Two strikes, one miss
Two strikes. Both in Canada, both dealing with fields that used to be nationalized. Similar levels of difficulty, from the point of view of employee effort. Similar salary packages. And, very different responses from the federal government. In the case of the postal workers, the minister responsible wants to be informed if there is any change. In the case of the airline workers, back-to-work legislation is imminent, after only twenty-four hours.
So I asked myself, “What’s the difference here?” And in the words of a famous movie line, “Follow the money”. Postage stamps cost pennies, whereas airline tickets cost mucho dinero. Follow the money.
This is wrong, on all levels. A representative from the airline workers put things into a neat little envelope. While negotiating, Air Canada didn’t; the knowledge of a trump card in their half of the deck called “A Law”. If the airline employees are forced to accept binding arbitration, or worse, it sends a dark message to any other group that might hope to fight for labour rights under the new, majority, conservative with a hard heart government.
I know, a birthday card isn’t as important to the Canadian spirit as the chance to ride in a big, shiny airplane. And politicians are just like everyone else: shiny beats letter mail, any day of the week.
CBC tells me that the real point of contention is pension benefits. In both cases, there’s been less than noble efforts actions by the employer to maintain the solvency of the funding envelope. Those envelopes, again. Pity there’s no postal service to help with handling.
