Unions: Don't Buy iPhone 4S From Verizon

Around here policing costs are rising 5-7% per year. Toronto policing cost has pretty much doubled since 1999. With their latest 11.5% raise this year toronto and OPP officers are pulling over 80k/year. It's a slap in the face to taxpayers during tough economic times.

Many of those raises are due to inflation and general cost of living increases. You try being a police officer on only $30k/year. I'm guessing that you will hate life.

are you seriously comparing a police officer to a subway employee?

Fatality rate per 10,000. Not hard to understand.

I don't know where he got the chart either, but I can tell what the numbers mean. They're pretty clearly labeled.

The blue side is a chart of the Fatality Rates (per 100,000 employees) of the listed occupations. The red side is a chart of the number of fatalities those occupations had in the year 2006.

Oh geez not this crap. Tons of jobs that pay much less are more dangerous.

I stand by my statement that if you cut police pay, you will get a bunch of scumbags running the streets.

I can also agree that when police are paid as much as they are they don't need the annual pay raises anymore. I do think they could use a 5-10% pay-cut across the board, but that would never happen with spineless politicians in office.

LOL can we at least take a break on the 10-12% raises every 2 years?

Since inflation averages about 3% per year, you already have to cut 6% off of your figure... it now becomes only a 4-6% 'raise'. Now you are talking every 2 years so it is really 2-3% per year. Would you like me to figure in the ~ 2%/yr COL increase or shall you do it?

Give me a f'ing break, these guys are barely breaking even. Don't be mad because the rest of us are being robbed, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Percentages look small year to year but if you beat inflation by 2-3% per year every year for 10 years your real pay relative to everyone else goes up 30%. That is what has happened here, where a salary like 60k for a cop starting out would be reasonable it is now over 80k with no end in sight.

I know people these days are bad at thinking about long-term trends but you realize that if it keeps going like this forever they just keep getting more and more relative to people who don't have union access to tax dollars and are ultimately footing the bill. Something has to break soon, Toronto has gone from $500M in 1999 to over $1B now. $2B in 2022 isn't happening, but I suspect we'll be hearing lots fearmongering and kicking and screaming when someone tries to break the trend (it's already started with Rob Ford asking for a 10% decrease in spending).

I don't know what they mean because I don't know who collected the data.

Charts are for idiots who cannot interpret data.

I stand by my statement that if you cut police pay, you will get a bunch of scumbags running the streets.

Traffic tickets are pointless? There are traffic laws that need to be enforced. If they weren't traffic fatalities would rise many, many times higher.

Most cops just steal peoples money by writing pointless traffic tickets.

pnjunction, your view is certainly a popular one but I disagree. The real 'cancer' are the tax breaks that are given to businesses & the rich which severely impact the amount of money available for funding public services.

When you consider inflation and COL increases, $80k/year is hardly unreasonable for a police officer today. The only time it becomes 'unreasonable' is when you compare it to stagnant non-union wages for the past 20-30 years.

The first line argument is usually 'Well we HAVE to give them tax breaks to encourage growth', but this is a false (and actually quite ridiculous) argument. Back in the 50's & 60's (here in the US) the tax rates were as high as the 80-90 percentile range and people were still getting rich; there was plenty of growth. The 'growth encouragement' excuse is nothing but that... it is refuted by facts.

The 'hard economic times' you mention are a result of wealth accumulating at the top and being funneled into Wall St. and offshore bank accounts where it does not enter back into the economy. Regan's 'trickle down economics' was a lie. This situation will continue to get worse until the playing field becomes more level. That doesn't mean a re-distribution of wealth, it means changing the rules.

(they were once useful and necessary, now they are just rackets).. But since this is a private company, I can tolerate it... Unlike public unions, which just rob the tax-payer.

(they were once useful and necessary, now they are just rackets).. But since this is a private company, I can tolerate it... Unlike public unions, which just rob the tax-payer.

I still abide by my comment not all unions are the same. Not that that is much comfort to those subject to the bad ones (whether as customers or workers).

F*** the unions! They had their place in the 1920`s but now free market should reign. Example: Starting salary for WIndows Admin was $65k in my company in *1995* ... Now it is $40k in *2011* and $5k for overseas idiots. Who is protecting *ME*?? NOBODY! F` the union idiots, they can deal with the economy the way that the other 99% does! Who do they think they are?? Are they better than me ??

I am a CWA member and this has got to be one of the unions stupidest ideas ever. My union shouldn't be asking consumers to forgo products they want. ....
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The CEOs of AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint are counting the cash from yesterday.

Silly CWA. You can't beat Apple, no matter who you are.