Lockout lipgloss

I had supper with some friends at the Co-op tonight. Someone who comes to Rankin fairly regularly for work stopped me as I was making my way over to look at what was left on in the dessert display case, (which wasn't much.)

"How did you survive that lockout in this place?" she asked.

I survived (maybe even thrived?) the last month and a half because of my friends.

The lockout taught me (and I'm sure my colleagues would agree) that I have even more of them than I thought.

People like the Janes...who dropped off sandwiches, not once, but twice. Oh the soft white bread! Oh the roast beef! The mayo! And was that a hint of horseradish? Soul food.

Steve, Brian, Lisa, Brooke and anyone else who dropped by with hot cups of coffee on cold days.

The NEU who cheered us up with sandwiches and donuts. (A big shout out to Janice and Savante.)

Everyone who stopped and asked how things were going...but especially the regulars likeSamgushak, who can't even hear the radio, but who stopped by nearly every day to cheer us up.

To everyone who came out to our month-iversary on September 15, and struggled to sip coffee in the 40 km/hr winds.

Everyone who wrote a letter, signed a petition, or sent a postcard to the Prime Minister.

To Janice...for all those meals at the Co-op

To Ruthann...for all those breakfasts at the co-op, and for the notes of encouragement!

To my sister...who is in MANAGEMENT with Air Canada, but still supports her sister the picket co-ordinator!

To my dad and super stepmom for always calling me back so I didn't have a massive phone bill...and for letting me rant on and on on their tab.

To Karen...whose care package kept me from getting scurvy...and reminded me what real peaches taste like.

To my aunts and uncles and cousins whose care package came at JUST the right time (i.e. After the strike pay cheques stopped and before the regular pay cheques started!)

To Chrissy...for all the encouraging messages on my voicemail--you'd think I'd actually be home MORE when I'm out of work, wouldn't you?

To everyone who offered me freelance work...and especially the Arctic Princess who put up with my regular ranting AND put me to work wading through cheque stubs and wrestling with the &$*% ing fax/copier/printer. (Whose bright idea was that combo, anyway?)

And last but not least, to the best Mary Kay lady on the planet...who understands that a new lipgloss goes a long way on the picket line.
(Hey...don't knock the lipgloss habit. A girl's gotta do something to compensate for chronic helmet/hat head.)

I'm sure I've forgotten someone, if I have, I apologize. Don't take it personally.
As my mother used to tell me, I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on tight.

:)

We've got a deal. Or at least, a memorandum of agreement, which, once all the language is written should amount to a deal.


So far...from what I understand the corp will have to keep the number of contract workers at 9.5 percent of the permenant workforce.

And BEST of all...the deal includes something they're calling the Northern Service Interpreters Premium. Which amounts to $800.00 a year for anyone who works in an aboriginal language in the CBC's Northern Service. You should have heard the shout go up from us Northerners on the president's and co-ordinators call over that one. Something, finally something for the North out of all this crap. This is something guild members in the North have been fighting for for 10 years!

I'm so happy about this one...because it means I can go to my colleagues with something that's specifically for THEM in this whole thing.

Lots of unanswered questions though. About the details of this deal, of course. About when and how we go back to work. (Pre- or post-ratification, and more importantly...pre- or post- the first HNIC?)
But also about why CBC's negotiators went from talking about binding arbitration, to some major concessions, in about an hour's time...

More details will follow. WE all know WHO is in the details, but so far it seems like we've got a good deal.

Was it hockey? The heritage committee? Some blackberry message from PM PM TO RB the S*B?

WHO CARES! WE GOT A DEAL.

And now I've got to sleep.

J

Inukshuk update...and then some.

I love nights like this. I just tore myself away from a great book about the Iditarod sled-dog race. Outside the wind is gusting up to 80 km/hr. If it was snowing this would be a certifiable blizzard. The way the wind whooshes against the roof has the cats kind of spooked, so Frank's lying on my feet...and the other fuzzy fella has tucked himself between my back and the back of my chair.
Harry's dogs are howling...I can only hear them in the distance but they've also set off some of the mutts that live near my place. The eerie racket doesn't last long once another gust of wind blows up. I'm sure they're now curled up, nose to tail, backs to the wind.

I hope Charlie's inukshuk is still standing.
Here's what it looked like yesterday...( I tried getting this page up last night, but our internet service was down again.)

JUST KIDDING...

That's actually the giant inushuk that stoically keeps watch over Rankin Inlet, wind or no wind. (And there's rarely a day without wind in Rankin.) The inukshuk is our version of the giant potato or blueberry. Tourist bait. Because a giant Inukshuk (or a larger than life billboard with Jordin Tootoo on it) is all it will take to convince people in the south to fork over $1300 bucks for a plane ticket to Rankin. (Don't get me wrong though, I love the inukshuk. And the Jordin Tootoo sign. )

Here's the real lockout Inukshuk...

