Labour Day is depressing for a whole whack of reasons, not the least of which is the fact most of us see it as the unofficial end of summer.
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(I’m not one of them. I prefer to set my biological clock to the actual rhythms of the seasons, so September 21 is fine by me.)
But there’s another reason Labour Day seems so blah and that’s the Labour Day parade. This year Torontonians will be celebrating the 139th edition.
Don’t get me wrong. The floats, music and banners are nice, but the all-important social message, whatever that may be in a given year, seems to always get lost. Maybe it’s all the balloons.
This year’s theme is Protect Our Public Services. With a guy like Rob Ford threatening to take over the reins at City Hall, it couldn’t be more timely.
All the big union bosses will no doubt be there to pronounce why public services are crucial to our city’s quality of life. Agreed.
But who’ll be listening besides the converted?
Labour has a PR problem.
The Labour Day themes may change, but year after year the song remains the same (mostly): public sector jobs and services are being threatened by cutbacks and privatization, while corporations enjoy billions in tax cuts.
For all the good unions do serving the public to protecting the rights of workers and to help the marginalized, the perception in the public’s mind is that unionized workers are worse than some politicians when it comes to sucking on the taxpayers teat.
For many of those headed to the polls to vote in the municipal elections October 25, the stink of last year’s garbage strike and perceived sellout to unions that followed, will still be firmly in their nostrils.
Check the mayor’s race. All except Joe Pantalone (he’s the only one who’se been invited to the parade) is musing about either bringing the unions to heel (Rocco Rossi), privatizing services like garbage pick up (Ford, Sarah Thomson), or selling off valuable assets, including parts of the TTC (Rossi and George Smitherman).
Oh yeah, and there’s a lot of bellyaching too about “customer service” at City Hall – or lack thereof. Ford has made it the hallmark of his campaign, next to cutting taxes and spending.
The evidence suggests otherwise, of course.
We’re getting better bang for the buck than if city services were privatized. Productivity is slightly down compared to a few years ago, but even the Board of Trade acknowledges that our public services deliver value for money.
How could the public’s perception, then, be so at odds with this reality?
Toronto enjoys a rich labour history. This week, a park dedicated to labour activist Julius Deutsch was opened. The Toronto and York Region Labour Council also unveiled a new walking map highlighting notable spaces and places in Toronto’s labour history. It’s worth a look. The struggle continues.
