Free Parking for the People! – Anti-Poverty Activists Engage in Campaign of Economic Sabotage!
Anti-poverty activists have begun a campaign of economic sabotage targeting parking meters. So far, in one night, over 300 meters have been damaged in such a way as too make them useless.
According to one saboteur, ‘This is an act of militant solidarity with the CUPE workers on strike. So long as this strike is going on- the city is not going to be cashing in. As well these acts of economic sabotage are a protest against the NPA’s Civil City Initiative that fines street level workers. If the city continues stealing the money from working-poor peoples pockets we will take it from their coffers.’
The launch of this campaign follows a confrontation that happened between strikers who had set up a picket line to prevent parking enforcement agents from leaving a garage. Police were then used by the city to break the strike line.
***Reprinted from a letter sent to the Anti-Poverty Committee***
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Cost of living worries city’s outside workers
Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, July 21, 2007
When Vancouver’s outside employees walked off the job at the Manitoba works yard early Friday, The Vancouver Sun asked some of them about their jobs and why they are willing to take action to get a new contract.
Mike Gillan, 56, street cleaner.
Gillan has been employed by the city, off and on, since 1972. He earns about $21 an hour.
Gillan said he was “way further ahead” economically when he began working for the city.
“It’s been a steady decline since,” he said, noting cost-of-living increases and higher housing prices.
Gillan said city services such as roads and sewers have become more efficient over the years, but the employees who have made those services more efficient haven’t been rewarded.
“Productivity has gone up, but the wages haven’t been commensurate,” he said. “People do more, and it’s acknowledged by the public. They’re coordinating things better and things are getting better. We haven’t seen the monetary benefit from that.”
City workers, he said, have become the city’s “pawns.”
“We, as workers, aren’t in the over-all package,” Gillan said. “It’s pretty clear the Olympics aren’t for us. They are 10 days for the business community and upper-middle-class people. There’s no doubt that people on the street are taking the big hit.”
Scott McIntosh, 32, street cleaner.
“The cost of living has gone way up,” he said. “I was lucky and bought my house when I was 20 years old but it’s tripled [in value] in the last 12 years. If I hadn’t had bought then, there’s no way I’d have a roof over my head.”
McIntosh said he was injured in a car accident a few years ago and hasn’t been able to move to a higher-paying job in the city’s carpentry department — a management decision the union has filed a grievance over. McIntosh said he might not remain a city employee if there’s a long strike.
“Technically, I’m a carpenter by trade,” McIntosh said. “There’s so much work now that I’ve already had a few calls offering me work. I’m one of the lucky few that have work. From looking around, there are a lot of jobs with equal or better benefits. Young guys with huge mortgages are probably going to walk away and go other places.”
Teena Girard, 37, traffic controller.
Girard has worked for the city for five years. She makes about $21 an hour and slightly more when she is coordinating a group of flag persons at a road construction site, or as an instructor.
“I’d like an increase,” she said. “Independent flaggers make more than I do. For my seniority and experience, the going rate is about $25 an hour.”
Girard, who is married and has one child, said her husband, a bricklayer, gets paid between $28 and $32 an hour.
“He makes the going rate for a tradesman — more than these guys,” she said.
Girard wasn’t looking forward to a strike.
“It’s very stressful,” she said. “You don’t know whether you’re working next week or even six months down the road. Am I going to be able to support myself and my family? You try to sit back and relax but it’s tough. You don’t know what’s coming. . . . I’ve got a mortgage, like everybody else.”
Doug Storey, 53, street cleaner
“I threw garbage for 17 years but now I’m on light duty because I have back problems. I drive a little motorized litter cart and pick up litter on the streets.”
“It used to be a good job,” said Storey, a city employee for 18 years. “When I drove a truck, I made $23 an hour. But other truck drivers are making $26 or $27 an hour, and it seems like we’re falling behind. “
Confrontation 
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