AreGoneVille
Interesting piece, for all kinds of reasons, under Nick Eagland's byline in today's VSun.
Mr. Eagland starts his piece with high level (a.k.a. superficial) reportage of John Horgan's address to the BCGEU yesterday.
Then, with the lede out of the way, the piece veers off into stuff Mr. Horgan did not talk about:
...In May, before the NDP formed an alliance with the B.C. Green party, Horgan told the editorial boards of the Vancouver Sun and The Province that an NDP government would review the labour code, with the intention to remove the current rule that sees employees who want to unionize take a vote by secret ballot.
Employers have said it’s key to preventing workers from being intimidated by co-workers into union certification. Horgan said he prefers a system called card check, in which a union is certified if a majority of members sign union cards.
“I believe that the right to join a union is a fundamental right in Canada and I believe card check is an appropriate way for that happen,” he (Horgan) told the board...
Hmmmmm....
Wonder if Mr. Eagland was actually in the room for Horgan's meeting with the VSun editorial board?
Or.
Did that VSun 'report' reporting on past goings on at the VSun instead come from the 'with files from Rob Shaw' tagline?
But I digress....
Because the piece next ignores the history of when and why the card check came into being before it takes a turn down an alley labelled paranoia:
...Horgan wasn’t made available to media following his address Friday. Shane Simpson, the NDP MLA for Vancouver-Hastings who was labour critic before the election, said the party remains “quite supportive” of card-check certification...
And, as for that big, scary, bogeyman?
Well....
Cracks In The Coalition!
...Asked whether he believes the Greens would be on board with a move to card-check certification, Simpson said he believes “they’re happy to be part of the conversation” regarding any changes to the labour code, Workers Compensation Act or Employment Standards Act...
As you might expect the 'reader' reactions in the comment thread attached to the piece are predictable, because....'Democracy'.
Or some such thing.
****
Look.
The upshot here is that, as Lotusland's most experienced labour reporter notes, a card check system is the best way to remove employer intimidation when it comes to labour organizing.
Which leads to increased rates of unionization.
And that means increased standards of living for everyone.
Not to mention increased public awareness and public education and all that (more on that in tomorrow's post).
All of which are things that all that dark money behind the ICBA, Resource Works, CC4BC, The Fraser Institute and all the other bought-and-paid-for shillophants is really against.
OK?
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Previous 'This Doomed Day In Clarkland' (TDDIC) posts are...Here.
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8 comments:
"Employers have said it’s key to preventing workers from being intimidated by co-workers into union certification."
Since when did Employers become the protectors of employees rights to join a union? Where is the backgrounder from Eagland on what the Employers have said? Have the Employers thrown out the Regulations on Bullying?
BTW RossK ... a typo its an A not a U in NICK Eagland
Nick Eagland's Bio
http://www.nickeagland.com/
I live in Vancouver, B.C.
I'm the morning reporter at The Province and Vancouver Sun.
Lately, I've been carefully ??? covering the overdose crisis.
I make short films. I'm learning how to code.
neagland@postmedia.com
Fixed.
Thanks, as usual, NVG!
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the usual load of post-media *crap*. Who read this anymore?!
I was at the BCGEU convention when John Horgan spoke. Members were very happy to see him: smart, straight-forward and principled.
Can't wait to see some good governance in this province after 16 years of corruption and incompetence.
Thanks Anon--
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with ever greater income inequity Unions need to be here and they need to be able to organize and the card check system works best. anything else and the employer starts bullying. Just ask any organizer.
In the mid 1970s they started building and selling apartments in Kits. They cost $34K. A lot of us were making $25K. In 1971 you could purchase a split level for $25k on a quarter of an acre. You could purchase that on a teacher's salary. Today that lot is almost 2 million. Teachers are making approx. $70K. Yes we need Unions. Anywhere in the world where working people make a decent living you have active Unions. Where their is abject poverty Unions are suppressed and their leaders murdered or tossed in jail.
All that happens when Union aren't able to function in a fair manner is corporations make more money while the workers make less and child poverty goes up. Just remember when el gordo fired and broke the collective agreement of 9K hospital cleaners. When the contractors were offering jobs they were at min. wage or a couple of bucks more. And guess what? Child poverty went up in this province. it was the largest mass firing of women in Canadian history.
even if Unions aren't making inroads in some industries, employers wil improve the working conditions, salaries, benefits because they are afraid if they don't the workers will unionize.
https://theleftcoast.ca/2014/05/30/jessica-mcdonald-appointed-ceo-b-c-hydro/
Yes, historically Unionization has done more for balancing the economic equation than any other type of "worker system." Most other non union methods, it is the employer or industry that controls the workers. Without unionism, the capitalist system takes over and burys the worker eventually into serfdom. With lax labour, employment and regulatory standards, you end up with a third world Orwellian nightmare for workers, with virtually no way of reform, or modification. As wealth and power accrues to the employers, the wealthy and the elites, the rest are left to wallow in low wages, little or non existent benefits, and poor employment opportunities.
The period after world war 2 till the early 1980's, was marked by union strength, and a system that worked far better for the common man. Reaganism, Thatcherism and the rise of deregulation, along with resergance of the Republican doctrines, led us to the mess we are in now.
http://www.straight.com/news/926171/martyn-brown-pouring-cold-water-bc-liberals-deathbed-repentance
(a horse a horse my kingdom for a horse-oh a unicorn will do though?)
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