Hi there,

I've spent several hours talking to drivers the past few days. That's been my main job on my picket lines. Our lines have held up cars, and I've gone and talked to the drivers for a minute or however long they'll talk about the issues. I've talked to many of each of: undergrads, faculty, university maintenance workers, dump truck drivers, FedEx drivers, caterers, parents of undergrads, and even people who have nothing to do with UofT and are lost on their way to somewhere else (I'm good at giving directions).

All of those people were held up for a minute or so by me and the line I was with.

Response has honestly been overwhelmingly positive. I can count on my fingers the number of people who have either refused to speak with me, or have expressed opposition to our cause after agreeing to speak with me. I've spoken to several people who were running late, and were made more late by us, and despite some stress on their part for being late even then stopped long enough to hear a short message about the status of the situation, and expressed support.

There have been several people who just haven't said much of anything to me, but those all seem to be international students, and my impression is that their English skills were very weak.

On the other hand, I've had many enthusiastic supporters. People have told me that the university has been out of line for not bargaining with us, people have said they support our cause, one guy today even told me that he actually called the provost's office and expressed his dissatisfaction. And he was an adult who stopped and chatted for a few minutes, so I don't think he was just trying to placate me.

Seriously, when I started doing this job I was expected to get yelled at, given the finger, etc. by most people, but response has been overwhelmingly positive. I've been enjoying my time talking to drivers tremendously.