I decided to attend the Club Alouette Pasta Dinner on Thursday for Locals 543 & 82. I was interested in seeing the numbers attending and the mood of the room.
The event took place in their main banquet room. By the time I got there, about 45 minutes after it started, it was standing room only. All the tables were filled with people eating amongst the 3 choices of pasta. The place was jammed with new people constantly coming in to fill up the seats as others left. In fact, as I was leaving, people were taking out plates of food to eat outside.
It would not surprise me if over a thousand people attended by the time it was all over. What was interesting also was the number of people who just came to make a donation but not to eat.
The mood in the room was very upbeat, again a surprise to me after the workers being out for so long. It was quite festive actually with lots of door prizes too. No gloom and doom and complaining about their lot in life as far as I was able to hear.
As far as CUPE supporters were concerned, on the tables were sheets of paper listing all of the business that were supporting CUPE. In a supposedly anti-CUPE town if one reads the Star, that took an element of bravery to allow one's name to be publicized. Or perhaps the Star's Forums are not reflective of the population at large. People have been known to pack websites and Letters to the Editor columns.
I met a number of readers of my BLOG and was introduced to several lawyers who also attended. Interestingly to me, they were BLOG readers as well and liked my perspective on the double payment of back wages to CUPE workers. One of the people there talked about painting "class action" on her face! A sign of what is to come perhaps as the strike drags on?
There you have it. Just observations of what I saw and heard. Nothing more profound than that.
The event took place in their main banquet room. By the time I got there, about 45 minutes after it started, it was standing room only. All the tables were filled with people eating amongst the 3 choices of pasta. The place was jammed with new people constantly coming in to fill up the seats as others left. In fact, as I was leaving, people were taking out plates of food to eat outside.
It would not surprise me if over a thousand people attended by the time it was all over. What was interesting also was the number of people who just came to make a donation but not to eat.
The mood in the room was very upbeat, again a surprise to me after the workers being out for so long. It was quite festive actually with lots of door prizes too. No gloom and doom and complaining about their lot in life as far as I was able to hear.
As far as CUPE supporters were concerned, on the tables were sheets of paper listing all of the business that were supporting CUPE. In a supposedly anti-CUPE town if one reads the Star, that took an element of bravery to allow one's name to be publicized. Or perhaps the Star's Forums are not reflective of the population at large. People have been known to pack websites and Letters to the Editor columns.
I met a number of readers of my BLOG and was introduced to several lawyers who also attended. Interestingly to me, they were BLOG readers as well and liked my perspective on the double payment of back wages to CUPE workers. One of the people there talked about painting "class action" on her face! A sign of what is to come perhaps as the strike drags on?
There you have it. Just observations of what I saw and heard. Nothing more profound than that.
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