The Parents are Coming!

You know when you were young, and your parents went away and you had a lot of fun and maybe some mischief?  Maybe a party, or maybe a full-out fight with your sister when she wouldn’t eat the burned ravioli that you made her for lunch.

You also remember how it was that your parents called and said they were returning a day before expected and you’re looking around the house and wonder how a landmine of destruction went off in the past two days?  Then you put away your differences because, in the end, your petty squabbles are nothing compared to the wrath of your parents coming home.

That’s how I feel about the OC Transpo strike being over.

The Federal Government didn’t even have the CHANCE to meet and talk about legislating binding arbitration…just the mere thought of them getting together had the city and the bus union officials scrambling to say “Ok, ok!  We get the point!  We’re done with our battle!”  What the heck?

I had some real faith in the process…I knew it was a hard one with two opposing factions with very diametrically opposed views.  But I had faith that the process would work itself out.  Now I realize that this could have been averted weeks ago with the mere mention of the Federal Government stepping in.  So I have lost faith in the process and find all parties involved laughable.  If anything, stick to your guns and wait for the legislation to send you back to work!  I would rather be forced to go back to work instead of admiting defeat at this point!  What was the point of holding a vote two weeks ago saying you want to stick to your guns and strike longer?  For those out there that believe they weren’t admitting defeat but FINALLY helping out the poor citizens of the city…take a closer look around you.  This strike would have lasted until June without intervention of the parents.

The talk around the office for the past few months have been ones of frustration, dismay, tiredness…but when I came in this morning, we looked at each other and there was a sense of a lackluster finale.  Someone put it perfectly “We didn’t win anything, we just got back something that was lost.”  In fact, if anything, we just lost something out of this whole thing.

I doubt I’ll be returning to the bus routes anytime soon…at least for the first few days.  Word on the street is that no express buses will be running.  I can only imagine how packed the regular routes will be without the express buses running.  Plus, I have visions of front page newspapers showing riots in the streets.  I am a fan of public transit, don’t get me wrong.  I enjoy taking the bus in our fine city and generally do not have any complaints about the routes or the drivers.

The end result of this charade has left a bad taste in my mouth.