Charlie's started putting some stones around the base of the pile. He says it's getting too big...and he's worried kids might get hurt if they start messing around with the inukshuk and a rock falls off.

There's Charlie, taking a break after his hard work. (Actually, he's really just just hamming it up for the camera.)

I guess I mentioned in a previous post that I'm off to Ontario for Thanksgiving.

I thought about high-tailing it to Toronto weeks ago. Figured I could picket there, enjoy the bake-offs and aerobics, network a little. Good plan, actually because I could have made the same picket pay, and saved a whole lot of money by mooching off my parents for a while. (Instead I've stayed and mooched off a lot of friends.)

But I also really wanted to try to stick it out here. (I am half-Dutch, after all, and that stubborness comes in handy sometimes.) I also didn't want to leave my colleagues. I didn't think it was fair. They're FROM here. Whose basement are they going to live in? Whose fridge are they going to raid? Whose going to make sure said fridge is stocked with bacon and tomoto.(Dad...if you're reading this, that's your cue...)

When it was down to just me, Betty and Charlie (and then me and Charlie) I kind of patted myself on the back now and then, y'know, for staying to support my colleagues.

But especially these last few days I've realized...I had it all backwards. Charlie's the one keeping my spirits up...with his hamming around for my camera and his committment. The guy got +250 signatures on a petition after one weekend in Arviat!

There was one day where he kind of threw his picket sign on the ground and tore a corner off of it. Then he called me at home that evening to say he was sorry for "acting kind of mad." It actually made me cry then...and it does now, writing about it.

And do you know, Betty's called me practically every day since she gave up the picket line for a contract with the government. I know she's getting her information on the lockout from the Internet, so I suspect she's really checking in on ME, in her own sneaky, mothering way.

So who's supporting who?

Ah! Those big cats in Toronto think they know how to play the game.

But we've got something out of this they can't put a pricetag on.

The Price is Right: Nunavut Edition

Sorry it's taken me a while to put up another post...
I've been having some trouble with blogger.com and my internet connection!
PLEASE NOTE: I've moved all the grocery cart items to a new site: http://priceisrightnunavut.blogspot.com/

Maggie and YK-Megan:
If you email me ( qiqitiq@yahoo.ca) your contact information I'll get your stuff to you ASAP!

For everyone else...maybe you didn't win a FABULOUS prize...but you have learned how much FUN it is to make a strike pay cheque go 'round at the Northern.. And why we jumped up and down when our cheques went up by a whole $150 bucks a few weeks ago.

And if you sit on a guild committee (or have the ear of management,) the next time you hear a guild representative from the North talk about the need to
review the Northern Allowance...you'll understand the situation a bit better.

(BY the way...Kud0s to the guild for putting the bi-lingual bonus for aboriginal languages on the table in their last proposal. It may not go anywhere, but the recognition of this issue means a lot to those of us who want to see our aboriginal language hosts and reporters remunerated for the added value they bring to the CBC.)

By the way...I'm probably not going to be posting much in the next couple of days. I do have some things I want to say...but they may have to wait since
I'm packing up my house in preparation for a move that's supposed to happen when the lockout ends. (WILL IT EVER END? PLEASE TELL ME IT'S GOING TO END.) And then I'm on my way to Toronto, via Winnipeg, for Thanksgiving.
I'm going to eat turkey and hug lots of trees.
Q

Drumroll please....

The actual retail price, in Rankin Inlet, for all the items in our virtual shopping cart is...

$276

The same items, based on advertised prices at Sobey's and the Superstore, would have cost $111 in the Toronto area.

So with a guess of $273, YK-Megan is the winner of a FABULOUS prize.
...

a CBC North Kivalliq 21st anniversary button, a slightly used lockout picket sign (autographed by CBC Kivalliq's own musical wonder and funny man, Charlie Panigoniak) and some samples of caribou and char jerky from Kivalliq Arctic Foods, here in Rankin Inlet.

Now, YK Megan is not in the X0C area code but seems to have had some "Northern Exposure."

And I'd like to give a prize to the "true southerner" with the closest guess.

So as long as Maggie hasn't lived north of 60, she also wins a slightly used lockout picket sign, autographed by CBC Kivalliq's own musical wonder and funny man, Charlie Panigoniak.

If it turns out she's not a "true Southerner" the prize will go to the "anonymous" who guessed $175.

We'll have to find some way to get you to claim your prizes. Any suggestions?

