David, I'm surprised you didn't think this through. Every NDP MP could vote against B2W legislation and the Liberals will still get it passed because the worker-friendly Tories will support anything that attacks unions. And that will be enough for Jagmeet because he did all he could as a political representative. He won't tell every NDP constituency organization to set up picket support for PSAC members. These workers aren't ready to defy Parliament until their leadership actually gets them a deal they actually want. They need all the support they can get to stay out until Treasury Board caves.
Class-struggle unionism is what the NDP was born to avoid. Ruling classes have been turning to social democracy for almost a century to save capitalism from socialist revolution. Jagmeet is hewing to that course.
I haven't read your Jacobin article so I don't know if you pulled the same punches as you did here. Your class analysis has kept your panel commentaries sharper than everyone. You're the token leftie in English Cdn MSM now that Rick Salutin is gone. Your critiques of liberal mush are welcome. Now you can more. You have an opportunity to give class struggle unionism and revolutionary ideas a place in the English Cdn discourse. This substack message could be tweaked so that your MSM content links to ideas that can win the better world you and me want.
By backing out of the C&S agreement it leaves Liberals exposed. NDP could simply vote against B2W legislation and be able to keep their heads held high because they stuck to their mandate as a party but did they really do all they could for the country? How many people would see through that? Will people remember that during the next election? 150K votes is a lot to gamble with.
The strongest card NDP have to play here on behalf of union workers (which NDP are by nature pro-union) is to threaten to back out of the C&S agreement.
David doesn’t do class analysis, he just says the words “class” “material” and economy a lot and peppers it with some takedowns of everybody’s favourite billionaire whipping boys Elon and Gaylen. He is here to neuter real class consciousness. The only Canadian is see who is awake to class is Dimitri Lascaris(sp?). The real deal can be found with folks like Norm Finkelstein, Aaron Goode or even Jimmy Dore! Stay away from this guy if you don’t want to be fed liberal socdem propaganda.
You're absolutely right David. How can the NDP maintain the C&S agreement after such a naked assault on collective bargaining. Back to work legislation is equivalent to carpet bombing worker rights.
That said,... what‘s the magic number? Inflation+5% real increase, with a COLA over the contract life? What if market forces push prices beyond the ability of any employer to mitigate at the bargaining table?
So you know what? The government will be reasonable though as they don't want to precipitate an electoral disaster splitting the progressive vote before an early election.
The rabid right is unified, stoked by Skippy's hate Trudeau, hate the Liberals, hate institutions of governance & expertise. If they win the next election Canada will change for the worse irrevocably
They represent an existential threat to Canadian Democracy that must be extinguished by a one term Unity Coalition with a set manifesto of shared ambitions & goals for the nation during their government
Don't usually disagree but if that happens Jagmeet is done and most likely the NDP as well. A Poilievre government will do so much damage to the country that all people will remember is who enabled it. They won't look at the Liberals. Jagmeet has made a point of putting it in people's heads that the Liberals survive thanks to NDP support. He'll take all the blame for the ensuing disaster a Poilievre government will be and rightly so. He knows the risk and if he's willing (as he was with O'Toole) to play footsie's with the CPC then he and his party deserve the blowback.
"But what if they don’t? And what if they rely on the back-to-work legislation Singh says he opposes? If it comes to that, the NDP should put the Liberals on notice that they intend to end their bargain, which is meant to keep the minority government standing until the 2025, and let the chips fall where they may." Let's hope it doesn't come to that because where the chips fall may be very bad indeed if we head into another election.
"The risk, of course, is that the Liberals proceed with back-to-work bullying anyway, and the risk of the government falling rises — which is to say the risk of an election, which no one wants right now, goes up. So do the chances of a Conservative government coming to power. That could perhaps affect flawed but better-than-the-status-quo efforts, such as the new dental care program. If the Liberals wish to avoid this, and presumably they do, they can give workers what they want and deserve." In the scenario you have sketched out, I wonder how the prospect of a non-confidence vote and an early election leading to a decidedly public sector union-unfriendly Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre might affect the negotiating strategies of both sides at the bargaining table. Might it prompt PSAC to put some water in its wine? Any views?
As a former (and perhaps future) federal public servant, I am sympathetic to PSAC's wage demands -- and the gap between what PSAC is asking for and what the government is offering is not huge -- but on the issue of remote work, PSAC may have misjudged the public's mood and the federal government's willingness to make concessions & thus and may have to put some water in its wine.
If it doesn't, it may put the NDP in a rather difficult position: to what extent will Singh and the NDP be prepared to continue to back PSAC if the strike drags on over the issue of remote work and unprocessed passports and the like pile up?
They fed employees are entitled to a fair wage settlement. I am not certain as to other working condition demands are on the table for their contract. No seems to be talking about it, but I am certain they exist.
Bottle of whisky that they don't do anything. This ain't Ed Broadbent's NDP.
Cynic 😉
I guess we’re about to find out just how much of a workers party the federal NDP actually is.
