On January 5th on News 95.7Fm on the Rick Howe show , I was listening to Rick and his guest Diana Whalen. Every year she has been pushing for Nova Scotia to adopt a day in February as a family day . It's quite ironic that her party supported the government in taking away 52 family days and now she wants to give us one back. I'm wondering how long it will last if she is lucky enough to convince the Dexter government to legislate it? I'm sure the push to have Holiday shopping implemented in Nova Scotia will be the next push for big business and government. If Diana can get her way, she needs the support of retail workers to get this Holiday. After it's law , the government can take away this so called family day from retail workers. It sickens me to see what's going on in Ontario. The push is to take Holidays from workers who love to be home on Christmas and that so called family day in that province. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters/article/1111336--working-on-stat-holidays
What people have to realize is, this is like a virus. Once one city has it, others complain of an unfair advantage. Little by little government and business open up stores on Holidays just like they did with Sunday shopping. People became outraged that this has happened. It reminds me of the power increases our province gets every year. The people rage and forget all about it , until next year. Big business counts on the fact that you'll forget. It's called control. Business is very successful in controlling their employees. Did you ever hear of divide and conquer? Using fear against employees who do not want to work on Sundays? Telling other staff that these employees aren't team players because they don't want to work. They don't want employees to get along. A very small percentage will refuse the majority of them cave in.
Here's a few examples from letters to the editor in the star-
How about you work Christmas for $10.25 an hour or any other stat day like say “family” day. Or is that just for some people to spend time with their families.
To quote Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others and deserve time off with family than say the CEO of a company who probably earns more than say $10.25 an hour.
First you state, “Store staff would still be protected under the Employment Standards Act, which gives people the right to refuse work without repercussion on statutory holidays.” This is 100 per cent false.
I used to work in retail and enjoyed my job. I was even an assistant manager at a major bookstore. I knew going in that nights and Saturdays were part of the job. But at least I had one day off to spend with family — Sunday, and if Monday was a stat holiday, woowhoo, I had two days off in a row.
Then came Sunday shopping in “tourist” areas. Amazing what became a tourist area. But not to worry. we minions were told, no one would be forced to work Sundays, a religious days for some of us, the government would protect us.
Well we were told by phone (as they would not put it in writing) by our head office that if we refused to work Sundays we might as well start looking for a new job. So I left a job I loved and started working in offices where most holiday shoppers work Monday to Fridays.
If I had taken it to the Labour board, who would they believe: my employer or me — the employer who said all of a sudden I wasn’t a “good” worker any more or me the employee who refused to work Sundays?
Now I would like to semi retire as a junior senior, (as the Star also thinks boomers are hogging jobs on the younger generation) and trying to find a nice part time job Monday to Fridays, days or evenings and the occasional Saturday, but not Sundays.
Most retail stores advertise you “must” work Sundays.. check out the ads for any retailers like WalMart or Loblaws. So no matter that the government promised that no one would be penalized if they didn’t want to work Sundays why are retailers allow to advertise that you MUST work Sundays in their ads? In other words don’t even bother to apply. And in this economy who is going to tell their boss “no I won’t work Sunday or Stat holidays”? Heck I’m willing to work any hours the other six days as I go to church Sundays and have volunteered at the same organization the last 14 years on Sunday afternoons why am I told no job if I won’t work Sundays.
Now you try to tell me no one will “have” to work Stat holiday..oh please give your heads a shake. How can you lie in black and white. There is only so much money you can spend and if you spend it Sunday or other holidays you won’t spent it Monday to Saturdays. If people are already in debt with spending how about giving them a day or two not to spend for a change.
If you want to say well not everyone does Christmas or Easter, then guarantee that Christians who do will not have to work those days if they do honour those holy days. But then that would discriminate wouldn’t’ it? Kinda of a “Catch 22”. Why should only those that to celebrate those days get it off.
Margaret Grenier, Halton Hills
Do we not have enough time to shop as it is? You argue that “this doesn’t mean every store would be welcoming customers on Christmas Day,” but it does. If your nearest competitor is open, you’re compelled to open too.
And suggesting that employees are “protected” by legislation is frightfully naive. If I refuse to work on Christmas Day and find myself laid off in January (a traditionally slow time for retailers), I can’t prove one has anything to do with the other.
This has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with work-life balance. Retail employees are people, too.
Ken Breadner, Waterloo
This is why Sundays or any Holiday has to be legislated to close them all down.
I have to wonder if this is just for the government? Another day off? Why doesn't this winter break in February include restaurants, call centers, coffee establishments? As I listen to Rick speak with her about this Holiday. He's all for it. A break in the winter sounded good to him. Rick has been very good to me. He has let me speak on the Sunday shopping issue on several occasions and I'm very happy he has let our side be heard, whether he agrees with it or not. I can remember Rick Howe telling me that we can never turn back the clock on Sunday shopping. But Rick, if we can push for one family day in February, why can't we push for 52 family days? Remember them?
They were called Sundays. I just don't get it?? I would love to get on Rick's show just to speak with him and the call ins. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against families having time together. 53 days of time to spend with our families would be a lot better than one day. I heard that small business opposes one family day, yet the real cost that's hurting them is the introduction of Sunday shopping. Should I say it was the introduction of illegally allowed Sunday shopping. I wrote Diana Whalen and asked her about Sunday shopping and guess what? Not an email or a comment from her or her office. Just love it, not any politician in Nova Scotia is willing to speak about the truth. I'd be real happy to interview Diana Whalen on You Tube to share her point of view. But no one wants to talk about Sunday shopping. Let's hide it under the carpet and pretend it did not happen. Rodney MacDonald our former premier will go down in history by ignoring a binding vote with all parties supporting him. At the end of the day, I'm hoping that Nova Scotians wake up and realize that 52 family days are worth fighting for. Those 52 family days did not cost businesss’ any money with stores closed. Considering that power has increased in Nova Scotia, power bills could save business's thousands of dollars if they were closed on Sundays. Food for thought.
Links to stories - http://www.halifaxnewsnet.ca/Article-de-blogue/b/10283/Ricks-Rants-Monday-February-16th09
http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/give-us-a-break/Content?oid=2426085
