Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Harper’s bullying causes labour pains

Ken Lewenza called it “distasteful, immoral and unconstitutional.’’

In the Prime Minister’s Office, around the Conservative cabinet table and in the corporate suites of Air Canada, they had another name for it.

It was called victory.

In the ideological world of Stephen Harper, where unions are not to disrupt business and their collective bargaining rights are to be ignored, labour disputes will be met with the biggest, most blunt instrument that a majority government has in its arsenal.

In the Air Canada settlement announced Thursday, the bully won.

Under the threat of back-to-work legislation, Lewenza and the Canadian Auto Workers had nowhere to go.

They settled for essentially what was on the table when their members walked.

Organized labour in Canada better duck.

The twin interventions in labour disputes at Air Canada and Canada Post have drawn back the blinds on one unshakeable tenet of the Harper majority.

He will not let unionized workers take a bite out of this economy, even if, in the case of Air Canada, it hadn’t even nibbled quite yet.

Harper is also sending a powerful message to other unions that are trying to protect long-held pension rights and to any public service unions itching for a fight with him over looming government cuts.

And he is again displaying the cozy relationship this government has with Air Canada, a romance so strong it sparked an unnecessary diplomatic split with the United Arab Emirates.

Publicly, the lightning-quick threat of back-to-work legislation was all about protecting the fragile Canadian economy.

But the real reason was the future of workers’ pensions in this country and the burden these are becoming for Canadian business.

When the government bailed out Air Canada in 2009, it was with the specific condition that they get their pension costs under control.

So, in this case, if Air Canada needed a little bit of help to deal with a pesky union, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt was only too happy to oblige.

While Raitt said the legislation, tabled but not even yet debated, focused both sides at the table, in reality what it did was rattle the union to the point that it signed something it had already rejected.

Even though the airline said its management staff replacing unionized customer service employees meant business as usual, Raitt maintained she had to intervene before service was interrupted.

The Harper government then allowed a company it owns, Canada Post, to lock out its workers then signalled it would legislate them back to work, taking away their bargaining rights.

Jack Layton and his New Democrats have called the measures “draconian” and an attack on workers who have endured cutbacks and now face lost pensions, while Air Canada CEOs walk away with millions.

By bringing down such a club, so early in the bargaining process Harper can do nothing but buy a heap of hostility from working men and women in this country.

Already Lewenza was musing about a Canadian Labour Congress-led war against the Harper government, challenging the constitutionality of its back-to-work threats.

Raitt said since 1950, back-to-work legislation has been used by the federal government 32 times and she has never used it before.

What she didn’t say was that in a minority government, she wouldn’t have been able to get away with it.

It’s not as if Air Canada is a chronic strike problem for this or any other government.

They have not had a work stoppage since pilots walked off the job 13 years ago.

CUPW, for all its history of labour militancy, has had 14 years of peace with its employer.

But in the new world of the Harper majority, none of this matters.

An assault on workers’ rights is underway.

Origin
Source: Toronto Star  

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