Tag Archives: China

Anti-Union Thuggery

Posted on by
14

Can you smell that?

A slightly, sulphurous scent with just a hint of nutmeg, I believe. Nutmeg?  No. More like frangipane.

The unmistakable odor of anti-unionism.

Here we are, 2+ years into the biggest financial clusterfuck in nearly 8 decades, and the overwhelming conventional wisdom has it that it’s all because of those privileged, fat cat, parasitic unions. More specifically, public sector unions. All levels of government coffers have been sucked dry by the relentlessly rapacious demands of their unionized public servants. Enough is enough. It’s time that we decent, upstanding, put-upon non-unionists start pushing back. We don’t have job security. We don’t have pensions. We don’t get overtime pay. We’re not given two months off every summer… Man, wouldn’t that be sweet. Wonder how we could get us some of that? Maybe, a group of us get together, organized style. Go to our boss—No wait. Correct answer is: if I can’t have it neither can anyone else! Just like in grade school. You can chew gum in class as long as you’ve brought enough for everyone else.

The full frontal assault is now well under way south of the border as a host of state legislatures look to enact measures ranging from massive layoffs to outright de-certification of public sector unions. It’s a battle played out in real time over the holidays in New York City after it was buried under snow between Christmas and New Years. After serious problems clearing the snow and getting the city moving again, allegations arose in the Rupert Murdoch owned New York Post from “unnamed sources” that the city’s sanitation union, smarting from cutbacks, directed members to drag their heals in doing their jobs as sort of payback. Never mind the 300-400 less bodies in the department to do the actual snow removal. Never mind the mayor’s reticence in declaring an emergency situation; itself a possible product of a hesitancy brought on by a desire to keep costs down. Never mind that surrounding municipalities not subject to the alleged union order work slowdown but under similar financial duress had trouble contending with the storm as well. It was the union’s fault which a subsequent investigation will surely reveal.

Such anti-union rumblings resonate up here, too. Despite proclaiming himself a fiscal warrior, Mayor Rob Ford led the charge last month to get a vote passed in council to ask the province to declare the TTC an essential service which would take away its workers’ right to strike. Never mind that this could cost the city more down the road in terms of mediated settlements. It’s the opening salvo in what is increasingly looking like contentious upcoming union battles the mayor is preparing himself for.

Which is just good politics if not good governance. Everyone has a story to tell about just how corrupt/inept/diabolical unions are. All those workers hanging around, perched on their shovels, filling in one pothole. Physical intimidation of the poor, trembling public at picket lines. That sleeping TTC ticket taker! Could you believe that? Yeah, the union said he was sick or some bullshit like that… What? He died!? What was the union doing, forcing a sick man to work?! It’s the union’s fault!

And if you yourself don’t have a personal anti-union anecdote to contribute to the conversation, you need not look any further than the media to provide you with one.

Witness “Dragon” Kevin O’Leary. Making out just fine on not 1 but 2 shows on the publicly funded CBC, he cannot mask his contempt for unions, calling them ‘evil’ earlier this week on his O’Leary and That Other One Report. Evil? Why? Their labour and legacy costs have been the wrack and ruin of the North American car industry and given China a distinct advantage in the automobile market. Apparently it was because the companies had to keep paying the unions more and more that they were forced to keep building bigger and bigger cars and trucks.

Or how about “There’s Not A Right Wing Shibboleth I Couldn’t Write An Incomprehensible Screed About” Sue-Ann Levy of the Toronto Sun. Her piece from last week is a check list of heads that must roll and kneecaps that must be busted for City Hall to get its fiscal house in order because, as you know, the place doesn’t have a revenue problem, it’s got a spending problem. The main culprits? Hint: unions and their ‘mob bosses’. Ms. Levy hits that note twice so that even Sun readers couldn’t possible miss the implied innuendo. Mob = mobster = gangster = criminal = should be in jail. She throws in a ‘dictatorial’ descriptor as well to suggest that unions are anti-democratic.

