I thought the article was informative and fair to Mayor David Miller, but I hear on my radio news today that he is rather upset with you and intimating unfairness in your reporting.
I understand Mayor Miller is in an un-enviable position: He is a left-leaning NDP’er and owe his job to the support of city unions. He is, however, the Mayor of the entire city.
Mr. Miller should have had a chat with Bob Rae –or maybe he did –since Mr. Rae felt the brunt of union ire when he tried to save jobs by having the workers share work, and thus save jobs of fellow workers. “Rae-days” became a pejorative amongst union members.
Mayor Miller understands that he has reached the end of his rope: the citizens are not going to accept further tax rises, and as you point out, the sentiment is against the union and its “featherbedding” practices, in an environment of a major recession and huge layoffs in private industry. To quote Samuel Johnson, "… when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." This is a good time to consider either making the city employees an essential service, or privatize garbage removals. It works just fine in Etobicoke, and in Mississauga where I reside. By dividing contracts along the old borough lines, it would be carved up into manageable sizes for private firms, and also allow for competition and better cost control for the city.
There may ultimately be more votes in the anti-union camp, and this is his opportunity to claw back the excessive benefits obtained by aggressive unions and passive, compliant politicians. If he fails this test, he will surely suffer at the polls in the next election; but much worse, the city will lose its place in the sun and there will be many cloudy days to come.
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