Already a propaganda campaign against the strike has started in the big business media. The Globe and Mail proclaimed in a front-page article, "Vancouver residents were preparing for chaos yesterday as city workers launched a full-scale strike." A headline in the Vancouver Sun read, "Families feel impact as city strike hits high gear."

The walkout began when a deadlock was reached with management over the issue of work flexibility. Until two years ago, many of the workers had a four-day workweek. It was canceled by the city without any notice, and a five-day week enforced.

Picket captain Jim Leroux explained that this situation played havoc with the lives of union members. "Some people were faced with paying for day care for five days instead of four," he said. Leroux works in the Engineering Department and has more than 25 years with the city. Glen McNeil, who works in street design, told the Vancouver Sun, "We just get pushed around each time. This time, people are saying it's got to stop sometime."

Leroux pointed out that what the city management wants is "to create new and vacant positions which they can schedule on weekends without paying overtime." According to a September 8 union bargaining update, "The employer is demanding wording which, if allowed to stand, would identify that both the union and the employer recognize that 'the nature and the scope of their work may require work on Saturday and/or Sunday, afternoon, evening, or rotating shift schedules, or flexible work schedules.'"

Wages are not an issue according to Leroux, who explained that the city's latest offer included pay increases of about 2 percent a year. A city web site boasts that city worker's wage raises since 1987 are "below the Vancouver Consumer Price Index. In the last three years increases are less that half the rate of the private sector." Strikers showed the Militant a list of increases for management. City Manager Judy Roberts got a 7.5 percent wage increase effective March 10 bringing her salary to Can$176,000 (Can$1 = US 67 cents).

The last major strike took place in 1981 and lasted 13 weeks, during which time massive amounts of garbage accumulated waiting for pickup. The city workers join Vancouver-area meat packers at Fletcher's Fine Foods and Superior Poultry who have been on strike for several weeks.