... People living or visiting here were stopped to hear the issues while harmlessly heading to their cars, off to work, even simply crossing from Town Houses to High Rise. Many began to feel hemmed in their own homes. ...
There seem to be few of our actual Staff in the Picket Line. It is plumped up by AUPE Personnel and, I suppose, folks in the Union who get paid well to be there. My concerns are the tactics used to carry out a Strike.
Our super Substitute Caregivers are Amiable and Brave. They come daily despite hateful heckling and harassment by the Strikers. NO ONE deserves to be told they are worse than worthless, worse than traitors, worse than scum. (Reference "Ode to Scab"...) To be told to find a ditch and drown yourself, or to go hand yourself, is far worse than verbal abuse. Surely a Business as large as AUPE has a broader and more upstanding vocabulary as well as modus operandi.
...
Yesterday (25/5/14) Artspace Housing Members and friends of SAIL staged a demonstration to emphasize the effects the loss of our Programs would have. Some did not attend because AUPE had told the police they would have 100 Representative there - a daunting prospect - especially for the march from Alex Taylor School and around our Co-op. ... The intimidation endured over the previous 24 hours had been unnecessary - AUPE and its paid Supporters did not show up.
Use Members are concerned that, should the Staff return, there will be repercussions - whether intended or accidental. ...
The Co-op Members (both with and without disabilities) have lost their feeling of safety and peace in their own homes. Health - emotional and or physical - is negatively affected by stress. Even our pets, sensitive to our agitation, are affected.
Substitute Support Staff are subjected to daily verbal, and hence emotional, abuse that no one should ever have to endure.
...
AUPE is showing itself in ways possibly not imagined by the Populace let alone Province-wide. ... Verbal, psychological and even physical abuse, as well as degradation of those who are willing to endure in order to carry out our care and keep us in our homes is past unconscionable.
The event referenced in this statement is the mock funeral held by Friends of SAIL. Because AUPE phoned the police, claiming they were be there en masse (I had heard 100-150 picketers were supposed to show up), officers were on site, and the police were on alert for potential incidents.
That it turned out to be just another psychological abuse tactic means that AUPE's actions diverted resources away from where they could be needed, so Artspace. This is an abuse of our police system. Yet, there were no consequences.
Another thing this member pointed out is that user members will never be able to trust the striking staff to come into their homes and care for them again.
That relationship has been permanently damaged.
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