February 22, 2006

WHEN THEY HAND YOU A SWORD....:

CUPE may strike at midnight: Schools, daycares, garbage collection targeted but scope of wildcat unclear (KERRY GILLESPIE AND ROBERT BENZIE, 2/22/06, Toronto Star)

Some Toronto schools could be closed tomorrow and garbage collection could be delayed if Ontario civil servants go on strike just after midnight tonight.

The leadership of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is angry over changes being made to the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) by the provincial government that would provide police, firefighters and some paramedics easier access to pension benefits than other civil servants.

CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan has been threatening what amounts to an illegal walkout once the legislation implementing the changes got to third and final reading stage at Queen's Park.


Fire them.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 22, 2006 7:36 AM
Comments

Fire them indeed. Only way to stop the anarchy of civil service unions.

Posted by: erp at February 22, 2006 9:26 AM

PATCO them. It's an illegal strike.

Posted by: Gideon at February 22, 2006 9:47 AM

Seriously, the name of a public sector employees' union is "Cupe"? Is that the result of utter ignorance of Latin, or is it a deliberate bilingual pun?

Posted by: Random Lawyer at February 22, 2006 9:58 AM

Cupe pronounced coop or coo, means what in Latin? My handy English/Latin dicionary can't find cupe.

Posted by: erp at February 22, 2006 4:40 PM

I think perhaps Random was referring to cupidity.

Posted by: jdkelly at February 22, 2006 5:15 PM

Right. Second person singular present active imperative of "cupire," which is the root of "cupiditas" (the deadly sin of covetousness) and source of our "cupidity." The name of the organization commands the individual member to covet.

Posted by: Random Lawyer at February 22, 2006 6:17 PM

s/off

You guys are so smart. It's absolutely a pleasure to be on the same post with you. Random Lawyer, you don't say, how is cupe pronounced.

s/on

I plan to stun friends and neighbors by dropping it into casual conversation.

Posted by: erp at February 22, 2006 6:53 PM

Random, You remember all that stuff ,huh? It's been over 40 years for me. The mists are thickening.

Posted by: jdkelly at February 22, 2006 8:38 PM

BTW, Random, I love Latin and word origins. Know any good websites besides OED?

Posted by: jdkelly at February 22, 2006 9:35 PM

Well, only about 15 years for me. Tufts University's Perseus site is invaluable as a reference tool, although sadly they don't give you a Latin-word-of-the-day; that would be cool beyond words.

For pronunciation, Americans would say "KOO-pay," Canadians "KOOP-eh?" and carny folk "kewpie."

Posted by: Random Lawyer at February 23, 2006 9:22 AM

Thanks for the suggestion. Looks interesting, if perhaps a little daunting for an amatuer.:)

Posted by: jdkelly at February 23, 2006 1:10 PM
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