

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 5, 2004

Union Bribery Just Before Olympics Start

Hotel workers in and around this Greek capital staged a strike Wednesday to demand double wages and an Olympic bonus as has been promised to security personnel for this month’s games, Xinhua reports. It was the sixth strike in the past month by the union, which includes cleaning staff and kitchen personnel.

The hotel workers’ union is demanding that monthly minimum pay rise for workers in hotels to compensate longer working hours and shorter holidays. The government has already promised bonuses to other personnel providing security for the Aug 13-29 Olympic Games.

Despite the Olympics, tourism in Greece has dropped sharply, prompting government officials to call for an overhaul of vital services.

The government, however, is trying to keep costs down as Olympic spending has skyrocketed.

A total of 14,670 hotel workers are employed in greater Athens. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

John Snobelen Meets With the Board of Trustees

Pen & Ink caricature by Graeme MacKay (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). Illustrated in 1997.

Why Ontario teachers went on a province-wide strike in 1997

Back in October 1997, a strike kept teachers and students out of the classroom for two weeks.

The 1997 strike was not about wages. It was about the Mike Harris-led PC government’s proposed overhaul to education.

On Oct. 7 that year, a crowd of 20,000 teachers gathered inside and outside Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens for a rally opposing Bill 160, which introduced legislation for Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris’s changes to education.

“If he does not move off his legislative agenda, every school in this province will be shut down,” Eileen Lennon of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation told the rally. “We will not back down.” 

Reporter Steve Erwin outlined some details of the bill.

A Meeting of the School Trustees – By Robert Harris

It would give the province control over the levying of school taxes, the ability to dictate school funding, set class sizes and teacher prep time, and allow non-certified teachers to instruct.

Erwin said the government’s stated purpose was to “improve the performance of Ontario schoolchildren.”

But teachers saw it as a pretext to cut $1 billion from the system and lay off up to 10,000 teachers.

Education Minister John Snobelen, himself a high school dropout, dismissed the “union bluster,” according to the reporter.

“I wasn’t surprised by the turnout or the rhetoric from last night,” he said. “I think that was all pretty predictable.” 

Snobelen would be replaced as education minister in a cabinet shuffle two days later. (Continued: CBC News)