PARLIAMENT HILL—New Democrats are gearing up to take on Prime Minister Stephen Harper over what they’re calling a “Republican style” attack on wages and benefits in 2012, with the latest flashpoint a New Year’s Day lockout of nearly 500 workers at the only remaining locomotive manufacturer in Canada.The standoff at the London, Ont., Electro-Motive plant, now owned by U.S. machinery giant Caterpillar following a Canadian-government approved takeover, has surfaced as a key issue in the NDP leadership race, with candidate and NDP MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, Ont.) inviting all seven other candidates in the race to London this Friday in a show of support for the locked-out members of the Canadian Auto Workers union.
Leadership candidate and former party president Brian Topp, Toronto region director for the Association of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, also joined the fray Wednesday, sending a letter of support to the locked-out London workers.
"I think the NDP should take on Mr. Harper for his approach on labour relations,” Mr. Topp told The Hill Timesin an email. “Not only will Mr. Harper not help Canadians and their families in this economy, he doesn't want them to help themselves.”
Lockouts and threatened job losses and benefit take-backs at other locations of Canadian companies recently taken over by foreign firms under Mr. Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) government have been highlighted by other NDP leadership candidates, including NDP MP Niki Ashton (Churchill, Man.), over a contentious settlement between the government and U.S. Steel Corp. to protect threatened jobs at steel-manufacturing jobs in Hamilton, Ont., and Nanticoke, Ont., after the U.S. Steel takeover of Canadian-owned Stelco in 2007.
On the heels of recent Conservative Party of Canada attacks against the NDP for its affiliations with organized labour, Mr. Dewar and NDP MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, Man.) told The Hill Timeson Wednesday it is time for the NDP to fight back against the Conservative “assault” on labour directly, perhaps using it as a fundraising appeal as the Conservatives were recently reported as planning to do over NDP affiliations with trade unions.
“The war on labour and the left is just beginning, watch for a Republican-style attack on middle-class wages and benefits, in keeping with the hair trigger 'back to work' legislation of 2011,” Mr. Martin said, referring to back-to-work legislation the Harper government passed last June for locked-out Canada Post employees and subsequent back-to-work legislation in the face of threatened strikes by Air Canada employees.
“It’s a page right out of Ronald Reagan's play book but the consequences are they've destroyed their greatest strength in the U.S.A., a well-paid consuming middle class,” Mr. Martin said. “This is the battlefield Harper wants to fight us on ... it will be his Waterloo one way or the other.”
Mr. Dewar said Conservative attacks against the NDP last fall over its union connections, led by Mr. Harper’s Parliamentary secretary, Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro (Peterborough, Ont.), were the government’s first signals about where it stands in the spreading confrontations between labour and U.S. multi-nationals as the United States economy continues to flounder. Mr. Del Mastro led a Conservative assault against the NDP in the Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee over the advertising space that several large unions purchased at the NDP 50thanniversary convention in Vancouver last June.
“This is all about who you represent,” Mr. Dewar said. “We’re talking about representing the interests of working people and everyday Canadians and they [the Conservatives] are about representing the fund managers who come in and fleece our companies and our country. Absolutely, I’ll have that debate with them any day.”
Mr. Dewar added: “This is a little too cute by half when they try to go after unions when they represent everyday people and workers, and by the way represent all Canadians. They’re the ones standing up to say to companies that are trying to cut back wages, which means less money in our communities, they’re saying this is wrong. The Conservatives would just say it’s business.”
Several of the leadership candidates were unable to accept Mr. Dewar's last-minute invitation, having prior commitments elsewhere. Mr. Topp was scheduled to campaign in Saskatchewan Friday and MP Thomas Mulcair (Outremont, Que.) was to be in Alberta, their campaigns told The Hill Times. Mr. Dewar said candidate MPs Romeo Saganash (Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou, Que.) and Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.) were also scheduled for other events, while Ms. Ashton and candidate MP Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park, Ont.) were checking to see if they could be available.
Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza also recently predicted corporate attacks against employee salaries and benefits, with Caterpillar proposing to slash wages at the London locomotive plant in half, and told the Sun News the government “has to use a carrot to attract business, but they also have to use a stick.”
Shortly before Christmas, Mr. Lewenza personally wrote Mr. Harper, urging him to intervene in the Caterpillar standoff as it was coming to a head. Mr. Lewenza copied the letter to a range of Ontario political figures, including the prominent local Conservative MP Joe Preston (Elgin-Middlesex-London, Ont.), chair of the Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee.
Mr. Lewenza argued “the future of Canada’s only locomotive plant is in peril” and pointed out that within two months after then Industry minister Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) approved the Caterpillar takeover of the Canadian plant in 2010 the U.S. giant announced plans to open new plants to build locomotives in the United States and Mexico, with the announcement of a third new plant in Brazil last year.
Original Article
Source: Hill Times
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