This is nothing less than class warfare. More sadly, it’s class civil war with the middle and lower classes at each other’s throats over an ever decreasing slice of the economic pie brought on by 30 years of upward redistribution of wealth. The public purse has been ransacked by a frenzied rush to the bottom of tax cuts and the movement of our manufacturing base overseas in the name of unfettered, under-regulated, free market globalization. With the occasional bailout of industries deemed too big to fail. Yet somehow, it’s all the unions’ and our public sectors’ fault.

Such easy scapegoating is indicative of moral cowardice on our part. We know who’s to blame for the financial straits we are currently facing but engaging the real culprits is a much bigger, nastier battle than we’re willing to be a part of. So instead, we turn on easier targets, making ourselves feel better in the process but doing absolutely nothing to solve our problems.

— submitted by Cityslikr

The Enthusiasm Gap

Posted on by
1

What exactly would it take to get what is essentially the other half of eligible voters out to cast a ballot?

I ask because in the past 10 days or so, we here in Toronto have participated in and born witness to a couple notable elections, let us call them. Hotly contested affairs with nasty slinging of mud and fundamental questions about the kind of government we want. Yet, only in and around 50% of those eligible to vote came out to do so.

Big increases from previous elections, you’ll say. A record number in post-amalgamated Toronto, nearly 53%, up about 14% from 2006. On Tuesday, just over 41% turned out, the highest for U.S. midterms since 1982.

Where was everybody else? If these two elections could not stir a massive majority of the population up and out of their La-Z-Boys or away from the gaming consoles, what will? In the States, there were candidates openly questioning Constitutional amendments. Here, it was a pitched battle between two diametrically opposed visions of the kind of city we want to live in. Nosing up on high drama, I might offer, and still, nearly 48% of those who could vote in Toronto chose not to. Almost 3 out of 5 Americans opted out of exercising their democratic right.

I lace up my empathy shoes and perform a tolerance tango in an attempt to understand what exactly de-motivates people from voting but come up empty. I’m so busy. I had to get the kids to cello practice. I work 3 jobs. Who has the time? My vote doesn’t really matter. Politicians, they’re all the same.

None of it washes. The political burdens of being a member of a 21st-century free society are far from heavy. Not much is asked of us. Showing up for even a couple hours if need be every other year or every 4th year is not really all that onerous. Hell, I’m not even asking for voters to be all that informed although it would help.

I pay taxes! How much more do you want from me?

That’s a commercial exchange, really. Money paid for services rendered. As our mayor-elect says, it’s all about respect (or not) for taxpayers. Voting is what a citizen does.

I took in Inside Job last night, a documentary about the financial meltdown that brought us to the current Great Recession. One of the take away messages I got from it was that our democracy has been hijacked by special interests, in this case the financial services industry. Money and influence in the form of political contributions and lobbyists constantly guts the will of the people, transforming government into nothing more than a tool of the wealthy and business.

Big surprise. So it is as it always has been. What’s one vote from one little person going to do to change that?

Probably nothing. But sitting at home when the opportunity arises for you to express an opinion will do nothing to alter anything either. Arguably, disengagement from the process only serves to encourage political lawlessness and disregard for well-being of the commonwealth. If you don’t care enough to bother to vote, why would those intent on bending democracy to do their bidding worry about the repercussions of their actions? Non-voters actively collaborate in the corruption of the system.

Those who chose not to vote (or forget or simply can’t be bothered) are as much enemies of the body-politic as those seeking to undermine it for their own gain. Societal parasites leaving the heavy lifting of democracy to their friends, family and neighbours who do find the time and inclination to cast a ballot. It’s nothing more than a big fuck you to everyone else trying to make this thing run right. Deciding not to vote doesn’t constitute a statement or political stance. It just signals to everyone that you simply don’t care enough to be slightly inconvenienced. It’s a mockery to all those coming before us who fought for the very right to do what you are now neglecting to do and to those throughout the world still struggling and dying for that right that you shrug off.

People shouldn’t need to be chided for not voting. No law should be necessary making it compulsory to vote. Nor should blame be laid at the feet our politicians or system for not engaging voters enough to get them to do what they should reflexively do as citizens. Voting is not merely a right. It is a responsibility. By shirking that responsibility, non-voters work in cahoots with the predators operating and scheming to undercut the democratic principles that differentiate us from the despotic regimes that deny the most basic of human rights.

