I recently sat down to have a conversation with Chris Alward, Director of Market Development at Local Food Plus. We talked about LFP’s funding, how things are going and next steps.

As a follow-up to comments I made here about LFP’s seemingly “Toronto-centric” approach, Chris explained that this is in part to do with where LFP’s funding comes from and where funders want to see their money go. It makes sense for LFP to concentrate on Toronto to start, but efforts are already underway to expand the reach of the program, and indeed there are several farmers in the London area that LFP has certified. Chris stated that, at the end of the day, “The majority of mouths that need feeding are in urban centres.”

Who Funds Local Food Plus?

I asked Chris about where LFP’s funding comes from. He said that the majority of funding has come from the Greenbelt Foundation, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the province of Ontario and also from the Metcalf Foundation. LFP also maintains a full list of funding sources on its “Funders and Supporters” page.

As an example of the funding driving the agenda, Greenbelt’s focus for LFP is on developing certified farmers within the greenbelt and finding more buyers in Toronto.

The Setting Sun and the Farm

One of Local Food Plus’ larger areas of focus is the scalability of an alternate food system. Chris went onto explain that the current system is pretty efficient and that the transportation of food doesn’t do as much damage as many of the other factors do. In fact, Chris cited recent studies showing that transportation of food may account for as little as 8% of the greenhouse gases generated by the existing food cycle, while over 50% has to do with the production of food.

Another problem is the average of farmers; it’s approaching 60 years old, and many organizations are citing this as a massive concern going forward when it comes to food security and economic stability both on and off the farm; if Ontario lacks farmers coming into the system, more and more of our food will come from other provinces and countries. Chris also cited a study showing that if the U.S. border was closed for just three days, Toronto would run out of food. That number differs for other cities, but it shows that Canada’s biggest city and metro area should have food at the forefront of the issues they’re trying to tackle.

How Does Local Food Plus Approach Sustainable Food?

Something interesting I found out of the discussion was that Local Food Plus does not use environmental arguments at all for showing why local, sustainable food is the way to go. In fact, it’s mostly based on economics and food security. Again, some new research has shown that locally grown and transported produce has no better impact on the amount of greenhouse gases generated than something brought in from far away.

How does that work? Well, it really depends on what you’re moving and how. You could have a transport truck moving thousands of chickens from Kentucky to Ontario, and consumers would then drive to their local grocery store. Conversely, you could have thousands of people driving from their homes to a farm that could be 20-30km away. The amount of GHGs generated in each scenario is likely pretty similar.

Juicy Dinner on White Plate

In the end, LFP is focused on getting farmers more money while ensuring food is still affordable for consumers. In fact, there typical premium for produce made by Local Food Plus’ standards is approximately 10-15%. Personally, I believe that’s a very small price to pay to know that local farmers are making a good living. Really, isn’t it worth paying 55 cents for an Apple grown nearby compared to paying 50 cents for an Apple grown in Bellevue, Washington?

LFP has certified over 200 farms, and approximately 30% of those are also certified organic. LFP’s approach is different because it allows their certified farmers to use chemical, but only enough to manage the problem – LFP certified farmers must commit to first apply the lowest impact productions possible. LFP certified farmers also spray a lot less chemicals than the average farmer and spray more of the “soft” chemicals before escalating to the harsher pesticides we would all rather see go away.

LFP also has their farmers display a commitment to biodiversity, protecting their land and natural species in the area. Certified farmers must commit not to farm every part of the property; a portion of the farm must be left alone to simply let the land thrive on its own. Studies and stories from farmers have actually shown that this helps with natural pest management. One example Chris told me about was that some very innovative farmers have begun planting a ring of eggplants around their tomato and pepper crops. Apparently many pests enjoy eggplant much more than humans do, and so when they descend onto the farm, they attack and eat the eggplant while leaving the other crops alone! Incredible!

LFP has taken this and other examples of biodiversity to farmers, educating them on what they can do to foster natural pest management for controlling their farm.

How is Local Food Plus Doing?