Also, I'll try to edit my original posts, so you can see what the ACTUAL RETAIL PRICE was for each item in the cart. But I probably won't get to that until tomorrow.

YOU'RE the next contestant on...

Ok folks. It's me, Bob Parka, host of "The Price is Right: Nunavut Edition."
Remember, you've got a little more than 24 hours to post your guess-timates to qualify for your chance to win...A NEW CAR! Well, MAYBE that's what the fabulous prize is...or maybe it will hunk of raw caribou...or a nice fillet of arctic char. You'll have to enter to find out.

Just visit http://priceisrightnunavut.blogspot.com/ and check out the pictures Cold Feet.
Wednesday at midnight, central time, is when she'll post the ACTUAL RETAIL PRICE for all the grocery items. And the winner. If we can figure out who the hell Anonymous is.

Check out these two links

1. Thoughtful op-ed piece in the Toronto Star by the President of Inuit Tapariit Kanatami, Jose (pronounced JO-see) Kusugak (KOO-soo-gak.)

2. Canned clams blog featuring brilliant "scab" material produced during a previous lockout.

What Canned Clams doesn't tell you is...this is also Jose Kusugak.
He was a manager during a CBC labour dispute in the 1980's (I believe.)
He created this character, an elder, and apparently had people in stitches talking to him(self) about the Ayatollah Khomeini etc...
I've been told people even called in to complain because they were upset with the way he was talking to this elder. Of course, there was no on else in the studio with him!

PS. Thanks Canned Clams! People had told me about this material...but I didn't know where to get my hands on it!

A message from Bob...

Bob Parka, the host of the host of the Price is Right: Nunavut Edition will be deleting people's entries from this blog, as they come along.

That way, the playing field is more level for people who enter later in the game. But don't worry, Bob is recording all the entries.

Bob says we've had some good entries so far. I especiallly like the one from Lisa, which started with "You are brilliant."

Of course, most of the entries have come from someone named "Anonymous." It's a popular name these days, I guess.

(Don't worry...we'll eventually sort out which anonymous is who, I'm sure.)

NOTE Oct 8, 2005: The contest is over now but you can still find the items on http://priceisrightnunavut.blogspot.com/

The Price is Right: Nunavut edition.

Take a look at the grocery items I've posted here.

Then take a guess at what it would cost to ring those through the till at the Northern, and post your TOTAL guestimate here.

(If your postal code starts with X0C ... please sit this one out and let us have some fun with the southerners!)

Do it by Wednesday...and the person whose guess is closest to the actual total will get a FABULOUS prize (I don't know what it is yet, but it will be FABULOUS!) via Canada Post, sometime after the lockout is over. (If this is going to work, you're going to have to post your contact info with your total guess.

You'll also know why those of us on the picket line here have to chuckle a little when we hear people in the south complaining about lockout pay.

Have fun! (And my apologies to those who visited my site while I was putting this up...and before I got this intro in. I can't seem to download so many photos into one single blog...so this was the best I could do. Sluggish Northern internet...)

Utter disdain...

It seems I've developed a bit of a lockout addiction.

If I go too long without checking out the usual websites, I start "Jones-ing" for a blog.

First I check cbcontheline.ca and the cmg site, (although I guess those aren't really blogs.)
Then I check out Tod's photo of the day, before heading the CMG North site and some of the other northern blogs .

And, I admit, I make regular visits to Ouimet's site.

I spend a bit of time perusing the highlighted blogs in the blogosphere... and go to some of the usuals--like that bee fella, or Matt. Or that clever girl who also wears a mask...or jenkew or that other clever girl who also ALSO wears a mask.

And of course I obsess over my own posts. And how much time have I wasted because I've posted four or five pics...and then hit the back arrow on my browser and lost all my work?! ARG.

I noticed today that similar blogging and browsing obsessions have caused a little friction in the households of other "blogged out" CBCers.

"Good thing you only have cats at home, Cold Feet," is probably what you're thinking.

Well, even cats have their limits.

SOMEONE has offically registered his displeasure at the quantity of time I spend obsessiong over the lockout these days.

In the form of a hairball...on the lid of my laptop.

There it was when I got home from the picket line on Monday.
Maybe I should have photographed the evidence...but I was too grossed out.

I'm pretty sure it was Frank.

He is, after all, part Siamese. And good at the hairball thing.

Plus, just look at that scowl.





Quak, on the other hand
doesn't have a malicious bone
in his body.

(Frank says it was Ike-the Bike, who has, it should be noted, a malicious streak a mile wide. AND occassionally he spits up the darnedest things. But not hairballs. Plus, he's generally not allowed in the house. )

Don't worry Franklin. I know how you feel. If I had a hairball to hack up, I'd have done it right on top of theCBC board's "comprehensive review."

