Why I'm glad I immigrated, part N

[jazzfish]

Supreme Court rules Wal-Mart must compensate workers at closed Quebec store: "The store shut down a few months after the 190 workers became the first Wal-Mart employees in North America to be unionized in 2004."

(You may, if you wish, compare and contrast this decision with almost any recent decision by the US Supreme Court.)

Something I've noticed: there are unions in Canada that will actually go on strike. Since I've been here I've noticed: the Post Office, a month after we got here. (Ended badly: the union staged 'rolling strikes' of roughly one spot per day to make a statement while not inconveniencing anyone too much, management responded by locking out *all* postal workers and then blaming it on 'the strike,' and the gov't signed back-to-work legislation.); truckers at the Port of Vancouver, sick of making no money while sitting around waiting for the Port to unload/load. (An agreement was reached; the Port is dragging its feet on implementing its end, and the truckers are making more strike noises.); and BC teachers, currently ongoing.

American individualism is American exceptionalism taken to ridiculous extremes. The idea that helping everyone else get ahead means that everyone else is dragging us down may be the most pernicious I've ever heard. It's certainly up there with "the rich deserve their money" and "work good, pleasure bad."

There's certainly some of that attitude up here, but there's still some leftover pushback against it too. It's nice to see.

Comments

[rbandrews]

I was always under the impression that a strike means something has gone horribly wrong, somewhere: the union and the company should be able to negotiate an agreement before they have to strike.

[shanaqui]

Well, that's an ideal world, isn't it? But the terms one is willing to offer another aren't always acceptable. It's a good sign that unions still feel able to push back, generally. (Could be a bad sign if it's the unions being unacceptable; there's some of that sentiment about the train strikes in Belgium at the moment. But that's more down to the individual union, I think, not corporate/government culture, which is more pernicious.)

(My family were coal miners in Wales until pretty much the last generation before mine. Strong feelings on unions, here.)

[jazzfish]

It's my understanding that there are no North American unions left that are strong enough to make unacceptable demands. (Also, 'unacceptable to whom.' I occasionally make the rookie mistake of reading the comments on some of the news stories about the BC teachers strike, and the number of people appalled that teachers expect to be PAID is truly depressing.)

[jazzfish]

I do tend to think of strikes as being a last resort, because nobody wants that: management doesn't want to lose days of productivity, the workers don't want to lose wages. But management can generally afford to absorb the hit from lost productivity. For workers living paycheck to paycheck it's a lot more serious. So I figure, if it's gotten bad enough that the workers are willing to a) go without wages and b) take the PR hit (these days all strikes are framed as 'those greedy workers'), it must be something pretty serious.

In the case of both the truckers and the BC teachers strike, management has gone all Darth Vader on them: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."