I asked Chris to tell me how things are going for Local Food Plus. He said that the organization is growing by leaps and bounds “in the right way.” LFP is receiving plenty recognition, certifying more and more farmers, and getting more commitments from buyers to go to LFP certified farms. Currently LFP is adding approximately 50-75 farms per year, has commitments from over 70 wholesale buyers, and a significant part of their work right now is working with food distributors, meat counter managers, chefs and wholesale buyers to make more connections.

The good news is that working with wholesale buyers to begin shifting their spend to LFP-certified farms isn’t usually very hard. LFP asks for a commitment to shift just 10% of their spending to start, working with buyers to increase that number over time.

When I asked about any large partnerships other than the ones I had read about in The Walrus last summer, Chris let me know that working on institution level agreements is a policy issue first, so it’s different than working with other organizations. However LFP is hard at work encouraging school boards to bring healthier menus to students.

One big success story is the University of Toronto: 18% of their food is coming from LFP certified sources now, and next year that will increase to the low 20s. LFP works with the companies that get these contracts, like Sysco and Summit Foods, to make sure they get access to the food stipulated in the contract and LFP has relationships with all of the major distributors and that is making working to get commitments from large institutions even easier.

How Does the London Area Fit In?

One thing I wanted to ask is what does this all mean for the London region? Chris was able to tell me that they have knowledge of when places like UWO and Fanshawe have the food contracts coming up for renewal. LFP has also certified several large farms in the London area that can supply food very quickly – at this point, LFP is really just waiting for funding in order to make a more aggressive push into the London area. Chris made sure to note that London is a significant urban centre surrounded by lots of farmland and that it’s relatively easy to move food from here and there is a small satellite office in Granton.

I ended the call by telling Chris that I think Local Food Plus should initially focus its efforts in London on places like Remark and Lyn-Dys Health Food as far as getting food to consumers goes. I also said I would let him know of other places of interest, and that if there’s anything I can do I would be happy to help.

Where do you think Local Food Plus should focus its efforts in London? On distributors, stores, farmers? Which ones?

Food 2030

The UK government recently unveiled Food 2030 – a food strategy designed to ensure that Britons have access to high quality, sustainably farmed/grown, food that benefits both the farmer/grower and the consumer. At the same time Food 2030 should ensure that people have good jobs, a reduction in greenhouse emissions and food waste.

Not bad for something that only went out for public consultation in August 2009! That’s right – the British government invited citizens and other stakeholders to comments from August till October 2009. It seems Defra took the results of the consultation away, compiled the strategy and released it last week to the masses. The 24 page strategy summary (PDF) goes over what the UK wants by 2030 (informed consumers making good choices, less impact on the environment, a secure food chain, etc), along with how the government proposes they get there. The BBC covered the announcement here.

Tomatoes by Ben

Overall, there isn’t much to gripe about. I’m sure that some folks won’t like the mention of research and science helping to produce crops that require less water, fertilizer and chemicals but the reality is that high yield crops are a must if we are to food a growing population. Earth will hit 7 billion before we know it and we all have a responsibility to make sure those folks get the nutrition they need.

It would be great to see the Canadian government be so forward thinking. Just one year after massive drought caused food prices to skyrocket (more so than they did here) and caused riots, the UK has taken the initiative to put together a plan that will encourage citizens to take more responsibility for themselves. It’s especially encouraging that 3 major grocery stores only sell free-range eggs now – a move by Loblaws/Real Canadian Superstore or Metro like that would further sustainable food cycle efforts immensely!

Web Communities

Farmers and consumers alike are increasingly turning towards the Internet in order to identify where the nearest source of sustainably grown food can be found. Change.org identified 5 popular websites where people are connecting and I particularly like Local Harvest because it includes Canadian sources. If you’re a Canadian farmer producing organic, sustainable or low impact produce please add yourself to Local Harvest to make it easier for the rest of us to find you! Better yet, if you know of a good Canadian directory please leave me the link in a comment.

Vertical Gardens

There are many examples of people growing vertical/urban gardens. Again, Change.org has linked to several different ways you can setup your own urban/vertical garden, from thrifty to eco-chic. One of the greatest benefits I see from the vertical garden boom happening is a greater amount of plants taking carbon dioxide out of the air, a much cheaper way to grab fresh produce when you need it and also something nice to look at in your home. This is also a good way to use typically unused space in a home or apartment.

