I might add that I do agree that SOME unions are out of hand. I was a public employee however and have nothing but respect for the BCPFFA and a couple other firefighters' unions, even though there is a little bit of greed in it, too.
- G ... Of course you have nothing but respect for the BCPFFA seeing as how it got you one of the very best heavily publicly subsidized, permanently guaranteed benefits, fully cost of living indexed, early retirement pensions in the entire bloody country and enabled you to take your early retirement on your 50 acres in the Kooteneys. It might shock you to learn that most private sector workers have no pension plan at all and the minority who do have plans that are on average worth less than 30% of yours for the same contribution levels. Instead of 50 acres in the Kooteneys, too many of these unpensioned guys get to work 10-20 years longer than you and get not 50 acres but 50 square feet in a rooming house. But keep pitching to the gullible left wingers out there.
- I won't bother replying to the rest of your silliness since it is merely a regurgitation of public sector union talking points used to justify their special priveleges and treatment at the expense of the tapped out taxpaying schmucks in the private sector other than to say that any support I choose to give to sports teams is voluntary, is based on merit and results, and I get to determine the level of said support. With education, it is compulsory, it is in no way based on merit and results, and the level of support is far higher than for any sports team support I may choose to indulge in and is determined by others with no input from me. So your comparison is specious and nothing more than public sector union propoganda. By the way, I think you'll find that even members of private sector unions are increasiongly catching on to the public sector monopoly union con jobs and how they are costing jobs in the competitive market sector.
- You mentioned some unions being out of hand. These are almost invariably monopoly public sector unions and they are not some but almost all of the public sector monopoly unions. Here is but a typical example from today's press reports and underlines why I don't encourage this fiscal rape of the taxpayers by voluntarily giving even more money to the education bureacracy and thereby helping to buy it even more time to piss all over the rest of us instead of focusing on its productivity and entitlement problems.
TDSB workers used public funds for personal business, manager says
KATE HAMMER - EDUCATION REPORTER
The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Dec. 20 2012, 3:00 AM EST
Last updated Thursday, Dec. 20 2012, 4:30 AM EST
Toronto District School Board employees visited bars, bought groceries and filled the gas tanks of their cars using public money and during working hours, according to the manager appointed to crack down on the board’s troubled building management department.
Angelos Bacopoulos, a former manager of the city’s waste management services, was hired just over two years ago as chief officer of facilities. Since then, he says, he has been working to unmake what he described as a deeply seeded culture of entitlement and complacency that pervaded the unionized staff.
What he found was an environment where millions of dollars were spent executing more than 160,000 work orders each year, with so little oversight that employees were able to visit a bar while on the clock.
In recent months, revelations of past overspending on everything from routine maintenance to major construction work at the TDSB have emerged, and the pressure is on Mr. Bacopoulos and his staff to turns things around.
The board is looking to make major changes as it works to rebuild faith with the public and with the Ontario government, which has frozen funding for new school buildings. The contract between the TDSB and its skilled trades union expired at the end of August. Sources said talks have reached an impasse, and that the board has filed for conciliation.
Mr. Bacopoulos spoke with The Globe and Mail about what he discovered as he dug into his new job, and how he plans to get Canada’s largest school board back the right track.
Hitting the bar
Installing GPS devices in the board’s fleet of vehicles is the most controversial recommendation Mr. Bacopoulos has made yet. When he introduced the tracking devices to the city’s waste management fleet, workers responded by bashing and breaking the devices. (He later installed protective metal shields.)
Surveillance details have already discovered that some TDSB staff are leaving job sites, visiting bars, and taking roundabout routes that decrease productivity, Mr. Bacopoulos said. GPS devices will help management track employees’ movements.
“Early next year we’ll be able to install them. We’re going to be able to monitor the activities of our folks, make sure that they’re taking the proper routes, that they’re being productive.”
Wild spending
Facilities staff are given credit cards that are meant to be used for purchasing supplies such as screws, nails or wood. Mr. Bacopoulos and his management staff noticed that employees were making unexpectedly large purchases, often at smaller “mom and pop” stores that made cost-appropriateness hard to track. He implemented new rules limiting the vendors where workers could shop, and began monitoring their purchases.
“They were buying things like groceries,” said Mr. Bacopoulos. “But people recognize we started monitoring that and started to straighten their ways. They know we’re still at that.”
Leaving early
At the end of their shift, custodians set alarms on school buildings to close them for the night. One of the first things Mr. Bacopoulos says he requested when he started working for the TDSB were records on those alarms, to see when they were being turned on.
“I found some really weird things happening,” he said. “Like the alarms are being set sometimes as early as three or four hours before the end of the shift.”
Facilities management began monitoring those alarms, using them as a metric to ensure that custodians were working their full shifts. Monthly reports initially revealed schools were regularly being closed down early, so managers began taking discipline action against staff.
“We’ve got that under control and people are working their full shifts and setting the alarms when they’re supposed to be setting them.”
Filling the tank
To refuel their company vehicles, facilities staff were given credit cards and free rein to fill up wherever they like. Mr. Bacopoulos found that one of the biggest consumers of gasoline was a school custodian who only had a snow blower and lawnmower to fill.
“We did an investigation and determined that he was using it for his own personal use and we ended up terminating that caretaker,” Mr. Bacopoulos said.
Staff are now required to use the board’s own fuelling stations and mileage is monitored and measured against fuel consumption.
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