No Councillors Playing While Eddie Is Away

OMG. I thought that we might have had a breakthrough on the strike while our Mayor was away. Out of sight, out of mind.

Yes, yes I know he is available on his Blackberry---only a phone call away--but overseas calls can be very expensive. Why an hour phone call can cost as much as has to be paid for the costs of the 4 new hires' PRBs for a year or two if one is not careful with roaming charges and so on.

Come on now, our Mayor has become a real jock sponsoring all of these sports events:

• "We are inches from a deal and we are not prepared to go back to the 50-yard line,” Francis said. “This request for a new mediator also shows (CUPE) wants to chose a referee to call the game their way.”

It is the typical Francis ploy. He makes the rules or nothing happens as we saw with his proposed Greenlink mediation proposal

• Mediation if necessary so I am not accused of bad faith bargaining ("The city’s bargaining team remained at the table Monday at the Holiday Inn, prepared to negotiate, the mayor said. And will be there again today.)


• but not necessarily mediation ("Mr. Lee will be more favourable to their position otherwise they would not have picked him,” Francis said.
  
  “We are not going to be part of any process to bring in someone to call it their way.”
  
  Regardless of who is appointed by Ontario’s labour board, the city will not start over and will only continue talks with proposals left on the table when bargaining last broke off, the mayor said."

His "We are fine on the condition we continue where we left off,” term and condition is nothing more than an excuse not to negotiate. HE is the one who makes the determination what that position is, no one else. HE decides where bargaining starts which then determines where bargaining ends. At least in his mind.

Nice move though so nothing gets done while he is away.

Poor Eddie, he cannot even get his sports cliches right. This is Canada where we do NOT have a 50 yard line as the middle of the field.

Seriously strike fans, you have to take this negotiating "one game at a time.” This is Eddie playing "ball-control offense." You have to wonder why he is "sticking to his game plan" no matter what. He must think that CUPE is "looking at third down and forever." No wonder what is key to him is "where [the referee] spots the ball. "

With the pressure of the bad faith complaint where the real issue is who is telling the truth, we shall see if CUPE can "orchestrate a comeback." CUPE leadership have made so many bad mistakes that they "can't cough it up here." They are "overdue to break one." There is no doubt that they are "audibilizing" over Eddie's European trip. However, I expect that Eddie thinks he "has all the time in the world." However, CUPE can make "big gains" about him leaving town such that Eddie might "like to have that one back." It could be for Eddie a "costly turnover."

In the end, "It's a game of field position" as Eddie figured out years ago and CUPE leadership has never understood. "You can see the frustration starting to set in" on both sides. Citizens can only hope that "cooler heads prevail."

In the end, both sides better understand:

• "It's a difficult sell to tell the fan base to have patience."