Trudeau declares his strong support for the union movement

When the Liberals could have helped adopt an anti-scab provision for federal workers under the Canada Labour Code, they chose not to. 

http://rabble.ca/news/anti-scab-legislation-killed

Of course Dias is saying that. He probably wrote the statement.

He desperately needs something from Trudeau in order justify selling out his members once again and supporting the bankers, as they lunch on Ontario Hydro. More importantly, since Paul Moist from CUPE national has denounced Leadnow's "vote together" campaign while calling the NDP the "only progressive party", Dias and his pal Sid Ryan, need something to justify CLC and OFL support for a "strategic voting" campaign. If they can create positional deadlock in the organization, then they think they can once again foist another bogus "stop Hudak" campaign, except against Harper, on the union movement by default.

But with the sale of Ontario Hydro, Trudeau's attack on labour rights contained in his support for C-51, and the NDPs support for a $15 minimum wage for federal workers, I think it will be an uphill battle to bring CUPE on side.

When is OFL going to dump Sid Ryan?

So few of us are in unions now it hardly matters what any politician says about unions. Perhaps there are some civil service power bases that Trudeau is calling in. Opportunistic union leaders will always jump on the Liberal bandwagon, as it screws the NDP, and helps the Liberal-Conservative Clownocracy and their friends like Don Drummond. These union leaders and politicians and business people make such fantastic sums of money it is hard for a low-income person to comprehend.

It is corporatism, the economic form of fascism. As far as they are concerned, we are merely voting fodder and economic slaves.

Trudeau as Liberal leader is fast becoming a national joke.   He appears to agree with Harper on most things, refuses to work with Mulcair, and then comes out in support of uinions.  This glad handing opportunist is out of control and obviously winging it.   He leads the party caught between the two parties that have real integrity, political identity, and offer genuine alternatives.   The LPC is a political redundancy and this is its last gasp.

I would love to hear what the eminent Liberal leader has to say about the looming war in the Ukraine, a potential major conflict between the US and Russia, and Harper's shamelsss efforts to lead us into this war.

Unionist wrote:

Trudeau pretends to reach out to unions - and our brilliant babblers start attacking unions.

What's wrong with this picture?

 

Because a union's first obligation, check that, only obligation is to support the NDP.

Debater wrote:

Unionist wrote:

Trudeau pretends to reach out to unions - and our brilliant babblers start attacking unions.

What's wrong with this picture?

He's not pretending to reach out to unions, he actually is reaching out to unions.

The Liberals do not believe in trying to destroy unions like the Conservatives do.

Of course not if they don't say anything and spend their members money supporting Liberals, everything is just fine. Mind you, those that get out of line a subject to becoming "essential services" like ATU-113, or having pre-emptive "back to work" legislzation imposed on them like with Bill 115 in Ontario.

Speaking of which, when is Trudeau going to start distancing himself from the Wynne Liberals, in an effort to salvage votes in Ontario?

epaulo13 wrote:

Quote:

He's not pretending to reach out to unions, he actually is reaching out to unions.

Jerry needs ammo in the back rooms to justify supporting Liberal candidates in his already announced "ABC" "Stop Harper" campaing. After the great "success" of their "Stop Hudak" campaign, Sid Ryan all but announced that they were going to try to do the same federally. Since then the Liberal brand in Ontario has been severely damaged by non-stop agressive austerity by the government Jerry and Sid like to think they helped elect, and CUPE has basically declared for the NDP.

In the backrooms of the union offices, Jerry needs something to be able waylay the "prospect" of a straight up NDP endorsement from the OFL or the CLC, and in order to do this, Trudeau needed to say something "pro-union" to bring political gridlock to the labour movement, so they will end up endorsing ABC voting by default.

Jerry wrote the talking points, surely.

Well... I guess the honeymoon is over.....

Trudeau courtship of labour at odds with Liberal criticism of NDP union office

I support the right to collective bargaining. I do not support corporatism, which is when union leaders collude with the government and industry. Attacking corporatism is not attacking unions.

The problem is that many of us low-income people have been left behind in the advance of the labour movement. We are thrown under the bus. Unions have done nothing in the supply chain to help. Which they could have, a long time ago.

Perhaps there is no imaginative and progressive thinking in unions, which is why the dispossessed just see another group of greed.

I hold more or less completely the opposite opinion.

While on the surface it may seem that unions don't do anything for "the rest of us", people are really misguided in believing such. Indeed, in there very essence many remain as independent democratic institutions that are foundational to participatory democracy, giving voice to persons who otherwise would have none, and opening up areas of discourse in society that is increasingly closed.

But, even if we assume for a minute that public sector unions do nothing but support the greed of their constituents and their leadership, the fact remains that even in the very act of "selfishly" defending only their own interests, they hold the line on defending public services, if only because they preserve the professionality of opertations, otherwise "the rest of us", would no doubt be served by student nurse of "volunteer" emergency room intake person, as opposed to a fully trained and qualified nurse.

Moreover, when a union like CUPE puts half a million dollars into a campaign to stop the privatization of Hydro One, they are most certainly serving a broaders public mandate, even if some might think that is simply for the sake of good public relations -- in fact, the motive is pretty much irrelevant, it is the fact that they do it that matters, whatever the reason.

Actually, its you who isn't doing enough, but that is another story. You entirely support unions neutering their ability to act on the political stage by feebly tying themselves to the political fortunes of elected politicians for the sake of expediency, not principle, with so called "strategic voting", and other shams.

ah The same Trudeau that said on last BC Election night  that Christy Clark winning was great for working people? lol lol

Being a voice of the people is one thing, but being a stalwart defender of the services that support the people in the public sector they function to defend the quality of life for all. Indeed, even if we accept the premise that the nursing unions were entirely selfish, and concerned only for the welfare of their constituents and union leaders, they are still doing the general public a great service by ensuring that a fully trained and experienced triage nurse will be the person who determines the priority of your case in the emergency ward of the hospital, and not a volunteer student trainee nurse, which is what would save management money.

Think about it.

The public sector unions are the first line of defense against the privatization of public service, for private profit, which is why the neo-liberals are so intent on getting rid of them.

Thanks, swallow - here's an English-language report:

[url=http://metronews.ca/news/canada/1357708/unions-step-up-criticism-of-trud... step up criticism of Justin Trudeau Liberals[/url]

Quote:

Two more union leaders are accusing Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau of hypocrisy on labour rights.

Unifor national president Jerry Dias and CLC president Hassan Yussuff have joined the chorus of union leaders who are furious that Liberals have criticized New Democrats for providing parliamentary office space to their staffers’ union local.

They’ve sent letters to Trudeau denouncing the Liberal move, following the lead of three other unions — the United Food and Commercial Workers, United Steelworkers and Canadian Union of Public Employees.

In his letter, Dias says Liberal House leader Dominic LeBlanc’s denunciation of the practice is “completely unacceptable” and leaves the impression that “workers’ rights can be disregarded in the cause of cheap political theatre.”

Yussuff says LeBlanc’s criticism “doesn’t square” with Trudeau’s recent efforts to court the labour movement.

Bravo, brothers Dias and Yussuff!

You see, real trade unionists are capable of judging politicians by what they say and do - rather than by what colours they wear.

Some of our babble cheerleaders should perhaps watch, learn, and emulate.