Good News CUPE Fans

[Frank Dixon]

The right to collective bargaining, along with opening up the voting privilege, began to be established in the Western world in the 1800s. It was future Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King (1874-1950; PM 1919-21, 1923-26, 1926-30, 1935-1948) who assisted the extraordinarily wealthy Rockefeller family with a horrendous labour situation in their Colorado mines in the 1910s; unsafe working conditions, low wages, high profits, no collective bargaining rights, and several worker deaths were all the central features of that dispute. King, one of the very first practitioners in the emerging field of industrial relations, had been the first Canadian minister of Labour circa 1909, in the Wilfrid Laurier government, and was a civil servant in the same department before that. King put his ideas together in his dull but very important 1918 book 'Industry and Humanity'; still important today, perhaps never so much as now. The book set forth progressive policies which became reality during the following 50 years. mostly enacted by Liberal governments, spurred at times by the CCF and NDP.

While the so-called 'Notwithstanding Clause' is enshrined in our 1982 Constitution, it was never intended for the use which Ontario Premier Doug Ford is putting it to now, with the CUPE crisis. He has been known as anti-union for many years, but suppressed this during the COVID pandemic, and then until after he was re-elected in June 2022. He may be getting more than he bargained for with his tactics.

[Tom O'Donnell]

Agreed. I think of working as mercenary. As a self-employed person, I get paid to work and can get terminated at any time for any reason. Or no reason at all. So should everyone else.

[Dilip Panjwani]

I think the words "freedom" and "fundamental rights" don't mean the same for Trudeau as they do for many people. Freedom of assembly, freedom to travel in-country, freedom to keep your business open, etc.

I'm going to assume the anti-freedom people are okay with what Ford has done. After all, it's an emergency, as defined by ... Ford.

People love big government until that same government does something they don't like. Hypocritical governments voted in by hypocritical individuals.

Ford's emergency or not, workers have a fundamental right to stop working after a reasonable notice period... what they do not have is the right to prevent employers from hiring others to replace them in that scenario...

[Tom O'Donnell]

I think the words "freedom" and "fundamental rights" don't mean the same for Trudeau as they do for many people. Freedom of assembly, freedom to travel in-country, freedom to keep your business open, etc.

I'm going to assume the anti-freedom people are okay with what Ford has done. After all, it's an emergency, as defined by ... Ford.

People love big government until that same government does something they don't like. Hypocritical governments voted in by hypocritical individuals.

[Dilip Panjwani]

Justin Trudeau has tweeted:

"I spoke with national union leaders this morning about the Ontario government’s inappropriate preemptive use of the notwithstanding clause, which undermines the fundamental rights and freedoms of workers. Our government stands firmly with our country’s workers."

Justin Trudeau is certainly a leader I think of as a defender of freedom and fundamental rights.

Ha-hah! :-)

[Bob Armstrong]

But will the Canadian government join in the coming court application to declare the Ontario PC government's "No Right to Strike" legislation invalid?

~ Bob A (T-S/P)

[Tom O'Donnell]

Justin Trudeau has tweeted:

"I spoke with national union leaders this morning about the Ontario government’s inappropriate preemptive use of the notwithstanding clause, which undermines the fundamental rights and freedoms of workers. Our government stands firmly with our country’s workers."

Justin Trudeau is certainly a leader I think of as a defender of freedom and fundamental rights.