An inconvenient snowbank (Fagstein file photo)
So blue collar workers had put in so much overtime hauling away snow that they reached the 70-hours-a-week limit set by law and had to take a day off before going back to work.
Media reaction to this was:
- To explain that the reason for this law is to protect everyone’s safety and it’s better to take the day off now than in the middle of the next snowstorm
- To question whether we need more blue collar workers or should consider staggering their work hours instead of using them all at once when a snowstorm hits
- To point out that blue-collar workers are humans, who have been without a contract for a long time, and who haven’t gotten paid for all their overtime in the past month
- To call on citizens to do their part to make snow clearing faster and easier
- OUTRAGE! How dare they stop working when they’ve only put in 70 hours a week?
I would think the answer is obvious.
Wow. The hand-wringing! The outrage! The day-off/clear-on-the-weekend solution sounds totally rational to me. But maybe that’s just because I’ve lived in Toronto where the snow-clearing “strategy” is like an Aero commercial: “just let it melt.”
Other things that work: exhale, take transit, walk more. And I think it would be fun if they would turn bike paths into cross-country ski trails in winter.
Need to change the style of your numerated list to type=”A” to make it clear it’s a multiple choice question.
Up until half-way through, I was thinking how much of a breath of fresh air it is to have the Journal on strike. Only after three well thought-out and articulated points did I start to suspect sarcasm. =)
@Jill: “Just let it melt” is zen enough… I had to recalibrate my “chi” this morning when a water main broke down my street, and the water had nowhere to go because all of the sewer drains were under more than six inches of snow and ice.
I keep trying to think of ways to morph bike paths into ski trails too. It seems in Canada we try to fight winter. I say we should look for ways to use winter’s energy to our benefit. I’m tempted to check out how they do things in Sweden or Norway; I get the feeling Scandinavians are more in tune with winter than we are.
Here’s reason #645 why not to overwork people using heavy equipment in urban areas.