FUMBLE: GET OFF THE GRASS YOU DARN KIDS!

How does the saying go? ‘There’s a time and a place for everything, and this was neither the time nor the place.’ Gary Parent, secretary-treasurer of CAW Local 444 demonstrated the communications equivalent of that in spades. A city workers’ strike in Windsor is affecting grounds-keeping at several baseball diamonds. The sports fields are sponsored by the CAW. There is concern that the long grass in the unkempt fields can hide holes and baseballs which could lead to injury. Users of the fields, both adult and children’s leagues, have been forced to find alternative locations or cancel games. It is understandable that some parents would voice concern and equally so that they would toy with the idea of doing the maintenance themselves. Upon hearing of this, Parent’s response came right out of left field. “We don’t have a habit of funding scab organizations.” It was bad enough that Parent made no mention of safety for the kids or even attempted to open up a dialogue to look for cooperation, but he went further and threatened to pull the sponsorship. “Mowing the sports fields would be tantamount to being a scab and that sort of interference would absolutely affect the council’s sponsorship.” All that because some parents were only thinking about doing a good deed is way over the top. Tackling a situation with negatively charged communications, especially when the ‘opposition’ is the general public, is usually destined to create ill-will and cast a bad light on the communicator. With some forethought Parent could have used the situation to his advantage at a time when his organization could sorely use it to build a sense of community involvement and care. Targeting organizations that focus on children’s activities: wrong place. Using accusatory words without real provocation: wrong time. Uttering threats rather than expressing concern and looking for cooperation: just wrong.