Unlike many organizations claiming to believe in and uphold the principles of individual freedom, every Freedom Party campaign is designed to be a physical demonstration of our philosophical principles. Action and philosophy. One without the other amounts to a betrayal of one's principles and thus, would be a betrayal to ourselves and to our members and supporters. Freedom of choice is what Freedom Party is all about! --- and we mean it!

Click on the thumbnails below to display full-size photographs of Fp volunteers picking up garbage.

Even before the Canadian Union Of Public Employees (CUPE) local 107 was properly organized to call its "outside workers" strike in London on May 8, Freedom Party was ready to respond with a campaign combining constructive protest with the promotion of private contracting as a means of introducing freedom of choice to municipal services.

Union pickets had only been set up for about two hours in front of London's city hall when Freedom Party held a news conference within twenty feet of the striking workers. The event was covered by all of London's four local radio stations, CFPL-TV (London), the London Free Press, CKCO-TV (Kitchener), and the Globe and Mail.

For the striking CUPE workers themselves, the strike was ostensibly called over the issue of "job security", and many of them honestly believed this to be the issue --- despite an explicit guarantee in the city's offer protecting their jobs from contracting-out.

For CUPE, on the other hand, the issue was obviously one of union security which it saw being threatened by an increasingly competitive labour market. To get its members' support, the union repeatedly (and falsely) claimed that "Contracting-out is taking our jobs," when in reality the city contracted work out only when municipal employees retired or quit. Naturally, the union wanted the positions vacated through attrition to be filled with new employees who would be included in its bargaining unit (Local 107) which would continue to protect its ability to monopolize labour in municipal services.

For Freedom Party, however, the issue behind the municipal strike clearly boiled down to a matter of choice.

It was in this spirit that we produced our pamphlet titled Had Enough of all the Garbage? which was produced for the purpose of redefining the issue behind London's municipal strike from our perspective. This involved identifying the problem (i.e., a labour monopoly), identifying a solution (i.e., contracting-out municipal services), and demonstrating that Freedom Party members and supporters care enough about their community that they would volunteer to pick up as much garbage as possible --- at no charge --- in order to help keep the community safe and healthy. As a practical service, the garbage pick-up program became our rallying point to protest the municipal strike in a constructive way.

Two days prior to any scheduled neighbourhood garbage pick-ups by Freedom Party volunteers, approximately 500 brochures would be delivered to the affected neighbourhood. In addition to the information mentioned above, the brochures also indicated which streets would get garbage pick-up and the schedule for such pick-up. Residents were encouraged to separate their most perishable garbage from the rest since, in order to be most effective, no more than four bags per household would be picked up. In this way, we could rid an area of nine to ten square blocks per day of its most offensive garbage.

During the three-week duration of the strike, Freedom Party volunteers picked up 70,000 pounds of garbage (32,000 kg) from over 5,000 London homes. Three volunteers per day manned a fourteen-foot Budget Rent-a-truck, tightly packing hundreds of bags of garbage which were then unloaded by hand at a private landfill dump site outside the city.

Despite the expectations of many, there were no violent incidents or serious threats of violence associated with the London municipal strike. Throughout Freedom Party's entire garbage pick-up campaign, those who manned the garbage truck and delivered literature never had to deal with any physical or verbal intimidation of any kind --- with one notable exception.

While picking up garbage in one particular neighbourhood one day, a striking municipal employee stood on his porch and delivered a three-minute "speech" complete with obscenities and charges of "scab labour" that drew the attention of the entire neighbourhood who just looked on in amazement. One gentleman approached our truck and remarked "Well, I guess it takes all kinds to make the world go round."

But for the most part, public reaction to our campaign was quite the opposite. Hundreds of people came out to thank us and many others attached notes of praise and thanks to their garbage bags when we came around to pick them up.

As for CUPE's reaction to our campaign, we can only comment that its attempt to urge the Ministry of the Environment to prosecute us was both petty and desperate.

Public reaction to Freedom Party's garbage pick-up campaign, particularly over the phones, was greater than any other in our experience. Most calls were clearly supportive of our efforts, though some hostile calls were received from union households where, virtually to a call, it was obvious that they did not really understand what the actual issue in the strike was.

Financially, our garbage pick-up campaign cost around $2,000 to run for the three-week period, with revenues related to the strike totalling around $750 on the day that the strike ended. We are confident that the gap can be filled through the generous contributions of party members and supporters who recognize the value of community activity as being the only way to build future political credibility.

Most importantly, Freedom Party established the philosophical framework within which the issue of contracting-out was discussed and debated. Our figures were quoted, our arguments were applied, and common sense ultimately prevailed.

CUPE local 107, by using legislative force as its only tool of "persuasion", created many victims of its action, including homeowners, taxpayers, businesses, and the striking workers themselves, who will not soon forget the folly of the union's decisions and lack of leadership. As the strike wore on, it became obvious that public support was clearly not with the striking outside workers, and after 24 days, they were forced to settle for virtually the same offer they had originally refused.

Justice prevails.

Freedom Party members and supporters are encouraged to read the enclosed brochure (Had enough of all the garbage?) It is a tight, to the point, informative brochure, but most importantly, IT CAN ALSO BE REPRODUCED FOR YOUR COMMUNITY should you find yourself in a similar situation as that in London. If you anticipate a municipal strike in your community, we'll be happy to lend the benefit of our experience to your own circumstances. Remember, freedom of choice is what we're all about! --- and we mean it!

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Page last updated on April 28, 2002