I hope that provides you with some food for thought – both literally and figuratively! While it’s becoming easier everyday to get your hands on food that was produced in a sustainable manner, it will still be some time before all the pieces of the puzzle come together. We can all chip in and help out though.

I will also mention that I’m going to be speaking to the folks over at Local Food Plus soon about their organization – how it works, how we can get it to expand beyond its current Toronto-centric focus, where they get their funding, etc. I hope it proves to be a mutually beneficial conversation!

1. Integration of RPX. This means you can login using your Google, Yahoo!, Twitter, OpenID, Facebook or LiveJournal account and start participating in comments/discussions.
2. The current theme/layout. This theme has a lot of hidden features. One major one I’d like to highlight is if you hover your mouse over the top-right corner of the webpage, you’ll be given options to increase/decrease the size of the text and also the ability to change from a fixed-width version of my site to a fluid-width version of my site.
3. Addition of a formspring.me form. Formspring.me provides you with the ability to ask me any question. Clearly there are some I won’t respond to, like sexually explicit questions, but I’m going to do my best to answer every question asked of me as honestly as possible. The form is just to the right.
4. The book store. I used the Amazon Associate aStore feature to setup my own book store featuring books I enjoy or want to read. These books are laid out by topic area (food, education, etc.).
5. Dedicated pages for issues. For example, the London 2.0 page. It’s not done yet, but I’m using it as a public way to flesh out my ideas and opinions on topics. London 2.0 is just the start – I’ll be adding more as time goes on.

I hope that gives you a good breakdown of what’s new and maybe not so noticeable. My ultimate hope is that knowing more about how the site works will ultimately lead to more engagement with readers and a general satisfaction with your visit.

• Curse less. It’s been brought to my attention that the amount of cursing I do at work bothers some of my colleagues. I’m going to do my best to keep it to a minimum and only when I can’t think of another, less serious expletive. My fiancée and I are also going for a school-friendly zone as far as language goes.
• Get back into shape. I was in the best shape of my life up until mid-2008. I let things slip in 2009 with th
  

  Media Maratón de Béjar 2008

  e arrival of my son and purchase of a house. I will get things back on track in 2010 and run a 5km race (at least, possibly a 10km) sometime this year.

I have two major goals for 2010 with a few other minor ones:

• Get promoted. That’s a simple one. I’m aiming for one step higher on the career rung and already taking on additional responsibilities. For example: I’m going to be the Project Manager on the next research project I embark on under the tutelage of two Senior Research Analysts.
• Build a business. I have one major idea here that I would like to take to market. Thankfully it won’t take much work but it does involve bringing someone in with more technical knowledge than I have about JavaScript if I would like to add additional features (or finding time I currently don’t have to learn more JavaScript).
• Make a name for myself. This, clearly, is already a work in progress. I have my blog, Twitter account, Vimeo and USTREAM accounts (at least one of which I plan to start properly using), and I comment regularly on other blogs and news organization websites when I have something to say. I’m currently debating proposing a presentation at AgendaCamp on January 31, 2010 here in London and hope to participate in other (un)conferences this year.  I may also volunteer for a board of some sort if I have the time.
• Blog more often. I have the time, I just didn’t have the clear focus I needed to focus on just a few topics and create compelling arguments/content to post. I’m still hashing out the best way to keep track of what’s happening in food, education and local politics. I should be able to blog far more often in 2010 than I did in 2009 (I’m aiming for at least once a week).

That’s it. What are your resolutions or goals for 2010? Please share them here by posting them or simply linking to your blog or other public space you own.

Recently I went through my inbox looking at past issues of the newsletter I receive called Project GiftED. While I don’t always find myself in agreement with everything said in the newsletter or on the blog – mostly because the blog entries aren’t always about education – I do find myself intrigued often enough to keep subscribing. I got really interested when I came across an article that was actually written by the folks at zenhabits entitled “27 Skills Your Child Need to Know That She’s Not Getting in School.”

