Diary of a Picket Captain #3

Again ... not from me.

"Monday: Thunderstorms, lightening, and rain! What a way to start the week. I sent people away until 9:00 and by then, at least, the lightening had gone. We are able to turn away service trucks from entering the College –gives us a feeling of power! An administrator used the security to take her out and back into the College – are we that scary? DL was here to tell us about the rally on Thursday. We finally barbecued our hot dogs – it was a nice break about 10:00 and we are planning on more food for each day.
Tuesday: cold and very windy! The snow comes at us sideways into our faces – not nice! We had a representative from The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Federation walk the picket line with us; his huge flag was very visible flowing in the wind. A supervisor from Canpar had to drive their truck into the College; he was not “a happy camper”. We had meatballs and sauce from M& M heated in a crock pot for our snack!
Wednesday: cold , windy and sideways snow! We had another representative from The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Federation walk the picket line with us with his huge flag. The big success of the day was that JB was able to secure our portapotty so it is now upright every morning when we arrive. NB brought homemade soup but the afternoon shift enjoyed it as it was not hot enough for us. BL, the voice of doom, is getting on everybody’s nerves. We are not receiving pallets from the college anymore- I wonder whose decision that was to let us freeze!
Thursday: cold but sunny! We had barbecued hot dogs again. The Canadian College Basketball Association are having their games at Davis. So we were able to talk to students and coaches from B.C., Quebec and Nova Scotia as well as all around Ontario. Most are very friendly and supportive. Some faculty went to the rally at Queen’s Park but most of us wanted to stay to have a presence at Davis. We put signs on trees warning drivers to slow down and be cautious. I dropped over around 4:00 and the night shift was dealing with more cars and more aggressive drivers. Two students bumped a faculty member and they called the police. The students came back to apologize and eventually LC agreed that the students could write a letter of apology. Frustration is starting to show on both sides. But the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities has requested that both sides come to present their case to him on Friday- yeah!
Friday: Another cold but sunny day! It was very quiet on the picket line- no flyers to hand out and not many cars. Everybody was feeling relieved because the two sides had decided to talk again. The union negotiating committee wanted to start on Saturday but the management side is waiting until Monday to present a changed offer. BL says he is not portraying himself as the “voice of doom” anymore- I hope so! Our cheques arrived and we were laughing that it was like food stamps as, now, we could go and buy food. We drank hot mulled apple cider as a treat."

Thanks my friend!