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Sid Ryan
In tough times, diehard free market disciples can be relied on to do two things: revert to divisive hard-right talk and scapegoat. The poor, unionized workers and those on the margins are common targets for attacks that pander to a base of support and baser emotions, rather than seeking solutions that are best for all people.
So it’s hardly surprising that those who benefited most from the economic boom are now, in the throes of a recession, taking advantage of the nasty public mood and pointing an accusing finger at unionized working men and women.
What’s unique in this recession is how many people, from municipal mayors to a newly minted Ontario political party leader to the usual business lobbyists, want in on the worker-bashing. The chorus is now gaining fever pitch.
It began in earnest following the beginning of the recent legal strike in Toronto by CUPE Locals 416 and 79, but this particular dispute is just the largest and highest-profile of several underway across the province involving public- and private-sector workers.
Municipal workers in Windsor are now entering month three on the picket line, confronted by an employer that wants to strip future generations of workers of the dream of a comfortable, secure retirement.
In Ajax, autoworkers blockaded their plant last week to prevent officials from entering it and removing tools and moulds that are key to their livelihoods. Workers took this drastic action after their employer bankrupted when General Motors and Chrysler stopped paying their bills while under their own bankruptcy protection informed them they wouldn’t receive severance they are entitled to under their collective agreement.
Some have gone so far as to compare these events to Britain’s “Winter of Discontent” in 1978 and 1979.
The comparison is ridiculous.
During Britain’s Winter of Discontent, more than 29 million work days were lost due to strikes and lockouts. In many cases, those workers seeking to protect livelihoods being destroyed by double-digit inflation were striking for wage increases of up to 25 per cent. CUPE members in Windsor and Toronto are basically seeking to hold the line on their wages, benefits and work rules for themselves and future generations of workers.
In Ontario last month, 21 unionized workplaces under provincial jurisdiction were on strike, one fewer than last June and six less than in June 2007.
These labour disputes have far less to do with worker demands and far more to do with governments and business using the economic crisis as a convenient pretext to drive down wages and benefits.
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Workers across the industrialized world are pushing back against an assault on their and future workers’ livelihoods. This assault has ramped up in the past two years, in sync with the global economic crisis.
Working men and women are being told by the architects of this crisis that they should pay the price for the out-of-control behaviour of banks, stock speculators and governments that caused this mess.
That price is too dear. We know what happens when working people are attacked and important public services are slashed to provide lower taxes and multibillion-dollar bailouts for the very wealthy: quality of services decline and important functions performed by public employees suffer.
That they would also seek to pit public-sector workers against private-sector workers, service providers against service users is also not surprising. It conveniently diverts attention from the real causes of this crisis, while fostering a culture of envy, where people who obtained good wages and benefits through decades of collective bargaining are unfairly depicted as greedy, out of touch and out of control.
The workers across Ontario and beyond who are finally pushing back would beg to differ.