Recognizing full well that I completed high school over 8 years ago and then entered the Computer Systems Technology program at Fanshawe College, I asked a colleague of mine, James Costa, what he thought about the list.  His response below has been edited for brevity and clarity:

I guess what it comes down to is life skills not being taught enough in life. You’re taught mathematics, and sure, in Accounting and Introduction to Business you’re taught basic accounting principles and that sort of deal, but you’re not taught how to pay bills, how to budget, taught about credit, or RRSPs, or anything like that. You learn that on your own, unfortunately.

In the TCDSB I was taught about positivity, etc, but that was because I was fortunate to be a part of the leadership program and did keynote speeches across Ontario. Some schools budget for having keynote speakers come to their school, but it isn’t often enough, and apparently the high school I went to was special because (at the time that I was there) they had 1 speaker per month. As for practical things like housework, organization skills, etc… Only organization was taught by some teachers in the beginning of the year as brushing up on tips on how to stay on top of their work and how to use your agenda. Pretty rudimentary ideas. Social skills were taught to me through clubs and extra currirculars I was a part of, but I can’t think of a time people were taught how to mediate conversations, find middle grounds, etc etc… You would only be taught these things if you were in the Guidance department for bashing a kid’s face in.

In terms of thinking and reading, those are taught in the curriculum. Every course has some factors they take into play when marking… I could find out what all of them are but one is Thinking and Inquiry. So yes, it’s marked and graded… They more just tell you to think about things. Really, English was the best for me learning these two skills as you had to not only read samples of Shakespeare, etc, but understand them and find hidden meanings. I was also fortunate all 3 years (missing my last English credit..) to have amazing English teachers and was in gifted English. Other than that, Thinking and Inquiry is important in all of the courses, so yeah, I guess you could say they “teach” that.

[...]

I interacted with different opportunities in high school and found them rewarding – in many ways it was through these opportunities that I learned all that I have today. Ask any of my friends about any of the above topics or the ones in the article and I guarantee they MAY know about 75% of them, and even 25% of them I guarantee is only knowledge of what they are, but have no experience in any of them (whether practical or textbook).

That’s coming from someone who only very recently completed high school, so he knows far better than I do what’s being taught now in K-12 than I do. Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like much has changed. I remember hearing from friends that they were being taught how to manually calculate taxes in the General math class, while the students in the Advanced class (myself included) were being taught how to calculate sin, tangents and plenty of other formulas I haven’t seen since.

I believe that the biggest hole that needs to be addressed the from zenhabits list are the items under Financial: saving, budgeting, investing, credit, etc. These are crucial life skills, yet we’re left to ask our parents or speak to (typically) biased financial advisors who may or may not be giving you good advice. I’ve seen the cycle of people who are bad with their money passing on their life lessons to their children and, consequently, their children are just as bad – if not worse – with their money. One way to help fix that would be to teach at least basic financial skills in school. Really, truly prepare children for the world instead of simply preparing them for college or university.

Some of the items under Practical and Happiness make sense too. Again, these are usually things you end up asking your parents or friends about – some basic information and teachings around these things would be great, like why you can’t run a diesel engine all the way to empty like you can a gas engine and finding purpose in life, or a real career you enjoy, instead of simply finding a job (Walmart “lifers,” I’m looking at you).

I guess my real issue is that most schools/courses/programs don’t prepare you for life – they prepare you for more school. The usefulness of that reaches an end for many people when they’re 17 or 18 years old, and for the majority of people by the time they reach their mid-20s. From there on out you need to be prepared for life and having moved away from home at 18, moving back for 18 months when I was 20, then back out again at 21 my lessons were learned the hard way. I’m better for it now, but having a better foundation for starting out on my own would have been helpful.

Not good enough anymore

While researching innovative approaches to educating our children, I came across a pilot project that was run this past summer at a single school in New York City. It’s been dubbed “School of One,” and the approach is very similar to the types of things I mentioned as possibilities in “The Textbook of the Future?” To quote this New York Times article:

The program [...] consists mainly of students working individually or in small groups on laptop computers to complete math lessons in the form of quizzes, games and worksheets. Each student must take a quiz at the end of each day; the results are fed into a computer program to determine whether they will move on to a new topic the next day.

