When (s)he is a ‘replacement worker’. I have always loved the word ‘scab’. A fitting description of strikebreakers, it is a word that conjures up ugly imagery, imagery quite appropriate for those who act without integrity by engaging in strikebreaking behaviour, which are essentially shameless public declarations of individual extollment
Continue readingTag: union busting
LeDaro: Harper’s Labour Union Busting – Bill c377.
I got this idea of union Busting from Lorne.I had some idea that Harper wanted to kill unions. I did some research and found out that Harper indeed was trying his best to please his masters and kill unions. Harper’s Rule Breaking Rush to Crush Unions’S…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Sure Sounds Like Union-Busting To Me
Call it what you will, anything that circumvents union rights is odious, and it appears to have happened to Hamilton, Ontario. Independent television station station CHCH, a mainstay of the community for over 60 years, summarily fired all of its employ…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Canada’s anti-union lobby is at the heart of the deceptive campaign for more Temporary Foreign Workers – why’s that, d’ya think?
Canadians need not apply? Actual Canadian store displays may not appear exactly as illustrated. But the intent of the AstroTurf TFW lobby is to bust unions and weaken the bargaining power of Canadian workers. Below: Employment Minister and former Canadian Taxpayers Federation operative Jason Kenney; former Canadian Federation of Independent
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On The Minimum Wage And Tim Hudak’s ‘Bold’ Plan For Ontario
Continuing on with the theme of the minimum wage, which groups in both Canada and the United States are demonstrating to significantly increase, The Star had a good letter in yeterday’s edition that points out the hidden costs of having so many working for poverty-level remuneration. Fight poverty, boost wages,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Union-Busting Eatery I Will Not Patronize
Several days ago I commented on a story from The Star about the unsavory labour practices of Richtree Market, a Toronto restaurant that ‘closed’ its business, terminated all of its unionized staff, only to reopen this coming Monday a few doors down from its prior location. None of the old
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Labour Day 2013: Say Hello to the Pavement!
Workers in Canada and around the world have been under assault for decades, but most of our recent tactics to stop the bleeding have been ineffective. Are we lazy, complacent, overworked, obedient, compliant, subdued, afraid, docile, or fully tamed and intimidated by the one per cent? If we don’t get
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Tim Hudak’s Evangelical Political Fervour
Crazed clerics are not the only ones possessed of an evangelical fervour. Young Tim Hudak, leader (at least for now) of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, is well-known for wanting to bring back some of that old-time religion in the form of union-bashing and dismantlement, something he likes to describe
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Profits Before People: Richmond Ikea Lockout Enters Day 17
Generating enough media spin to rival a jet engine at take off, the management and PR folks at Ikea Canada want you to believe that their poor little corporation is being held hostage by greedy, soulless union workers in Richmond. Woe. Pity poor Ikea. It’s tough being a multi-national
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Thomas Walkom Today
The union movement is one of the last remnants of the great postwar pact between labour, capital and government. That pact provided Canadians with things they still value, from medicare to public pension plans. Good wages in union shops kept pay high, even in workplaces that weren’t organized. Unions agitated
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Not-So-Hidden-Hand of Harper
Although I believe unreservedly in the vital role that unions play in both protecting and promoting workers’ rights, I make no apologies for the times that I have been critical of them. Cronyism, questionable expenditures, and corruption have no pla…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: That Man Behind the Curtain
While I strongly believe in being critical of unions when their behaviour warrants it, I am steadfast in my belief that they serve a vital role for the working person, which, essentially, is all of us, at least until retirement. I therefore must disagree with those who claim that the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What "Flexibility" Really Means
Reading the print version of the story I posted a link to yesterday regarding young Tim Hudak’s latest attempt at formulating policy (a.k.a. union busting) got me thinking once more about how politicians misuse and debase language. In what I guess in his world passes for bold and innovative thinking,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Young Tim’s Latest Attempt At Policy-Making
Because, I guess, young Master Hudak believes in work-place democracy. Can the workhouses be far behind? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Ontario’s Impending Austerity Budget
Reading my morning Star, I learned that there is wide-spread support among the public for austerity measures to reduce Ontario’s deficit. I suspect that there will be a particular appetite for the following: Hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses and all other public employees face higher pension contributions or reduced
Continue reading