Well Day 2 is done like dinner! I guess I am actually in better shape than I might have thought, as the 4 hours of walking is not causing me any problems. Most of the folk on the line are saying the same thing. My guess is that we wind up walking more than we think we do in the classroom. I know that I never really sit down in the class or in my labs, so in effect while I'm "working the room" I am getting my daily dose of exercise.

We had our trailer on Day 1, contrary to what we had feared, but sadly the generator did not arrive until the end of the first shift, and all the oil drums seemed to get delivered to the other campus, so the first morning was quite cold. Today was better: the generator was up and running so we had hot water for tea and coffee, and some the picketers took time off the line to collect downed branches and get a fire started. By the time the shift was ending our site coordinator had managed to get some "real" firewood, too, so when I left the line there was a pretty good fire blazing. I hope the afternoon shift was warmer!

I was not the only faculty member who was pretty annoyed at this posting on our college site. It is certainly inflammatory in my view, and I for one am tired of being blamed by management simply because we exercise our rights under the CCBA (Colleges' Collective Bargaining Act). Why is it only OPSEU's responsibility? We have also posted the article from The National Post which includes this quote from Rick Miner -- ''There is no reason for a strike and we are disappointed that OPSEU has chosen to unnecessarily disrupt the students' school year,'' said Miner. OPSEU has chosen? Excuse me ... negotiations take two parties. Give me a break!

And in addition this is the same guy that said in the National Post that "concerns over class sizes and a shortage of full-time staff didn't arise in talks until Monday night." Hello .... this has been posted on OPSEU's website since March 2005 (that's a year ago, Mr. Miner!) But I guess the Council has simply not been reading. Or maybe cannot? (OK that was a low blow!)

I also don't recall hearing that the management side has even asked for arbitration (which they can do under the act), and as for me, I would love to see the option for "final offer selection" tried out one of these days. That nifty little clause would send the final positions of both parties to an arbitrator, and the arbitrator would "select" whichever of the two offers seemed most appropriate. Not an arbitration but a simple selection -- whichever position is most reasonable. An interesting potential. Of course, that option has never been exercised.

Oh dang, you might think from this rant that I'm a bit prejudiced. Well ... I guess if sticking to the truth is being prejudiced, then I am.

Alright I have to go and download some pics from the lines now ... gotta post those plus work on some other stuff for our local website. BBL over and out.