In the early 1980’s we had a significant recession goingon. Unemployment was rampant and manypeople faced significant problems, caused if not directly, then indirectly bythe loss of work. In some cases, thatloss was temporary but many people lost their employment permanently due toplant closures or permanent down-sizing. At that time I was the Union vice-chair at the plywood plant, Chairmanof the local Union Health and Safety Committee and an elected officer of mylocal Union. In October the plant whereI worked went from keeping everyone partially employed on a two week on, twoweek off schedule to about a sixty percent total lay-off. I was offered the opportunity to set-up anoffice (desk and phone in the local labor council’s space) and given the simplemandate of “go and help unemployed people”!! The pay was just slightly better than I could get on EmploymentInsurance. While the office was set upunder the auspices of the BC Federation of Labor, we served anybody, unionizedor not. Any service rendered was done atno charge.The above is just “background” for my comments on the OPin this thread. I learned very quicklythat beaurocrats of any/all stripe REALLY do not want public attention drawn totheir slimy ways! I learned to pickettheir offices, and if that was not successful, to get the media involved. In reading the OP and the many stories ofshameful treatment by agents of your system, it occurred to me that, eithersingularly, or by forming a group (there is power in numbers) you might justget one of the TV hosts that do “human interest” shows (Lisa Lang or AndersonCooper etc.) interested enough to do some kind of exposé. I found that often just the threat of visiblepublic action worked.
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Originally Posted by MaryB