David, I'm surprised you didn't think this through. Every NDP MP could vote against B2W legislation and the Liberals will still get it passed because the worker-friendly Tories will support anything that attacks unions. And that will be enough for Jagmeet because he did all he could as a political representative. He won't tell every NDP constituency organization to set up picket support for PSAC members. These workers aren't ready to defy Parliament until their leadership actually gets them a deal they actually want. They need all the support they can get to stay out until Treasury Board caves.
Class-struggle unionism is what the NDP was born to avoid. Ruling classes have been turning to social democracy for almost a century to save capitalism from socialist revolution. Jagmeet is hewing to that course.
I haven't read your Jacobin article so I don't know if you pulled the same punches as you did here. Your class analysis has kept your panel commentaries sharper than everyone. You're the token leftie in English Cdn MSM now that Rick Salutin is gone. Your critiques of liberal mush are welcome. Now you can more. You have an opportunity to give class struggle unionism and revolutionary ideas a place in the English Cdn discourse. This substack message could be tweaked so that your MSM content links to ideas that can win the better world you and me want.
By backing out of the C&S agreement it leaves Liberals exposed. NDP could simply vote against B2W legislation and be able to keep their heads held high because they stuck to their mandate as a party but did they really do all they could for the country? How many people would see through that? Will people remember that during the next election? 150K votes is a lot to gamble with.
The strongest card NDP have to play here on behalf of union workers (which NDP are by nature pro-union) is to threaten to back out of the C&S agreement.
David doesn’t do class analysis, he just says the words “class” “material” and economy a lot and peppers it with some takedowns of everybody’s favourite billionaire whipping boys Elon and Gaylen. He is here to neuter real class consciousness. The only Canadian is see who is awake to class is Dimitri Lascaris(sp?). The real deal can be found with folks like Norm Finkelstein, Aaron Goode or even Jimmy Dore! Stay away from this guy if you don’t want to be fed liberal socdem propaganda.
David is sheepdog going the left away from socialism. That’s his job.
*sheepdogging the left away
You're absolutely right David. How can the NDP maintain the C&S agreement after such a naked assault on collective bargaining. Back to work legislation is equivalent to carpet bombing worker rights.
That said,... what‘s the magic number? Inflation+5% real increase, with a COLA over the contract life? What if market forces push prices beyond the ability of any employer to mitigate at the bargaining table?
So you know what? The government will be reasonable though as they don't want to precipitate an electoral disaster splitting the progressive vote before an early election.
The rabid right is unified, stoked by Skippy's hate Trudeau, hate the Liberals, hate institutions of governance & expertise. If they win the next election Canada will change for the worse irrevocably
They represent an existential threat to Canadian Democracy that must be extinguished by a one term Unity Coalition with a set manifesto of shared ambitions & goals for the nation during their government
You had me at “The NDP should...”
Don't usually disagree but if that happens Jagmeet is done and most likely the NDP as well. A Poilievre government will do so much damage to the country that all people will remember is who enabled it. They won't look at the Liberals. Jagmeet has made a point of putting it in people's heads that the Liberals survive thanks to NDP support. He'll take all the blame for the ensuing disaster a Poilievre government will be and rightly so. He knows the risk and if he's willing (as he was with O'Toole) to play footsie's with the CPC then he and his party deserve the blowback.
"But what if they don’t? And what if they rely on the back-to-work legislation Singh says he opposes? If it comes to that, the NDP should put the Liberals on notice that they intend to end their bargain, which is meant to keep the minority government standing until the 2025, and let the chips fall where they may." Let's hope it doesn't come to that because where the chips fall may be very bad indeed if we head into another election.
"The risk, of course, is that the Liberals proceed with back-to-work bullying anyway, and the risk of the government falling rises — which is to say the risk of an election, which no one wants right now, goes up. So do the chances of a Conservative government coming to power. That could perhaps affect flawed but better-than-the-status-quo efforts, such as the new dental care program. If the Liberals wish to avoid this, and presumably they do, they can give workers what they want and deserve." In the scenario you have sketched out, I wonder how the prospect of a non-confidence vote and an early election leading to a decidedly public sector union-unfriendly Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre might affect the negotiating strategies of both sides at the bargaining table. Might it prompt PSAC to put some water in its wine? Any views?
I grant you, from PSAC's perspective, that wine is probably pretty watered down as it is.
As a former (and perhaps future) federal public servant, I am sympathetic to PSAC's wage demands -- and the gap between what PSAC is asking for and what the government is offering is not huge -- but on the issue of remote work, PSAC may have misjudged the public's mood and the federal government's willingness to make concessions & thus and may have to put some water in its wine.
If it doesn't, it may put the NDP in a rather difficult position: to what extent will Singh and the NDP be prepared to continue to back PSAC if the strike drags on over the issue of remote work and unprocessed passports and the like pile up?
Views?
They fed employees are entitled to a fair wage settlement. I am not certain as to other working condition demands are on the table for their contract. No seems to be talking about it, but I am certain they exist.
Remote work is a big one: "The right to work from home is one of the key demands from the federal workers who are striking for a second day, as they were mandated back to the office for at least two days a week prior to walking off the job." https://globalnews.ca/video/9640802/federal-workers-strike-reignites-remote-work-debate/