Assorted content to end your day.- Thomas Walkom points out that the effect of cracking down on peaceful and legal strikes – as the Cons are so determined to do – is to force workers to take more creative steps to make their concerns heard:Canada’s m…
Continue readingTag: labour.
Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- No, it’s no huge surprise that the Cons are planning to launch systematic attacks against labour as the next step after making it clear they’ll treat any strike or lockout as both illegitimate and entirely the f…
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Just wondering
Glen McGregor at the Ottawa Citizen put an article up yesterday to report on spending by unions on federal election advertising. Using "newly-released financial reports" which are filed with Elections Canada McGregor can tell us, for example: Among the biggest advertisers was the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which spent $134,000, mostly on a radio blitz the day before Canadians went to the polls. In the week before voting day, PSAC launched radio ads encouraging Canadians to vote in support of the public service, with spots heard on radio stations in Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and elsewhere. PSAC also paid for lawn signs in Miramichi, New Brunswick, encouraging voting for "Anyone but Tilly" — a reference to local Conservative MP Tilly O’Neill-Gordon. PSAC targeted the riding because of fears that unionized employees who work on the federal gun registry would be laid off. O’Neill-Gordon was re-elected, despite PSAC’s efforts. That’s quite a bit of detail and it’s important to note that it’s not based on leaks nor did it require having a mole to infiltrate the secret weekly meetings in which the union bosses plot world domination. The information is freely available through reporting requirements that are already in place….
Continue readingwmtc: scenes from an occupation, continued
Day 19:Most compelling moment of the night: Watching NYPD taking a girl away, crowd asked her name, she replied, “Troy Davis, Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, Martin Luther King.” Total poise, totally amazing.October 15: Occupy TogetherThanks to Jere for the…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Adam Radwanski warns that Ontario’s voters can’t afford to stay home from today’s provincial election.- Jim Stanford calls out the Harper Cons and their right-win echo chamber for their baseless and gratuitous …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Chris Selley points out the absurdity of Ontario’s Libs and PCs both running away from the idea of a coalition just as needlessly as their federal counterparts. But let’s remember that since the NDP spoke up for…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: September 28, 2011
Wednesday’s Day in Review comes a day later than usual. But I’ll plan to stick to the new schedule for future editions, as the anchors which nicely point to interventions from the current day seem to have a habit of disappearing later. The Big IssueOnc…
Continue readingwmtc: massive union presence to joins wall street occupation
The ongoing protest at New York City’s financial district is receiving a huge boost from labour unions. The Transit Workers Union voted unanimously to support Occupy Wall Street and the United Auto Workers is expected to do so soon. In addition, two pr…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Murray Dobbin points out the utter failure of an economic system built on suppressing wages for the general populace in the name of boosting stock values and profits for a few at the top:Flaherty insisted before…
Continue readingwmtc: tomorrow in toronto: demand a toronto for everyone
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been forced to back away from some of his more egregious – and completely unnecessary – threatened budget cuts, claiming that library branches will not be closed. But let’s not forget, in his mayoral campaign, Ford said he’d …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Munir Sheikh writes (PDF) about good data and intelligent government. I’ll add the subtitle, “and other perceived threats to the Harper Conservatives”.- Aside from the occasional expose on working cond…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Alex Himelfarb offers a warning about Canada’s current inequality trap:In a society with just a few winners and many losers, a case can be made that everybody truly loses. When he argued for higher taxes on th…
Continue readingwmtc: "if we can change walmart, we can change america for all workers"
Everyone reading this should know that conditions for working people at Walmart – the largest employer in the United States – are nothing short of criminal. We should also know that the only way working conditions at Walmart will ever improve is by wor…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On wedges
Greg offers up an important response to the Cons’ initial line of attack on Brian Topp. But let’s also note how the latest barrage fits into the Cons’ broader strategy in taking on the NDP.Remember what happened as part of the silly season of summer, w…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Burning question
The Hill Times rightly notes that the Cons’ strategy against the NDP has involved taking every opportunity to attack both unions in general, and any form of association between labour and the NDP. But leaving aside the fact that the labour movement can…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012: The Week In Quotes
A few quotes worth noting from both candidates and non-candidates alike – feel free to suggest more in comments.Thomas Mulcair on his considerations in deciding whether to run:There’s an old saying that before you take the plunge, you have to make sure…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The obvious response
We’ll learn soon whether the NDP’s federal council will choose a pure one-member, one vote leadership process. But it’s not hard to see the news that major Quebec unions aren’t interested in participating as formal affiliates as a major step in that di…
Continue readingwmtc: it’s not about the money money money: all out september 26 at toronto city hall
Things you can to do save public services in Toronto:1. Watch this amazing video!* 2. Share the video with everyone you know.3. If you live in the GTA, come to City Hall on Monday, September 26, 2011 for the Rally to Save Toronto. Rally begins at 5:30,…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Labour Day – Canadian heritage moment – Rerun
First published here in 2009
I was flipping the radio dial on Labour Day and noticed that CKNW’s Christy Clark featured a guest who seemed a strange choice. It was a Fraser Institute automaton, there to talk once more about our “unsustainable medic…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On ancient history
Remember back when the Harper Cons were able to run roughshod over a weak official opposition party which couldn’t muster any allies to fight back against the Cons’ smears?
Just wondering – because thankfully, that sad era is over.
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