Why bother bloging

Because of the popularity of social networking bloging has become another way to get the message out there or another avenue of communicating and recieving peoples opinions. You could say the state of the municipality of the crowsnest pass triggered this site. I have always been fairly vocal about the councils and issues that the citizens should be concerned about. Previously i did not spend much time on the computer but that changed last may of 2010 while i was in Ottawa . During my stay there i would  review our local papers online, keep in touch through facebook more often and then that led to reviewing blogs written by citizens of the CrowsnestPass. Some of those blogs were nothing more than political posturing while others were from people with a genuine concern about the state of municipal affairs and the future of the Crowsnest Pass. There was a lot of political unrest in our community and with the upcoming elections it was only going to get worse. This got me thinking. While touring Ottawa  i realized just how much they have done to preserve history as we all know from the Parliament Buildings. But more than that the neighborhoods still have the small corner stores much like we had here when we were growing up, it sure adds character to the city.  A lot of this was not set out to be preserved under direction of the city ,but vauled enough by each neighborhood that they continued to support these small busineses. If you had lived here in the CNP when each community had life to it and businesses were thriving you know exactly what i am saying. As a community i feel we are missing some of that, we cant turn back the clock but at the same time we should be conscious of where we came from. Growing up here most kids were the same they come from large families for the most part,had very little, but made the most of it. In the future i will be writing about growing up here and the people that had influence in my life and am looking forward to your contributions

Old man take a look at my life--(Neil Young 1971)

While driving home this morning after spending the night at the union hall in Sparwood i turned on the radio. It was 7:30 AM and the first song to come on was this classic by Neil Young and yes it was kind of eerily coincidental. You see my father was also a union man and president of the United Mine Workers Local 2633 that represented the workers at Coleman Colleries. One particular moment that stands out in my mind is when i was still in high school and my father got a call later on in the evening that a worker had got caught up in a conveyor belt up at the Vicary mine  north of coleman. Later on in life i would have to deal with these type of situations myself as i have served both the United Mine Workers and the United Steelworkers over the last thirty years in various capacities. Many times during stressful periods in the workplace i have asked myself what drives you to continue to do this and i really dont have an answer other than to know what i have done for others. I was asking myself this same question a few years back while retuning home from a union school in Kimberely B.C. While driving home and reflecting on the  seminar, again asking myself why  i do this i got my answer. It was around 2:30 PM when i noticed an individual from the human resources department going home and checking out his property. Oh i am sure he had somebodys permission to leave the minesite at that time but did it matter he answered to nobody. On many occasions i have had to endure the hipocrosy of this same individual as he would lecture an employee because of their misgivings. Are signs like this coincidence or something deeper,  i am sure we have all had them on issues that are personal to us.

On Strike

today is the third day of our strike which began Sunday January 30 at 8:00 PM. The main issues are the employers contribution to our Group Benefit RRSP, retiry benefits and some language concerns. There are other issues on the table as well  but these "strike" at the heart of the workers. Presently the employer contributes 5% of eligible wages to our RRSP and we contribute 4%. All contributions are locked into the group RRSP and are not available until you quit or retire. Eligible wages is all regular, vacation and call out hours earned and are paid into the plan every two weeks. When compared to other mining operations that have a pension we fall far short , their contribution level has been costed at $10,000 per year per person ours averages around $3000-$3500 per employee. This has to change. Also we contribute 4% of our earnings ourselves, that is compulsory and is locked in . For accurate information on this strike google USWA LOCAL 9346. For more on this strike check out the January 31/2011 edition of the globe and mail or go to the businees news network i will include the link. http://watch.bnn.ca/business-day/january-2011/business-day-january-31-2011/#clip410265