Rally Recap, or "Telus" the Truth!

I attended yesterday's Labour Day rally in front of Burnaby's Swangard Stadium, across the street from Telus (the truth!) headquarters. The Canwest Global cabal put the crowd at about 2500, which is a lowball given one could gauge the turnout against the Stadium grandstand (which seats almost twice that). Several municipal councillors, a solid handful of newly-minted NDP MLAs, and a trio of MPs (Libby Davies, Peter Julian, and Pat Martin) were on hand. This page is unimpressed that after trying to court union backing, no one from Jim Green's Vision Vancouver slate could be bothered to attend.

Representatives from the Telecommunications Workers Union, the Canadian Media Guild, and the United Steelworkers (on strike against BC Liberal Sugar Daddy Teck Cominco in Trail) addressed the gathering, and we were treated to the music of singer-songwriter/activist mascot Valdy. Viewers of the BCTV "News" on Global were later treated to a song and dance by Telus PR flak Drew McCarthur, who, while looking out on the sea of humanity his company has maliciously pissed off, cried about how Telus wanted to make their workers the best paid and most secure in Canada.

Given that Telus is looking for the right to fire and contract out anyone and everyone without cause or notice and bypass any notion of negotiation, mediation, or arbitration to get their way, the retail value of McCarthur's claim can easily be calculated by placing one's index finger to one's thumb and applying substantial pressure.

The best line of the day had to come from BC Fed President Jim Sinclair, who, in reference to CBC's hard line on replacing full-time workers with temporary staff, conducted an impromptu poll: "Anyone here have a temporary kid they can get rid of if they no longer have work? Anyone have a temporary mortage they can forego if their job ends?"