[...]

Now, he added, “we’re looking in a way that I don’t think anyone has looked at — at the way children learn, pacing them at their own pace, all of it tied to the mastery of content and skill and achievement.”

[...]

Once the students arrive at school, they receive their individual playlists identifying the lessons they have to complete for the day, which could involve virtual tutoring online, computer worksheets or small-group lessons with a classroom teacher.

This is exactly the type of thing I think we should be moving toward! If done right, School of One should ensure that all students get the education they need, via the best learning style for them, and by the end of the year all of the students should have had the chance to complete all of the core curriculum along with, hopefully, some bonus activities based on their interests. One child that participated in this program actually said that the educational games he played making solving mathematical equations fun! Imagine that!

Skype in the Classroom – Better

If you pair up my vision of the future textbook with School of One, with a little additional effort and funding I think you have a solid base for the future of education. In the article, an HR professional for the New York City school where this took place said that running schools this way should cost about the same as running a school the way it’s done now. Many detractors of moving to more technology-focused schools claim that costs would be much higher — that may not hold up after all!

In fact, many of the things that schools traditionally pay a lot of money for are available for free, as pointed out by The Innovative Educator. Chief among them – Microsoft Live@edu and Google Apps for Education. Both are completely free (as in puppies). A school using Google Apps can provide word processing, spreadsheet, website building and presentation software along with e-mail completely free to students and teachers! Just make sure the Internet connection is up and running (or install Google Gears for offline access).

I guess the chief reason for this post is to point out that things are happening despite the naysayers. School of One is exactly what I hope my son will experience when he begins school. With some luck, funding and pressure from parents, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for those of us who believe that the continuous evolution of major systems is the only way forward.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Clearly I’m not expecting our children to have access to Sports Illustrated magazine while at school! But while many other nations, along with some districts here in Canada and the US, have been experimenting with laptops in schools, in one way I’m glad it hasn’t gone very far here. Why? Because tablets, such as the one seen in the video, are finally far enough along the technology evolution scale that they’re actually useful.

What I mean by that is you no longer need a stylus to interact with the computer. What I’m envisioning, instead of magazines, is an era where all students have laptops with instant access to the textbooks the school district (or other governing body) chooses and the textbooks are always up-to-date — almost like Wikipedia, but not provided by Wikipedia (though they can be a part of the equation).

OLPC

When I went to school, my fellow students and I constantly found factual and grammatical errors in our textbooks; textbooks that were often written the year we were born (though we were now 10, 13 or 18 years old). History textbooks that incorrectly stated a series of events or attribute discoveries to incorrect people (Christopher Columbus was certainly not the first to “discover” America, the Vikings found North America long before that) or contained incorrect answers to mathematical equations. How about a world where such things can be flagged, submitted to the publisher and revisions can be distributed as soon as a change is made?

I’m also thinking of an era where contextual menus let you share important finds within project groups (highlighting text and sending it around as something the group needs for its final report), or simply sharing interests with the rest of the class. An era where knowledge doesn’t end at the textbook, but where the menu can provide links to Wikipedia entries, search engines, videos on National Geographic or Discovery and the like. An era where a child’s natural curiousity for knowledge can be satiated almost instantly!

One other way this helps students is that such dynamic textbooks could easily bend to accommodate for other learning styles – visual, audible, and tactile.

Maybe your child learns best by seeing someone else perform an experiment. Perhaps they’d like to have both the audio and video running, so that they can follow along themselves but glance at the video (plus rewind and fast forward) to make sure they’re doing things right. Maybe they’d like to have a virtual sandbox on-screen where they can interact with a 2D or 3D representation before doing it in the real world. The possibilities are endless!

One major issue I had when attending school, especially getting into high end math, was that I experienced a lack of support at home. My parents are loving people, and smart, but the day they remember how to solve a quadratic equation — something they probably haven’t seen in over 20 years — is the day I volunteer for a demotion! What can be provided to students is a social networking-type area where they can help each other out after hours. Log on, chat about friends and gossip, whatever kids talk about these days… but let there be a dedicated area where kids can ask for and get help either from  within their school, other schools or possibly even the publisher.