If the only voting you take part in is that of Canadian Idol, there should be an exchange program to send you over for a spell in Iran or China or Myanmar (or any other place where voting really doesn’t matter) and bring us people who know what it’s like to exist without an opportunity to have a say in how the government works.

— sanctimoniously submitted by Cityslikr

Smitherman’s Desperate Ploy

Posted on by
4

First, mayoral candidate George Smitherman flit over to China to attend a meeting of mayors although he had yet to be duly elected as such. Now he’s decided the time has come for a one-on-one debate with Rob Ford without outside distractions like, well, the 30+ other registered candidates in the running. It seems that George Smitherman will stop at nothing to become the next mayor of Toronto short of actually campaigning effectively for the office.

Presumption aside, it proves beyond the shadow of a doubt just how much of a bully Smitherman is. I mean, who wouldn’t want to debate Rob Ford one-on-one? It’s like picking on the slowest, dumbest kid in the schoolyard. Yes, some polls have him as the front runner right now but that’s only because no one else – including George Smitherman – has stepped up and delivered a compelling reason to vote for them. Ford is simply filling the vacuum with his focused rage at all the neo-conservative shibboleths that resonate with underthinkers. Overtaxed! Out of control spending! Bureaucrats!

Despite becoming more of a target now that his rivals are taking his candidacy seriously, Ford thrives in the present debate format. Like a whack-a-mole, he pops up every now and then to spout off bits and pieces of his anti-government tirade usually in non sequitur format before going back underground to avoid his opponents’ flurry of mallets. Perfect scattershot delivery for the sound bite age.

What could Rob Ford possibly have to gain granting more open and undiluted access? Sure, he’d assume the mantle of the lone right wing standard bearer but doesn’t he have that already? The entire mayoral field save maybe Don Andrews has bestowed that honour on him. If he turns Smitherman down, he might be perceived by his followers as running scared, poking holes in his football coach bluster. How would it go over in Ford country if they started thinking he was afraid of some fruit?

But the downside dwarves these concerns. Just him, Smitherman and a host, say for an hour. How many times can Ford talk about Kyle Rae’s retirement party or cutting council in half or killing City Hall’s indoor plants before he starts sounding devoid of any meaningful ideas? George Smitherman: So far, Councillor Ford, you’ve cut $25 million from the annual operating budget at City Hall. Not even close to a single, solitary percent of it. Now what are you going to cut? Hmm? Hmmmm?? Rob Ford: [harrumph, harrumph, harrumph, turning redder and redder] Errrr.. errrr.. errrr.. eHealth scandal! Tax and spend Liberal!! You went to Kyle Rae’s retirement party on the taxpayers’ dime!!! Probably danced with him, too!!!!!Nope, there’s absolutely no reason for Rob Ford to agree to a one-on-one debate proposal. Not with Smitherman. Not with any other candidate. He’s the perceived front runner and it’s his prerogative to decline. Ford’s in the driver’s seat right now and a desperate George Smitherman is attempting to bait him out of his comfort zone.

Smitherman’s also displaying a disturbing anti-democratic streak with this maneuver. Caught in a dog fight with an unexpected opponent, he’s trying to end run the electoral process, using some spin and optics to give the impression of it being only a two man race. Ford’s got the far off centre right vote sewn up while Smitherman’s splitting the soft centre right with Rocco Rossi and Sarah Thomson. Unable to differentiate himself from those two with solid policies ideas and a vision of leadership, he’s now trying to bulldoze his way with little regard for an open, varied and democratic debate.

What exactly does this say about the prospects of a Mayor George Smitherman? All politics with no governance? He is clearly trying to win this thing by setting up a situation where people vote not for him but against the other guy, in this case, Rob Ford. If he’s successful, then what? With no particular agenda or mandate, the city just flounders on a choppy sea of posturing, politics and horse trading. Pretty much the same scenario as that of a lone wolf Rob Ford mayoralty. Four years of inane bickering and inaction.

Nothing good can come of this. So do us all a favour, Rob Ford, ignore George Smitherman’s throw down. It won’t help your chances and, more importantly, it won’t do Toronto any good either.

— hopefully helpfully submitted by Cityslikr