Diary of a Picket Captain...

Tuesday March 7, 2006
7:30 - 11:00
People were here very early. We had the trailer but no generator until about 10:00. It is cold but sunny (-2C). Everybody's spirits seemed high. J___ helped sign people up in the trailer which was great. We had a flyer to give out. Very few students came in, so the traffic was light. There were few cars with passes (I saw about 6 or 7 .. where are the rest?) (The president) stopped and got out of his car to talk to us on the way in and when he was leaving; he talked about a lack of money in the whole system and that his main concern was our safety on the line. We had 20-some people on this shift. Tim Horton donuts and cookies were gratefully accepted from donors. The buses (have) stopped coming in except for Mississauga, who eventually stopped. I am not sure that they were contacted ahead of time.

Wednesday March 8, 2006
Today is supposed to be milder but there is no sun so it seems to be colder (+2C). We have a propane heater in the trailer and, once the generator gets going, a baseboard heater and a micro-furnace in the porta-potty. C___ brought 2 coffee makers so we had coffee nad hot water for tea or for hot chocolate. L___ brought in Tim Horton's coffee in a large jug to get us going. Many people brought the makings for coffee etc. We now have a burn barrel and yesterday afternoon they had pallets (for burning) brought to us by S____. However we had no wood this morning so people scrounged for tree branches and got a hot fire going. I left a message about getting more pallets and nothing happened, so somebody in admin. has shut it down. So we bought firewood which works fine. I tried to get ahold of ourLocal's president and there was no answer -- I later found out that the phone number had been changed. I felt very isolated. We need better ways of communicating. D____ brought more flyers but the same as yesterday only a different colour. I think we should only change colours when we have a different message. Again we had a good turnout but people are getting bored so must think of themes etc. Some people came late, so must make sure they stay later ..... It was very quiet - less students and no new flyer to give out. We have faculty from other colleges - George Brown, Mohawk, Centennial, Georgian. When D___ delivered the flyers he left his car in the entranceway (same place as the president) but he was given a ticket by college security. D___ sent me non-college emails for all the stewards. People are slow and coming to the 11:00 shift so some of us from the earlier shift stayed on. We need to address this.

Thursday March 9, 2006
It is raining! But it is not that cold. Some of the time it rained steadily and up went the umbrellas. Other times it stopped so we got to go through puddles and mud. The guys put holes in the bottom of the burn barrel to get more air into the fire. Pallets had been brought out and the guys pulled them apart. People have droppped off wood to our fire so our fire has lots of fuel. We did not have as many people today -- was it the rain? Our signs started to fall apart in the rain so we need more signs. L___, D___, D____ and W____went to a meeting with the police, the college and the OPSEU lawyer. There were 3 incidents of people being hit by cars at (other campus) and another person was in hospital after being hit today. OPSEU want our lines pushed back into the college property, or we want to bring police onto our lines. We had two good incidents! a Canpar truck (large white van) came wheeling into the entrance and the driver jumped out. He wanted to see the Picket Captain. He then explained to us that he would not cross the picket line. His supervisor had ordered him to, but he would not cross. There were in fact three drivers (at 3 different lines) and none of them would cross the lines. He said that his union steward was going to be talking to his supervisor. So we shook hands and gave him a loud cheer when he left -- he just swung the truck around the end of the median and zoomed out. A Purolator truck entered the college and we were unable to stop him as the lights were on "do not walk". On the way out he had to stop and we asked him why he was crossing the picket line as we would not cross his. He was a young guy, half-listening to us with a cell phone in his ear. He said his supervisor told him to come in. About half an hour later I was in the trailer and a picketer said someone wanted to see me. There was the Purolator truck, parked at the side of the road, and the same driver got out to see me. He apologised profusely for crossing the picket line and said he would not go into the college even if we weren't picketing. He had phoned his father, and his father told him that he was union and should not cross. I thanked him and shook his hand. How sweet it was! We had been thinking that we might need some heavy-handed help from people at the CAW but maybe not!