At the end of the day, I don’t care who produces the textbooks – just that they work well and students are able to interact with them in a way that it properly enhances their educational experience. If they can’t do that, then clearly it’s not worth pursuing. The other obvious caveat is how would schools pay for textbooks that are constantly updated? Well I’d like to see a model where schools pay for a subscription to the textbook on a yearly basis and the vendor guarantees that the textbook is up-to-date and that any updates can be pushed as soon as they are verified.

If you would like to see the official demo video, you can watch it below (warning: contains images & video of SI Swimsuit Edition).

Click here to view the embedded video.

UPDATE 01/28/10: Good news! I’ve found two organizations doing exactly what I’m talking about above. Check out Inkling and CK-12.

Publish your offers on your websites. That way the public is informed, the media has access to it and the “other side” can’t distort your numbers because everyone can fact-check.

Unfortunately, ATU Local 741 President Pat Hunniford has already replied to my idea basically saying that it’s not going to happen. Here is the full text:

Good afternoon ATU Local 741,

I am submitting this message via your website in the hopes that it reaches union President Pat Hunniford.

I have a great idea: hopefully you are willing to listen.

If you’re afraid that the LTC will distort the numbers in Local 741’s latest proposal, then make the proposals available for the public to view online. That would take about 5 minutes to either put it up as text on the union’s website or to put it into PDF format for download.

That’s it, that’s all it would take! Then the general public has the ability to fact-check the other side and EVERYONE wins.

I’m not interested in what the offer is because I’m not the mediator. But this would go a long way toward building goodwill amongst the citizens of London despite the strike. At the very least it would look like something’s getting done.

President Pat Hunniford replied:

It is the Union’s position not to negiotiate in the media or to publish offers or the company position on any web site. The company and city hall has taken that action and has caused more problems that it has solved.

I also e-mailed LTC General Manager Larry Ducharme the following text:

Good afternoon Mr. Ducharme,

My name is Derek Silva. I live in the London area and work in the city of London. I’m contacting you in the hopes of helping to move the strike forward as far as negotiations go.

Mr. Hunniford recently stated in the London Free Press that he doesn’t trust the LTC not to take their numbers and twist them somehow. I’m not siding with either the LTC or the union, but I believe I have a solution to this alleged problem and have already sent a message to the union regarding this idea.

I propose that the ATU Local 741 and the LTC make their proposals and counter-proposals available on their respective websites, either in plain text or PDF format. This would allow the general public and the media to act as fact-checkers and quelling the war of words currently going on in the press. It would take just a few minutes to make this happen assuming that the latest proposals were probably written in word processing software (WordPerfect, Word, OpenOffice, etc.) and saved to a hard drive somewhere in the organization.

I hope you take this idea into consideration going forward. This would allow the LTC to receive proposals in writing and also to counter-propose in writing.

If I receive a response from Larry, I’ll post it here.

Lately it has been clear that the requirement and use of unions in the developed world is no longer necessary. Indeed, unions seem to be doing far more harm than good these days. First it was the catastrophic downfall of the North American auto manufacturers (not the only cause, but a big one no doubt). Three months ago, here in Ontario, the union representing driving examiners at the DriveTest centres, which are run by a private company called Serco (clearly outsourcing it was a big mistake) went on strike and there’s no end in sight to that one.

The DriveTest strike has so far caused people to lose their licenses due to non-renewal, delayed young drivers from getting their G1 learning permits and also caused people testing for new licenses (A-Z, A-D, etc.) to lose the opportunity for employment. What good is that doing for the province and our economy?

But that’s the reason for me writing this. Lately, every strike in the developed world (I refer mostly to much of Europe and North America) is about money. Many well-paid, hardly skilled workers wanting more money for work that almost anyone can do with little training. Automotive factory unions, retail unions and the like no longer do the economy, the companies they are employed by, or the employees they represent any good.

If you think I’ve gone off the deep end on this one, think again. I previously worked at a non-unionized automotive parts plant making good money with plenty of opportunity for career advancement. I started out machining parts (adding bolts, clamps, etc.) and then moved to the manufacturing portion because I made it known that I would like to (yeah, that’s really all it took!). They needed help, they had a willing participant… I got the call.