"hack, hack, hack, ptoooey..."

Current conditions

Ok. I give up. I'm pulling out my Canada Goose parka this morning.

Kunik!

Betty and her little grandson...
Some days...It's the little things that get you through a cold, damp shift on the picket line. Yesterday, it was this little guy.
Betty's been looking after her grandson for the last two days. She brought him down to the picket line yesterday for a visit.
Don't you just want to kunik him? !! ! Grrrrr!
I think this will end up being one of my favourite pictures from the lockout.
That very patriotic amauti was made by Betty's daughter-in-law.

Lost in translation.

So I did the ultimate ego thing and typed the name of this blog into google this morning.

There it was where I expected to see it...in the lists on a few other locked out CBC-er's blogs.

But then ... I noticed qiqitiqpuq was referenced in an Italian blog.

http://yubi.iobloggo.com/ (scroll down to the Sept 14 entry)

Oh me oh my! What is this person saying about my blog? I tried to throw my mind back to that Spanish course I took in second year university. All I could surmise was that perhaps this person was some kind of linguist and was more interested in the use of the world qiqitiqpuq on the web than in the CBC lockout. What a refreshing change!

Curiosity got the better of me and I hit the "translate this page" button in Google.
A lot of help that was:

"In my peregrinations early risers in the net today they are ended on the blog of qiqitiqpuq "Cold feet"Strange word?Nevertheless also we understood to use terms of this language, like qaiaq ... not? Ah, yes, usually we write Kajak: hour goes better?Draft of Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit (Inuk)... those that we call eschimesi.They are remembered to me of that I had read with respect to their language... and are content to have held this book, Artide , of Victor Stoll, Silva editionsIndependently from letters, from it means to you and from the prounucia, the conversation has the own characteristic rules that depend in wide measure from the habits of the place. The Inuk will consent cordial with the head, because its gentility glielo imposes, even if understands that its interlocutor is saying of the sciocchezze. The host in fact has always reason. He will continue therefore to follow to us even if we are going in the mistaken direction, because he is not to he to point out to the host its errors. [ to you much courtesy would make appeals to? It would annoy to you? You would succeed to involve to you therefore ]A minimum of acquaintance of the local language is necessary for who os in the polar regions, above all for being able to communicate with leading of slitte, with people of the people, the local guides or if he is hosts of a village. Although the Inuit attends the school, very rarely other languages speak and however they make feint not to understand, for two reasons: in order to hold wide the aliens and in order to emphasize own independence in just the country. [ vien to say to me: all the world is country ]We make present that in the small brought back dictionary of continuation the verbos sonon do not indicate you to the infinite but in the third singular person. The Inuit in fact never does not speak in first person; the courtesy, riserbo and the rules of behavior demand the third person. The Inuk will not never say: "I have seen..." bensìˆ"qualcuno has seen... ". A woman of the place will not say: "I sew for you...", but "someone sews for you..."; my father will not say not even "... "but" the father of... "and, using some prefixed one or suffisso, will make to understand that draft of its father. Little Inuit knows to handle the money and second how much has said poc' indeed they say "someone obviously has sperso..." or "someone has it stolen...", has not twisted if it is believed next to the going rates in the Arctic regions.Beyond to the word "mik", please used more sovente than we in the language speech, the inuktitut it possesses an other running word that is always felt in the answers of the Inuit: "imakka!" that it could be translate with "perhaps". To our question: "Then we leave tomorrow" or: "We arrive soon" or: "We remain a pair of days" the Inuk will answer "imakka", meaning: "It depends on the time". Such word, composed from "îma", yes, and "nakka", not, expresses in obvious way that the decisions of the Inuk in are tightened correlation with the extreme meteorological conditions of the Artide that, changing repentinamente from a moment to the other, can send to the air the program.And which phrases it would have to cite in our case?"

***

But I guess my suspicions were right. This is some kind of academic or sociologist or linguist.
And, reading between the weirld Google translation, I just learned something about the Inuktitut language I didn' t know--from someone whose first language, it appears, is Italian.

I just wonder...Why didn't they leave a post on one of my blog entries?

Then again...why didn't I leave a post on one of his/her blog entries? Particularly the one referencing MY blog. Maybe I'm worried s/he'll make fun of my Italian? Or my lousy Inuktitut?

So...what do you think? Should I post a message on Akeakamai's page?

Terry

Photos of Terry Fox were taken from a Heritage Canada site.
Copy right info:
Gail Harvey, The Terry Fox Foundation.


