FACE TO FACE: Is the Stephen Harper Conservative government anti-labour?
Is Canada's Conservative government anti-labour? Are a frog's ears waterproof?
Not only are Stephen Harper's Conservatives anti-labour, they are openly and proudly so, anti-labour and disdainful of collective bargaining rights.
Having first kicked the tires of their new majority government by aligning Canada's foreign policy with that of the U.S., Prime Minister Harper's Tories are now further emulating their southern mentors by getting tough with Canadian labour.
Lisa Raitt, minister of labour, is responsible for this, the anti-labour square of the Tory political sudoku, and she's perfect for the job. She's new to politics, perky and female (thus more conciliatory, of course). Her mother is a union member and her father a former union negotiator. Wow, she must really be objective. It doesn't get any better than that.
But the veneer of objectivity with which Ms. Raitt began has dissolved, revealing the Tory, anti-labour pressboard beneath.
Ms. Raitt's opening gambit was to legislate postal workers back to work with an imposed wage increase even less than the employer offered. Far from being a prudent referee in a tough dispute, she publicly supported the company against the workers.
Next, Ms. Raitt tackled Air Canada ticket agents, whom she threatened with back-to-work legislation after only a few days on strike and no flight interruptions - again, openly taking an anti-worker stance.
She then set her sights on Air Canada's flight attendants, whose dispute she referred to the Labour Relations Board before they even had a chance to paint a picket sign.
Perhaps interim Liberal leader Bob Rae best described Raitt's anti-worker interventions when he said: "When the only thing in your toolbox is a sledgehammer, everything starts to look like a rock."
The fact that Prime Minister Harper has a labour minister willing to trample collective bargaining rights in private labour disputes shows just how anti-labour his Tory government is.
But beyond the Conservatives' open anti-worker bias in labour disputes, nothing says anti-labour like seven successive years of cutting corporate taxes.
Give money to the rich guys, blame the resulting loss of revenue on the poor guys. Cut poor guys' salaries and jobs to replace the money given to rich guys. Repeat to tolerance.
Face to Face columnist Jim Nelson is a retired Tri-City teacher and principal who lives in Port Moody. He has contributed a number of columns on education-related issues to The Tri-City News.
