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Monday, July 06, 2009
Private individuals fill the void of public sector garbage strike in Toronto
Toronto is suffering from a city wide union strike that includes the public garbage collectors. With no one to clear out the city's garbage the smell and pollution is getting worse and worse. Union leaders are holding the health and comfort of the people of Toronto hostage.
This is exactly the sort of situation that advocates of free enterprise always say brings out the entrepreneurs in people. And I am glad to say that we have not been disappointed.
A website called Garbage Help is putting Torontonians in touch with people who are willing to collect their garbage for pay. Toronto is proving that individuals acting for self interest and mutual benefit can be a powerful force to get things done.
Mayor David Miller is not a fan of individual entrepreneurship or of personal liberty. He has threatened a $5 000 fine for anyone who is not approved to pick up garbage by the state. All these people are doing is trying to fill a vital need that has been vacated. The people of Toronto surely desire this service. So if the city is unable to provide it, what right does Mayor Miller have to prevent others from stepping into the void?
Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on July 6, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
Could Toronto GET any more pathetic, laughable and embarrassing???? You people re-elected Miller - everything he does is YOUR fault. Morons.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-07-06 6:36:17 PM
Ya I call that BS. What right does he have to prevent people from doing their business. After all garbage removal is a business. 800 JUNK does it, why can't private individuals do it? stupid!
Posted by: Moltar | 2009-07-06 6:51:14 PM
The rest of Canada should give Toronto the gift of a huge Nelson Muntz statue that points at the city centre and goes "AH-ha!" every hour on the hour.
Posted by: Timmy | 2009-07-06 7:21:36 PM
I don't know much about labour law, but what Mayor Miller has threatened sounds like an over-stepping of his jurisdiction to me. Someone who privately hauls trash for pay is not a scab, because he is working for the end customer not the employer; so even if Ontario is an anti-scab jurisdiction, this practice would not be illegal.
Posted by: Grant Brown | 2009-07-06 7:26:05 PM
//He has threatened a $5 000 fine for anyone who is not approved to pick up garbage by the state.//
WTF? You need to be approved to pick up garbage? Wow, I hope some people self organize and tell this jerk to stick his "approval".
Posted by: Scott Carnegie | 2009-07-06 8:57:32 PM
I can't decide whether Toronto is THE worst run city in North America, or whether its residents have the government that they deserve.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-07-06 9:06:08 PM
First question.
Are the landfill workers part of the same union? If so, how do the private individuals get access, past striking workers?
Second question.
What's to stop private individuals from taking your money, and throwing your trash into the lake? Those collection contractors are "approved" for a reason.
My little town allows individuals to dump their own trash, but I doubt a big city like Toronto allows anyone except scheduled drop-offs. Once those private individuals have your trash loaded onto their vehicles, it's getting dumped somewhere.
Posted by: dp | 2009-07-06 9:34:19 PM
I can't decide whether Toronto is THE worst run city in North America,
Posted by: Zebulon Punk | 2009-07-06 9:06:08 PM
You don't have to decide Punk, I'll tell you.
It's Detroit. Median home price is now $6000. Don't complain Punk, the city council and the mayor are your "dream team".
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/06/medium-home-prices-in-detroit-fall-to.html
Posted by: The Stig | 2009-07-06 9:37:01 PM
The answer to Zebulon's question above is: Yes.
Posted by: Timmy | 2009-07-06 9:45:18 PM
DP: I understand why, in a large city, we use only "approved" collection contractors. However, if they're not doing the job, after we've paid our taxes, and the government is allowing us to dump our own garbage, then for them to crack down on those come up with alternate solutions is absolutely wrong. I want to chip in to pay for someone's gas. If they accept, then they're breaking the law and, if found out, they'll be fined $5000? What about those who want to rent a van because they don't have their own vehical. They can't split the cost with others.
You might think city slickers are largely rats, but they're not dumping into the lake anymore than licensed contractors are.
The pickets are allowing one vehicle every 15 mins. So, it's a long and stinky wait. There are transfer stations throughout the city, but you have a 2 bag limit, and not open for long because they're filling up quickly.
Toronto is not the worst run city. And yes, I've been to detroit. However, I'd hardly call the city council and our mayor the dream team. We like to grow the pot, but not all of us smoke it.
