By Céline Filion
Panhandlers across Ottawa are unionizing to fight for the moral and legal right to ask for spare change, says union organizer Andrew Nell.
The panhandlers union, which began recruiting members one month ago, is aimed at improving the working conditions of panhandlers, people who ask for money from passerby on the street. They will work to stop what the union’s initiator Jane Scharf calls, “a persecution of panning.”
“We want to reduce the vulnerability of panhandlers to businesses and police,” says Scharf, “and bring changes at the street level where the results will be seen.”
The panhandlers union was initiated in direct response to a homeless strike that led to a tent campout at Ottawa City Hall in July 2004.
While the outcome of the strike was a City task force on homelessness, organizers of the union feel the taskforce is inefficient and panhandlers need immediate help.
“It is virtually useless,” says Nell of the taskforce. “They need direct aid and not a committee who simply talks. We’re taking action and reaching out.”
The Ottawa Panhandlers Union is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, also termed the Wobblies, a parent union that works to unionize all trades and all workers in a strong solidarity.
Nell, a co-ordinator of the parent union, says panhandlers have a right to pan, and people have a moral duty to accept it.
“There is something seriously wrong with society when it is wrong to stand on a street corner and ask for help,” says Nell. “We will fight for them and provide mutual support and aid. Unions are not just for raises and job security.”
The union will work to try and improve relations with police, picket stores who have panhandlers removed, and deal with the tickets acquired through the Safe Streets Act.
Adopted in 2004, the act prohibits people from asking for anything of value from a captive audience, such as people waiting at a bus stop, and bans the public disposal of certain dangerous items like broken glass and needles.
After a single afternoon of recruiting panhandlers, the union now has 20 members. But Sharf says that if they hadn’t run out of paperwork, the union would have signed many more people that day.
“I can easily guess that we have another 50 to 100 people waiting to sign on,” says Scharf.
The current members are all voluntary due-paying workers. The three-dollar monthly dues are purely optional, largely thanks to the funding provided by the Ottawa District Labour Council.
Sean McKenny, president of the council, says the organization’s mandate it to look after the best interests of working people and the community at large.
The funding for the panhandlers union ensures that even those who can’t afford to pay union dues can receive the help they need.
“What we envision,” says McKenny, “is that not only will individuals be left alone in respect to their panning on the streets, but we are confident that with the proper mechanisms and support they will not need to be on the streets at all.”
However, not all organizations and panhandlers are excited about the union or understand its purpose.
Peter Combly, an Ottawa panhandler, was at the corner of Bank and Gilmour last week asking people for any spare change jingling in their coats.
He doesn’t believe the union will make an impact on the streets.
While he hasn’t been approached to join the union, he says he wouldn’t be adding his name to the list.
“Well I don’t know what they’re trying to do or think is going to happen,” says Combly.
“The union isn’t going to change me asking people for money, so then what’s the point of it all?”
Whether or not the purpose of the union is apparent or its goals realistic, the union organizers can’t identify any reasons panhandlers should hesitate to join.
“It can only benefit them,” says Scharf.
“It doesn’t have to cost them anything and their rights can only grow stronger as a group.”