It's incredible to me to contemplate that Vancouver's public librarians and library workers are still on strike. It's a sign of how really fucked this city is going to be by the 2010 Olympics that our mayor and council would rather have the city without its services (garbage pickup, parks maintenance, community centres, as well as libraries) than give his workers the same terms of employment that every other Lower Mainland municipality has found acceptable and affordable. The employer hasn't responded to the union's last offer, made 22 days ago.
Pickets continue upbeat and inventive--below, they are forming the words "let's talk" on the north plaza of Library Square, with photographers on the 14th floor of the office tower shooting them from above--and they are getting lots of honks and support from the public. But it's got to be demoralizing. One picketer told me he's expecting to be out until Thanksgiving (in Canada, that's early October, New York readers). Every pay period of strike pays for one year of the union's demands. Five year contract/ten week strike = cancel each other out.
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