Around the time Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope, my mom was in the middle of her own marathon.

Around that time my mom lost a leg below the knee because of complications from diabetes.

Terry was a huge inspiration to her. And it was so hard for her when he had to stop his marathon. I think I cried when I heard the news that Terry Fox had died. I can't remember. But I do remember that my mom cried.

Complications from diabetes chipped away at her and she eventually lost her other leg, and a finger. She had triple by-pass surgery, and eventually died of appendicitis because her heart was too weak to take surgery. That was in my last year of high school.

Throughout her personal marathon, her faith in God kept her strong through months and months in the hospital and through a lot of pain. I remember only one occassion where she refused to see us because she was depressed.
My mom eventually learned to walk on two prosthetics. She learned so well that many people couldn't tell she had artificial legs. I remember being in the parking lot of Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill one day, when she parked our ugly red station wagon in a handicapped spot. We were just popping in to get something and so I think she even left her walking stick in the car. Another driver stopped as we were halfway to the mall entrance and rolled down his window.
"Hey...you just parked in a handicapped spot," he yelled.
I think my mom had to resist the urge to reach through the window and kiss the man.
She just bent over a bit and knocked on one of her state-of the art fibreglass legs.
"They're fake," she said, laughing. "But thanks!"

To many people who knew her, my mom was their personal Terry Fox. Her strength was an inspiration to a lot of people, including myself.

It's quite probable that I'm not able to detach myself emotionally from my memories of Terry Fox, tied as they are to my memories of my mom.

Maybe that explains why I can't accept the way the CMG has played the Terry Fox anniversary celebration card the way they did.

To me, it's immoral and un-Canadian to politicize Terry's memory in any way. Our jobs are important, but our humanity is more important.

Perhaps I'm naive. But I think the Guild could have been more creative, and taken a much higher moral ground on this one.

For example, imagine what would have happened if the Guild had thrown all labour dispute tradition and law to the wind and said to its members: If you're offered any scab work related to the Terry Fox anniversary, why not take it? We'll even count your hours as picket duty and we'll pay you for your picket time. Ideally, we ask that any money you make be donated to cancer research or to the guild's hardship fund.

Think of the quantity of egg the corporation would be wiping off its face.

Instead, we threaten a picket, we harass the family and we look like bigger assholes than the corporation. Because we tried to capitalize on Terry Fox's memory. And we look stupid because we took the bait the CBC management offered.

But, as I said, I find it hard to be detached about this topic.

Month-iversary

Here's Charlie marking our Month-iversary on the line, by adding a really big rock to his inukshuk.
Notice the way the wind is blowing back his CMG sign.
Now, think what a gust like that will do to a bunch of Styrofoam coffee cups and little itty, bitty creamers.
Yeah. The weather conspired against our other plan to mark the month-iversary: coffee and cookies on the line with anyone who cared to drop by at coffee time.

Actually, we managed not to lose a single coffee cup. Those butt-ugly racks on either end of Ike-the-Bike made for perfect coffee tables.

Mr. Solidarity was the first to show up. Kind of cute, isn't he, considering he also looks a bit like Joseph Merrick (aka:"The Elephant Man.")

Svante, who's with the Nunavut Employees Union, showed up next. He was the first to sample the coffee. (Mr Solidarity offered, but we were worried he'd burn his lips.) Notice Betty has pulled out "the big guns" when it comes to gear. She's wearing her winter parka and sealskin mitts.

Leo Subgut and Charlie chew the fat with Yvo Samgushak watching.

We consider Yvo the"unofficial" sixth staff member at CBC Kivalliq, he hangs around so much. He comes out just as faithfully on the picket line. And he doesn't even listen to CBC, because he's deaf-mute.

Oh yeah, and that's the "VAT-O-COFFEE" hanging out on Ike's rear rack. Told you he makes a good coffee table.

Rankin North M-L-A Tagak Curley digging for cream and sugar.

Sadio came...with baby Shara. She gave us yummy samosas and they warmed up our insides better than the coffee! THANKS!

The stamina prize goes to Mrs. Irkootee. She stayed and chatted for at least 45 minutes, standing there with no gloves on. When I shook her hand to say good-bye, it was toasty warm. I guess she eats more "country food" than I do.

(That's another technique for staying warm on the line when you have lousy circulation: Shake a lot of people's hands.)

More people came out: Aaron and crew, John, Sandy, Lisa, Steve... I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, but thanks to everyone! I'm not sure what the morning accomplished with respect to contract negotiations, but it sure did our spirits good to spend time with folks on such a bitter cold morning. Especially since it's been a rather sad couple of days in Rankin Inlet.

After it was all over, Charlie was exhausted.