Dear Mr. Kelly:
I know you are probably getting bombarded with a lot of very
angry emails from the residents of this city.
I wanted to add to that list in hopes that you’ll understand that you’re
inability and blatant incompetency at handling this strike is affecting more
and more people daily. I don’t make a
lot of money and the little I do make with my seasonal job is hard earned. I’m a single mother of three children, not by
choice but by chance. I didn’t choose my
situation but circumstances dictated that this was the life I was destined
for. I do not rely on social assistance
nor handouts. Everything I own I bought with money that I
earned by working. My children know that
when I’m gone twelve hours a day, leaving at 6am it is to make sure there is
food in the belly, clothes on their back and a roof over their head.
I was laid off from my job on December 23, 2011. It’s seasonal and I expected it but I also
expected to get called back come the spring.
It turns out that I could have been called back sooner but now my
employer is looking at hiring someone with a more reliable means of
transportation. You see, my normal day
when I’m working is to wake up at 4am, get ready for work then get my kids up
at 5am to feed them and get them ready for the day and they are off to the
sitter at 6am when I leave to catch the bus.
I catch the 80, transfer in Cobequid to the 88 to get off at Bedford
Commons where I walk another 45 minutes to my office building. Then at 5pm, I turn around and do the same
thing backwards. I have a decent job for
the level of education I was able to afford and it pays me more than an average
administrator so that my family and I can get by. Now, that job is in jeopardy and so is the livelihood
of my little family. The only option I
have now is to look for another job but in my field, construction and
engineering administration, the jobs are few and far between so now I’m looking
at taking two jobs to support my family.
And why is this happening to me??
Because YOU failed to resolve an issue that is affecting over 96 000
residents of the Halifax Regional Municipality per day. Because YOU want to save $85 000 per day. Because YOU refuse to bend on any concessions
that are offered. Because YOU refuse to
allow an arbitrator in to resolve this situation for your and your council’s
own greedy, book-balancing purposes with no care to the people who use the
public transit system. This includes
workers, employers, students, seniors and so on.
Oh, let’s not forget those transit employees who are
standing in the bitter cold striking to get what they believe is fair. Now that I see how willing they were to work towards a resolution with you, I have quickly changed my opinion of them and what they are doing. Was it right to strike? Maybe or maybe not depending on the angle you look at it from but they sure as hell have a right to stand up for what they want and the changes they want to see. Is it right for you to refuse to sit with them and come to an agreement? Absolutely not. You're refusal for binding arbitration or to even set a date for a meeting plus all these closed door council meetings and secretive decision making is questionable at best and not the way an elected government should behave.
What this city's council is doing is reprehensible. You are turning your back on many of the voting public who rely heavily on this service without a care in the world about what is going to happen to these people if this strike continues. People and businesses are losing money daily. People are losing jobs or having to lose this semester of university. People who need to see their doctors or get to a clinic are unable. We don't all have money for taxis, we don't all have friends or family who are able to drive us wherever and whenever we need to go somewhere, we aren't all living within walking distance to the things we need.
You should be ashamed of how you are handling this but that's just my opinion. As a resident and voter in this city, I have every right to tell you exactly that.
Sincerely,
Alyson
