civic strike

reported sightings of two skunks in my street. i'd dearly love to see one (not too close!), or a raccoon. increased wildlife is probably due to the civic workers' strike which has been going for about three weeks now. the garbage is starting to build up. (actually, cos of the compost bin and the recycling, my household is pretty good at waste reduction, but the chickpea cans, wine bottles and juice containers are starting to pile up.)

the strike involves all of the community centres, pools, libraries, etc, as well as garbage collectors and street cleaners. some 5000 workers are involved. as far as i can tell, the guts of the issue is that the contract they're negotiating right now will end immediately after the 2010 olympics, at which point the city will suddenly find itself up to the eyes in debt and refuse to renew contracts. there's also more complicated stuff about wages.

here's a globe and mail article on the issue, and here's the union's home page.

none of this explains why there's another black bear warning up at uni. tisk.