Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Things They Should Invent: extreme public service

I've always thought strikes are ill-advised in situations where there isn't a competitor. If Stelco goes on strike you can buy steel from Dofasco, but if the TTC goes on strike it's not like you can take another subway. And when the strikers are public sector, there is the additional disadvantage of stirring up anti-public-service sentiment among the general public.

So here's my idea for a better kind of job action: extreme public service. Ignore the employer's red tape and make things as easy as possible for the public at the expense of the employer.

This idea was inspired by something I read during one of the TTC strike scares, where someone suggested that an effective job action would be for them to stop collecting/enforcing fares. Anyone can just walk into the subway and no one will stop them.

So how does this apply to the current City strike? Garbage collectors could pick up anything, regardless of quantity or whether it's properly sorted and packaged. Perhaps they could also throw recycling and organics in with the regular garbage so the city doesn't get recycling revenues, but the optics of that might be bad. The people in charge of the ferries could waive fares and let anyone go to the islands for free. Social assistance caseworkers could blindly accept every application and grant them full benefits instead of screening people. (The problem is they might have to warn applicants, in case their files get reviewed later.) The people responsible for issuing permits could issue them for free, and the people responsible for enforcing them could casually neglect to do so. I can't think of anything for child care and elder care workers to do, but there must be something.

I don't know anything about the legality of this. It might be illegal or it might be the kind of thing that leads to disciplinary action from the employer (after all, it's like the opposite of work to rule) but it would keep the public on-side while inconveniencing the employer.

No comments: