Day 15: No way out but forward

The Tea Makers seems to have turned into a "why there is no point in resisting" blog.

"People are wondering how long management is willing to "let this last." Well, I've laid my hands on the contingency plan and it goes on for days and days and weeks and months. You would be surprised.

I'm not going to lie to you: pending a miracle, this is going to be long. It's going to be brutal. And we're going to be pretty beat up by the time it is done.

But the way out will not be through the government or the internet or the newspaper or a bottom-feeding politician or Ouimet or the ipod - it's going to be through the bargaining table. Everything else is just chatter, noise, and white light. As time goes on I get the sinking feeling that this noise is doing more harm than good, and if I'm being honest with myself, this web site looks more and more like part of the problem than part of the solution."

The reality is that people on the inside and people on the outside are getting different messages, surrounded by different people, and in most respects living in different worlds at the moment. It's been suggested that her purpose is to break down morale. I kind of doubt this is the case but, regardless of her comments there is no way out but forward.

The lockout could be over in a day or two if we were willing to just let managment have whatever they want. It may be true that the "the way out will not be through the government, or the internet, or the newspaper ..." but all of these things have an impact, public and government opinion will weigh on the outcome and the stronger the union is going into negotiations the better the deal we will end up with, turning on or subverting the union at this point won't change anything, it won't speed anything up, it will just result in a worse deal if CMG is forced to negotiate from a position of weakness. So, keep fighting, keep walking, and blogging and talking to people and doing everything you're doing - then start doing the new things that you've thought of. The situation is what it is, the only thing left to determine is whether what kind of jobs we'll come back to when it's over.

P.S. I'd also like to point out, as an adendum to yesterday's post. Friends of the CBC represents 60,000 households with a budget (of entirely voluntary donations) of apporx. 2 million anually. I'm not sure how CBCWatch stacks up, but it would be interesting to know.