Wal Mart are scum
I applaud the UFCW for their persistence. But Wal Mart is just shameless.
André Cornellier needs a PR course
I work for a union. I’ve been a union supporter for all my adult life. For all their imperfections I believe working people are almost always better off with a union than without. But the president of the Ottawa local of the Amalgamated Transit Union has me getting off the union bus.
CAW kills the idea of a strike over Oshawa plant closure. Damn
Huh? This was just starting to get interesting.
Utah Phillips has died
Thanks Bob Bossin for writing an obituary of Bruce “Utah” Phillips on rabble.ca. This is crushing, for me. Utah Phillips is the last link I know of to the era of radical unions, political tramps, guitar playing agitators and big ideas.
TTC strike: media provides actual insight on ATU politics
Not that I get or have any insider information on ATU 113 politics, but I thought Coup at TTC union blamed for strike had some remarkable insight into how that surpise strike in Toronto happened.
CAW fires back about the Magna deal: where is the truth?
Well now we’ve got a battle. Or a cat fight. Or something. I don’t know what. Thanks to Rabble, I found this CAW rejoinder on the recent salvo launched by the heads of several Ontario Federation of Labour affiliates. Herein I try to figure out who’s telling the truth about the FFA.
We’re all above average
There’s a line of common wisdom about trade unions protecting incompetent workers and dragging down everyone else. I hear it all the time. The person making it usually presumes they’re the ones being dragged, rather than the one that does the dragging. How can we be so sure?
The CAW-Magna deal is truly creepy
Up until this point I was trying not to get too upset by the deal that CAW cut with Magna. Maybe I just don’t get it, maybe there are forces there at work beyond my understanding. Maybe I just have no appreciation for the stress the auto industry – and consequently CAW – is under. But Ed Broadbent’s opinion piece in the Globe and Mail has pushed me over the edge.
Auto makers want UAW to administer health benefits
The UAW is meant to start negotiating with the “big three” American auto makers this week. And if the Globe’s spin is to be believed, the big issue is health insurance.
Larry O’Brien at the table: better for CUPE?
CBC Ottawa is reporting (love that headline – are they being sarcastic?) that Larry O’Brien is going to handle bargaining between the city and CUPE 503. For a minute there, I was very discouraged. But you know, it might be for the best.
The CN strike is perfectly legal
CN wants the UTU strike ruled illegal because the local didn’t get the strike authorized by the international. Hilarious.
When a “free vote” is actually not
The Globe and Mail makes me froth. Usually the reporting is good quality, and the writing isn’t atrocious. But should I stray to the editorial pages, as I did this Saturday, the rabies symptoms begin. This time it’s about Wal Mart.
How unions can keep from eating e-dust
Those of us who were pitching web sites to our respective union higher-ups three or four years ago probably stare sleeplessly at the ceiling with alarming regularity, wondering what we’ve gotten ourselves into now that many of us have actually got what we wanted.
