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MMdoyouflMhasboonOfloJounek'smostposteconfiMulonln mmwmmm? I’ve lived in Oakville since 1974 and as far as I know Otto Jelinek has not done anything for Oakville-Milton. I read the paper every week, I’ve never seen anything that we can put down that he has got this for his riding. e are now reaching a crossroads in the relationships of unions with their employers and more importantly, with their own membership. Who would have ever thought, for instance, that one of the biggest locals of the Canadian Auto Workers, would vote to stop sending funds to the Ontario New Democratic Party? But that's what's hap- pened in Oshawa and look for that kind of attitude to continue in the future. Just this week, came word that Premier Bob Rae is seriously considering cutting the salaries of the Ontario civil service, the bulk of whom are dues-paying union members. Say it ain't so Bob! But it is so and it’s like a cold fiscal shower for organized labor as the province and the nation try to extricate themselves from the moneâ€" tary miasma that now exists. Labor wrongly-believed that when the NDP was elected, it would be a glorious day for 'the movement'. What a shock then, when our premier realized he was now housed in a fiscal sinkhole and no one was giving him a ladder. Here in Halton, the Board of Education has just passed a 2% bud- get increase, the lowest in the board's history. And part of that accom- plishment came after board director Bob Williams, asked the board's 4,000 employees to donate a day's pay to help with the budget. Failure to do so, he warned, could result in the layoff of 75 'staff. The local representative of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) said she thought the idea was worth supporting. Wow! Talk about putting a red flag in front of a bull. The parent body hurriedly told members not to donate anything. So much for the new working realities of the 19905. Last year, when teachers‘ union members were asked bythe Wentworth County Board of Education for ways to save money to help avoid layoffs, program cuts etc., the union officials told the membership not to respond. When will the unions realize it‘s no longer a them and us relationship but just an 'us and us' deal? Ian Oliver Publisher Robert Gin-hey Advertising Director Noun-n Alexander Editor Geoff nm Circulation Director Teri Cam Qfiioe Manager No one is going to get a free ride anymore and the unions are just starting to realize that fact. Or should we say some unions and some union members are beginning to get that message. When the times were good and too much money was flowing from Queen's Park and Ottawa into the education system, negligent bOards of education inked contract deals unlike others in any industry. Now that the times are not as good, why should we continue to pile up salary and benefit costs if the money isn't there? To the 2,000 board employees who disagreed with the unions, we say well done and to those who haven't yet contributed, you have until March 31st to do so. Remember, the job you save could be your own. ’ OPINION EDITORIAL CALL845-5585 Labor lessons HE OAK 467 Spears Road, Oakville. Ont. L6K 334 845-3824 Fax: 845-3085 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 or 845-9743 iKVILLE BEAVER Inussnou OF THE WEEK! moumnom IMF mm mmmw lkhy. mmmmmmm wwmhnmjmmnioeum , Humneumnmhwggum Should the paediatrics service at the Oakw'lle-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital be considered for centralization with any other hospitals in Halton Region? Give us your opinion on this topic by calling 845-5585, box 5012. A sampling of the best answers will be published in the next Weekend edition of the Oakville Beaver. All callers are allowed 45 seconds to respond and must provide their name, address and phone number for verification. Ron Dufeu I won’t gross you out with all the details, but they included getting lost in Atlanta airport, flying over the Bermuda Triangle in a single engine plane with a pilot whose breath smelled of aftershave, a hotel that had never heard of me or Well, it sure sounded better than staying in Canada shovel- ling out my driveway. We dropped our mittens; threw a couple of tubes of Coppertone in a bag, and headed for the air- It happened in the Bahamas. A large national airline, which shall remain nameless, sent me two free airline tickets and a reservation at a plush spa called...l forget â€" Paradise, or Ambrosia, or Nirvana, or some- thing like that. “Go” they told me. “Take your wife. Enjoy yourself. Write something nice about it for our magazine.” You want to share your trav- el horror story with the world? Get your own newspaper col- umn. This one’s mine, and here is my tale of tourist trauma. 0 you have a travel horror story? Of course you do. Travel these days is fraught with gut- curdling terror, breathtaking incompetence, and soaring churlishness. Any mortal who has passed through the bowels of Pearson International Airport, the front door of the Buffalo Bus Terminal, or the back seat of a Montreal taxi, has at least one travel horror story. Conversations with a parrot and other travel niceties \TUST [20 Back home, I wrote a true story about our Bahamas vaca- tion. The large national airline declined to print it in their mag- azine. “We don’t handle x-rated material,” they explained. “Ah, I can't come in ma’am...the door appears to be locked. Do you ha..” “COME IN! COME IN!” This conversation went on for several sweaty minutes until suddenly the concierge squawked and I realized I’d been engaged in conversation with a blue-fronted Amazon parrot. “Do you have a reservation for Arthur Black?” I asked the door. From the other side came a cackling command “COME IN! COME IN!” the aforementioned large national airline, a flat tire on the plane taking us to Nassau, a taxi driver whose sole acquain- tance with English was the phrase “No, mon”, and a villa in the hills that featured abso- lutely everything. Except electricity. The low point of the trip came when I found myself negotiating through a closed door with what I thought was an unusually shrewish concierge. ‘ itEJ-J 1145,13 A mun-«W The good news is that Robert Banting's trial by travel earned him this year’s Frankenstein Travel Award. It’s a prize given out annually by the Executive Communications Group of New Jersey for the most horrendous travel story of the year. They’d better mail the award to Banting. He sure as hell won’t fly to New Jersey to pick it up! Banting got to his Montreal hotel just as dawn was creeping across the sky. Naturally, his reservation had been cancelled. And of course, his luggage was by now on its way to Halifax. That’s my travel horror story, but it’s a Disney cartoon‘ next to Robert Banting’s tale of woe. Last year, Banting was rushing out to catch a night flight from Toronto to Montreal. His cab skidded off the exit ramp and crashed. Emerging unhurt from the wreckage, Banting fished out his bags and hailed another cab which got him to the airport just in time to coincide with a phoned-in bomb threat for his flight. Several hours of Mounties, rent-a-cops, and cups of bad coffee later, Banting was hustled onto another plane. Then he was frog-marched off the plane by security officers and taken to his suitcase which a police dog was sniffing suspi- ciously. “Open it,” they com- manded. He did. The dog lunged for the roast beef sand- wich Banting had packed.