If an employer really cares, they listen to their employees. That’s one of the good things unions have brought us – better rules, a more level playing field. But much of that progress has ended, and now all they want is more money.

Case in point: The LTC strike. From what I can tell, bus drivers are currently paid over $24/hour to DRIVE A BUS. This requires little special skill minus a driver’s ed course and passing the driving exam. But that’s what they get paid, and they want more. Somehow the union has got it into its members’ heads that they’re worth… get this… $30 an hour. That’s what they want! And, unfortunately, precedents have already been set in other cities (Hamilton is often cited though the Hamilton area is almost twice as big as London). They want to be paid over $200 a day to drive a bus around the city. Where do I sign up?!

And this problem certainly isn’t isolated to London, Ontario or Canada. A Boeing plant in Seattle lost a contract to another division in South Carolina because Boeing saw the Machinists Union in Seattle as a big strike threat. Why? Because the Seattle Machinists Union has gone on strike over 3 of the last 5 contract offers from Boeing. Meanwhile the South Carolina plant voted to decertify the Machinists Union there in September.

If I was a Boeing shareholder, I’d be applauding the decision.

And in the other London (England), a union that runs the bus service on the east end of the city started a 48-hour strike on Friday. Why? Stereotypically, they want better wages and benefits. Those drivers are currently paid between $49,000 and $62,000 a year (I converted to Canadian dollars for a better comparison). I know the cost of living in England is higher than it is here, but that’s got to be decent money still. If I’m wrong, please let me know.

The rumours I heard when Toyota was looking for a location for their new plant, before they settled on Woodstock, was that they were screening people for their attitudes towards unions somehow. If this is true, I’m sure they went about it in a way that didn’t violate any laws (or at least they tried to). But still… clearly there’s an aversion to unions by business owners. Why? Because it becomes clearer and clearer every time that unions no longer help to progress fairness in the workplace – they want money, and as much of it as they can get; business viability be damned!

The solution? I think the solution is to elect good political representatives (and stop voting for a particular party but for the best candidate) and make your voices heard. I think the solution is to walk with your feet – if your boss won’t listen, go to HR. If HR won’t listen, talk to a lawyer. If your lawyer tells you you don’t have a case, then either what you think is an injustice either isn’t or there isn’t a law against it yet. Either way, you should probably re-examine the so-called “problem” you have with your employer.

Not to mention, it’s easier than ever to start your own business. So if you hate your boss that much, be your own. There are a lot of ways to start a business, either with your own money or someone else’s.

My solution to the LTC strike is one that has been echoed on Twitter: Shutdown the London Transit Commission. Start up London Transit Services instead (or London Street & Rail, or the We’ll Get You There Commission – who cares?), post up jobs for as many full-time drivers as it takes to staff the service and start them off at $17 or $18 an hour with raises according to performance or the consumer price index (CPI, a.k.a. the cost of living). I bet you this new London Transit will get thousands of qualified applicants clamouring for jobs. Screen the hell out of them, make sure to hire some people who haven’t worked for the old LTC and let’s get going.

I know what at least some of you are thinking – what about the people who still want a union? No problem – if they don’t like raises indexed to the CPI, let’s give them a performance based system. Let’s make sure comment cards along with golf pencils are available, as well as a feedback page on the website, knowing full well that people who complain will be more vocal than people who really enjoy the service.

Promote the heck out of the fact that drivers will be based on their courteousness, how often the bus is on time (taking factors outside of their control into account like construction and accidents), and how often they don’t stop for people that are running for the bus (I’ve been a victim of this and have seen it happen too many times – meanwhile the same bus driver has time to stop the bus, get off and grab a coffee at Tim Horton’s). Make it EASY for people to give this feedback, one way or another, and put together a scorecard. Done.

There are thousands of people who can’t get to work, school, the grocery store, the pharmacy, etc. thanks to this ridiculous strike. It’s clear the drivers are only looking out for themselves – let’s treat them to be a little more altruistic by incorporating a good customer service attitude into their performance evaluations.

And I know I’m not alone.

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