quote:

---

MONTREAL - A bylaw adopted last year obliging shopkeepers and apartment owners in downtown Montreal to sweep in front of their properties has spruced up the city. Fewer cigarette butts and fast-food wrappers litter the sidewalks, and garbage bags are no longer left out for days before the trucks pass.

But acting on a complaint from the union representing Montreal's blue-collar employees, a labour arbitrator has ruled that the bylaw violates the city's collective agreement with its workers. Sidewalk cleaning is the exclusive domain of the blue-collars, arbitrator Andre Rousseau concluded, and the city has no business enlisting "volunteers" to do the work.

---

Link:
Montreal Shopkeepers told to put brooms away

quote:

---

Originally posted by elmocombo:
I think volunteerism is a critical part of a progressive society. I can't imagine being told that I'm not free to do something for my community because it could be done by a paid worker. Anyone agree?

---

You misunderstood the story.

The arbitrator didn't stop civic-minded owners from cleaning in front of their property. They are still free to volunteer to do so.

The city contracted with its union not to use volunteers to do union work. That was a free arrangement between two parties. So, the city is no longer allowed to recruit (indeed, to force on pain of fines) owners to do this kind of cleaning.

quote:

---

Originally posted by elmocombo:
Friend of mine sent me this link. Yeah it's National Post but I have to agree that the union in Montreal is going overboard. They don't want you to be able to sweep the sidewalk in front of your business!

Link:
Montreal Shopkeepers told to put brooms away

I think volunteerism is a critical part of a progressive society. I can't imagine being told that I'm not free to do something for my community because it could be done by a paid worker. Anyone agree?

---

What Unionist said makes clear what the Post article may not have been too concerned with, and therefore what they wrote could lead the uninquiring mind astray.

But that is not the point of the city's clampdown about "cleanliness" upon pain of fines. It is a job cut in disguise, as the city hires workers to keep the streets and sidewalks clean.

Moreover, the clampdown can be very unfair, as a business owner could be fined if some jerks dump rubbish, dogshit etc on their premises and they don't have time to clean up. The fine is a pittance for big corporations, but can be a hardship for small, independent businesses.

No wonder the National Pest is reporting on this as "unions going to far"...

[ 20 July 2008: Message edited by: lagatta ]

The union didn't demand that city dwellers not be ALLOWED to clean the sidewalks in front of their stores or homes. The union simply demanded that city dwellers not be COMPELLED to clean on pain of fines if they neglect it.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Robespierre:
I don't see why volunteerism is a critical part of a progressive society, to be honest...

---

A few years ago one of the public school unions got into a huff about lunch monitor volunteers. The union, correctly, pointed out the the volunteers were doing a job for free that would normally be paid. The union won.

Note that since the bylaw came into force June 1, 2007, there have been some 2,700 notices of infraction issued, earning $1,079,850 for the borough of Ville-Marie. The borough immediately filed for judicial review in Québec Superior Court, and the bylaw remains in effect in the interim.

quote:

---

Originally posted by scooter:
...If you look at volunteer efforts to put on public events, like our great folk festival, I don't see how you can argue against volunteers. It is great for building community spirit and envolvment.

---

The reality is quite different. Let's start by calling them stores (the word shop is used for its independent connotation). These are stores where the owner may or may not be in the city and is certainly unlikely to be in the store. Let's call this like it is:

On the owner this is a tax-- the store is compelled to use its paid labour to clean the sidewalk instead of getting that service from the city. This tax is of course irrespective of whether the store is profitable and quite unequal-- if your store happens to be beside a Horny Tims you can expect a considerably greater expense and frequency to the cleaning than if your store is beside an art gallery. If you are a high-volume outfit then this represents a tiny fraction of your earnings but if you are a smaller store than this cost could be a significant expense relative to your earnings.

Of course the store's paid labour (not the quaint shopkeeper of imagination)will be most likely minimum wage labour who will be told to do this on top of whatever other duties they may have.

Now back to the union issue. This is not volunteerism. This is about unionized workers being replaced with minimum wage workers in order to save city budgets. The method being a hidden tax on retailers, contracting out (although in exchange for an effective tax rather than money paid out).

Now when you look at it that way-- calling it what it is how do you feel about it? Nope this is not a folk festival and is nothing to do with volunteerism. This is about replacement, contracting out non-unionized workers and a regressive tax increase for stores.

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:
The court has to decide that the decision was unreasonable on its very face ("manifestement déraisonnable", or "patently unreasonable") - a hard test to meet.

---

[pedantic aside] That's been changed recently, actually, in the Dunsmuir decision from the SCC. There are now only two standards in judicial review, "reasonableness" and "correctness"; "patently unreasonable" has been folded into the "reasonableness" standard.

quote:

---

Originally posted by reglafella:
I wish some Toronto union would fight for, and win, the sole right to shovel the walk outside my house.

---

However, if you are living in a typical Montréal triplex, you do have the sometimes perillous job of clearing the snow from the outdoor staircases. Most have one indoor and one outdoor staircase, but some have two outdoor staircases, or even three!

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sean in Ottawa:

I am glad you feel that way. You would probably experience the rippled benefits through the economy of creating that union work. As well, it is also true that some find it much easier to do that work than others. Perhaps if we considered the cost of snow clearing injuries in our ER departments we would find that thsi "specialization" is not a bad thing.

---

I dunno about that, Sean. When I'm 70 years old I want to be able to relive the glory days of my youth by having to clear snow. If I should die from a stroke while doing it is another matter, but that doesn't fit into my logic here, so I will not dwell on it.