Does anyone else find it odd that a free-market-worshipping government can happily leap into the fray to micro-manage a labour market outcome (deciding, for example, that postal workers must get 1.75%, not 1.9%, in the first year of their new contract), yet pleads powerlessness when it comes to interfering with market outcomes that are genuinely […]
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The Progressive Economics Forum: The NDP and “Big Labour”
Rob Silver, a sharp guy I first met through university debate, has written a rather disappointing piece entitled, “Would NDP be neutral were it in power during a labour dispute?” This question is interesting and significant. On the one hand, the NDP’s political philosophy is strongly supportive of working people. Compared to Liberals and Conservatives, […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Unions and Inequality
An important paper by Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld which is forthcoming in the American Journal of Sociology finds that the decline in private sector union density in the US (from 34% to 8% for men, and from 16% to 6% for women) explains one fifth to one third of the increase in inequality […]
Continue readingThey Call Me "Mr. Sinister": This Is Where We Are Heading
Slavery isn’t just a historical oddity anymore. Companies are taking advantage of a poor job market to squeeze free labor out of our children. These companies are who the Conservatives and Liberals are working to promote and protect. People like this w…
Continue readingCalgaryLiberal: A Message to Every Alberta Liberal: End the Writing off of People
I was reading one comment made over on Calgarygrit’s blog made by a fellow by the name of “Frank” I felt this sinking, sickening feeling. Every single time I hear someone saying we shouldn’t attempt to bring in a group of people…
Continue readingcmkl: Did the NDP fall into a trap?
I suppose the doyens of public opinion research will tell us the answers soon enough, but I’m wondering if, as Bob Rae claims, the NDP fell into a Tory-set trap by embarking on this filibuster.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Canada Post Filibuster Liveblog
Will the resolution to the Canada Post lockout come before your credit card bill that’s stuck in the mail? Will the Conservatives try to make Jack Layton cry by yelling “Union Jack” at him all night long? Join the snarky politicsrespun crew as we enjoy our way through the night. Warning: real drinking games may […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Velvet Glove Comes Off Harper Government’s Labour Relations Agenda
Even though labour relations is largely a provincial responsibility in Canada, we were worried about what would happen in this field under a Harper majority. And it didn’t take long to find out. In the disputes at both Air Canada and Canada Post, the government waded into the fray in a pre-emptive and utterly one-sided […]
Continue readingcmkl: The Canada Post lockout busting legislation explained
It all makes perfect sense to me now. At first I thought it strange that the Tory government was ordering its wholly-owned crown corporation and its Tory government-appointed president to open the doors and let CUPW back to work. After all, I would hav…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Conservative back to work legislastion breaks the law and could result in lasting consequences
To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth: On back to work legislation. Whoa, deja vu.Excerpts:It’s worth noting that even lawyers aren’t evading it as much as they used to. In 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada, in the BC Health Services case, overtu…
Continue readingOn back to work legislation. Whoa, deja vu.
So, another conservative (note the small “c”) government, another round of back to work legislation. Canada violates its international obligations yet again, and is again grouped with such shining lights of liberty as Colombia. It’s the same old song a…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Exploiting the Proletariat – Business as Usual in the US.
Sometimes the Russian Television network has some good stories. By good stories I mean, news articles that would never seen the light of day within the media disciplined airwaves of the U.S. According the the RT report, US workers are working harder for less and less every year, and funny, business has never been better […]
cmkl: Rights versus the economy
In uniondom we talk a lot about the ‘right to free collective bargaining’. I expect most of us realize the meaning of that phrase is lost on most people in the country and even on most amongst union members. If anyone asks me my professional opinion, I…
Continue readingCalgaryLiberal: Three arguments for a Liberal think tank
If you haven’t already heard, Ed Broadbent has stated he’ll be starting a think tank (named after himself, even) in the fall. It’s a smart move–a move that the conservatives amongst many different parties have been doing for alm…
Continue readingcmkl: I’m not the only person who thinks this
Tim Harper, a Toronto Star columnist, has a good item this evening about the meaning of the Harper government’s moves to end two nation-wide strikes for no reason that would hitherto be considered legitimate.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Stories From the March on Blair Mountain – Part 1 The March
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I arrived a few days early to headquarters in Marmet, WV with an overly large pack that threatened to topple me over with one slightly unbalanced step. A sleeping bag, m…
Continue readingcmkl: Okay, so I get to eat my words
Yesterday I predicted that the tory government would not introduce legislation to end the contract dispute between Canada Post and CUPW. Today, it seems Labour Minister Lisa Raitt formally announced plans to do just that.
Continue readingcmkl: So this is how it’s going to be: CAW to be legislated back to work after one day on strike
After a single day of strike, labour minister Lisa Raitt has announced the government’s plan to legislate CAW members at Air Canada back to work. Wow. Welcome to Stephen Harper’s Canada.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Benefits of Higher Royalties
The Canadian Union of Public Employees has launched a great new blog, Imagine What We Could Do, about the things Saskatchewan should accomplish by raising resource royalties. It draws upon this blog’s analysis of how the province could collect more r…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Air Canada Bargaining and the Fight for Middle Class Jobs
CAW members at Air Canada are coming down to the wire in their bargaining with the company, with a strike deadline set for this Monday at midnight. It’s really the first “normal” round of bargaining the workers have been able to undertake since 2000. Since then, they’ve been through two rounds of CCAA court-supervised restructuring […]
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