If a Strike Falls in the Forest...

It's high summer, and alongside cottage season, margherita season and beach season comes strike season. No really: if you're going to convince your members to huddle outside for a few weeks, now really is the time. They can work on their tan AND get paid $250 a week! Bonus!

If you're a municipal worker, the timing's even better. Heat is a wonderful enabler for garbage, and that special kind of stench is far more effective reminder to the public of a labour dispute than any picket could ever be.

And so it goes with the Vancouver municipal employees, who this week are walking off in droves, leaving garbage uncollected, pools unattended and houses uninspected. And what's the mayor doing?

"I'm getting on with the job of being the mayor," says Sam Sullivan. Which apparently doesn't include worrying about collective bargaining--well, apart from being "briefed" occasionally. Yesterday he was touring a construction site with a bunch of kids.

Naturally, this quote--featured in the Globe & Mail--set temperatures rising on the other side of the table. CUPEs furious: it's as if the mayor hasn't even noticed they walked.

Perhaps this is BCs new LR strategy for the public sector: after getting a little TOO involved in negotiations and strikes, employers are now just going to ignore the whole thing completely.