Photo Feature 22 Sept 2007: Strike

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this special weekend edition of your Photo Feature. Apologies for the tardiness, but to make up for missing both yesterday and Tuesday today we're going to double up and feature four photos.

Getting featured here is pretty easy really, all you have to do is submit your work to the Beyond Robson Flickr group and then wait. If your photo speaks to me then I'll feature it. Or if Sean thinks it fits with his daily Morning Brew posts, he'll feature it there. Or if someone needs a photo for an article, they might feature it there (all with attribution, of course).

Today's theme is everyone's favourite current event, the strike.

1. Checkout by Mordechai Dangerfield
2. Vancouver Civic Workers' Strike - Day 19 by The Blackbird
3. Untitled by the Little Rebel
4. Open message to the West End bin theifs by allsnotwell

All of these photos are great, but I chose them because they all tell something different about the strike. Mordechai and Little Rebel's shots both show how much garbage is piling up, Little Rebels in particular shows garbage that doesn't have to be piling up. Seriously folks, there are three R's. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. If this strike teaches us nothing else it should be that we don't have to produce as much waste as we do. Fold your boxes and save them for moving stuff. Recycle them; whatever. Put store purchases in your backpack to avoid plastic bags. Start a compost if you can. There are lots of ways that we can all pitch in to keep the city a cleaner place, strike or not.

Allsnotwell's shot also points out how much there is in the way of trash piling up, if binners are getting so much stuff they need to steal the bins to transport it. I'm sure they are using the bins for other things as well, but it must be mighty tempting to see a bin full of cans and just take the whole thing rather than empty it.

And lastly, The Blackbirds shot of a striking employee (previously featured in a Morning Brew), to me, illustrates all the political gaming going on right now. There are a lot of stores flying around, and I don't know what's true anymore. I tend, though, to think that it has a lot to do with a) the city saving a shit load of money and b) the city wanting more influence over the workers. Because while there is a lot of talk in the media about benefits and wages and so on, the way a friend of mines wife (who works in the city planning dept) tells it it has a lot to do with job security too. While that might not be a huge deal to you, think of it this way: a city planner who isn't in constant danger of losing their job will actually be able to say "this development is inappropriate" when one of Sam's friends wants to get some area rezoned for a development that is wholly inappropriate. What do you think that same city planner might say if they are able to be easily replaced by the mayors office?

No matter how you look at it though, the strike has gone on too long. I think both sides are losing support from people like me because we're just too fucking fed up with the whole ordeal. I'd like to get back to a point where I can walk through the west end without being nauseated.

Anyway, that's my bit of social commentary for the month. I'll be letting the photographers know that they've been featured, and hopefully they'll stop by and offer their thoughts. In the mean time, feel free to comment and applaud their fine work.