Posted by: dh | 2009-07-06 10:23:31 PM
That is really dumb. I used to live in a very rural area in Texas. There were many competing trash collection companies. Some came once a week and picked up 20 bags a wk for a $50 monthly fee.
Nobody dumps it in lakes. Its all legal. Anyone caught dumping illegally would be out of business, who would hired them?
Nobody.
Thats called, incentive.
Posted by: GeronL | 2009-07-07 2:28:10 AM
There is nothing wrong with trade unions as such. The trouble begins when they are allowed to get away with conduct that would send anyone else to jail. They have no right to hinder the public's access to property they do not own and on whose owners' behalf they are not acting. This violates section 180 of the Criminal Code.
I wouldn't mind the unionization of public services provided they were all forbidden to strike, as police and fire crews currently are. Being listed as essential services does not seem to prevent these two professions from earning decent pay (but then again, they're demanding jobs). The fact that cops often take a see-no-evil attitude towards strikers who bend and even break the law does not help either.
Judging from the reaction of the public, the unions have held them hostage once too often. But then, unions have long had the troublesome habit of amputating the hand that feeds them.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-07-07 6:23:25 AM
"I can't decide whether Toronto is THE worst run city in North America, or whether its residents have the government that they deserve."
Both. Who do you think voted for this government? Twice?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-07-07 6:24:54 AM
"You don't have to decide Punk, I'll tell you.
It's Detroit. Median home price is now $6000. Don't complain Punk, the city council and the mayor are your "dream team"."
Detroit is disappearing because of the collapse of the American manufacturing industry in general and of the auto industry in particular, Stig. The devastation has been even greater than it needed to be, because many American factories and refineries are old and inefficient and are deliberately not upgraded because the older technology keeps more workers employed--at least until the company goes belly-up and all collect pink slips instead of some.
Whatever the flaws of Detroit's council, they cannot be held entirely responsible for the wholesale flight of bread-and-butter industries from their city.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-07-07 6:28:47 AM
"American factories and refineries are old and inefficient and are deliberately not upgraded because the older technology keeps more workers employed"
Actually, they are not upgraded because no one wants to put up the capital to upgrade them. Because of the region's high taxes and insane regulatory environment, any investment decision based on say, a classic NPV analysis, yields negative results. So in other words, it is entirely the fault of government, as usual.
Posted by: Charles | 2009-07-07 8:53:31 AM
Shane, the single biggest problem with unions is membership is mandatory. Deeming something an essential service and then not allowing them to strike is not the answer. Voluntary union membership would take care of the problem in Toronto because those who wanted to work would still be working. And if the city would be allowed to hire new employees during the strike, the union would smarten up.
Posted by: TM | 2009-07-07 10:08:09 AM
Exactly TM. The laws are skewed to favour unionism. The notion that an employer cannot fire an employee for wanting to join a union is absurd. So is the notion of forcing all employees to unionize and pay dues. These laws need to be repealed to return some semblance of fairness to the system. Of course, I highly doubt that will ever happen.
Posted by: Charles | 2009-07-07 11:43:38 AM
I've been fighting something over the last week, but the last time I went to the hospital I almost died from a drug reaction, yet I heard from a friend many people she knows are dizzy and nauseus, like there's some other virus going around, and honestly it makes sense because it's all in the air - with the Garbage Strike.
I'am respresenting over 3.5 million people in Toronto affected by the air - people with Respiratory, Blood, and Immune Problems, or Lymphatic Tissue - we ALL have bodies, Miller HAS to wake the fuck up!
My question to Miller and McGuinty if they can get out of their balls and off their ass, is not to tell me many people aren't getting sick, when they can excuse anything instead of using their human common sense, is why they never did anything to prevent another new virus strain in Toronto ~ if they could be one?
I'am not saying there is one, but if people thought there could be, it would make people really wake up, and say, "oh....well Toronto didn't learn again, and pretended they were dumb"!
What is their bloody excuse??
How many millions of dollars do they have for themselves??
STAY AWAY FROM TORONTO MILLIONS ARE GETTING SICK FROM THE GARBAGE STRIKE 09
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=105390966821
Posted by: Janice Ashby | 2009-07-12 11:29:37 AM
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