Yep that's the title of a Led Zepplin song, its also the feature stories in todays Toronto Sun. Where reporter Brodie Felon writes about the Chinese Immigrant community, in that city. The articles are on the end of the Head Tax and the tragedy of the failure of Canada to recognize foreign educational and occupational credentials. Both well worth the read, especially the history of exploitation and racism that surrounds the head tax.
The IWW was one of the first inclusive unions to recognize Chinese workers, while other craft unions and even the Knights of Labour shamefully attacked them as 'foreign workers', gee sounds familar.
Oh and for a fun version of the Led Zep song check this out.
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Sunday, May 14, 2006
Better Late Than Never
The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) has finally issued a 'policy paper' on Foreign Temporary Workers. El presidente Gil McGowan states;
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"We will articulate the reasons why importing temporary workers is a case of
exploiting foreign workers to undermine Canadian workers. Everybody loses.
It is critical to note that the labour movement strongly supports
immigration and believes that immigrant workers should be entitled to have
access to the full rights and privileges of all other Canadian workers.
However, we oppose the importation of hundreds of workers just to complete a
job and then sending them back home. That is exploitation."
Which is what the IWW Edmonton Branch said over a year ago when
the Building Trades were attacking temporary workers in a racist nationalist manner.
the Building Trades were attacking temporary workers in a racist nationalist manner.
Also See:
The Labour Shortage Myth
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Right To Work Redux
I have long stated that Alberta has the most restrictive labour laws against unions and in favour of the bosses. Now our pals at the Fraser Institute have released their study that proves it.
Of course being the right wing think tank they are, they approve of Albertas regressive anti-union laws. And of course seeing that the Harpocrites are in power in Ottawa they are hoping to appeal to them to change the Federal labour laws to bring in Right To Work. These guys never give up.
And why should they, with the likes of MP Rob Anders in the back benches,who was their patsy for their last effort in Alberta to promote Right To Work, watch for a private members bill. Luckily for us the Opposition is stronger than the Minority government.
Never say never is the Fraser motto, as they whined about biased labour laws only last August. But then the Harpocrites were only in opposition, now they are in power.
Of course being the right wing think tank they are, they approve of Albertas regressive anti-union laws. And of course seeing that the Harpocrites are in power in Ottawa they are hoping to appeal to them to change the Federal labour laws to bring in Right To Work. These guys never give up.
And why should they, with the likes of MP Rob Anders in the back benches,who was their patsy for their last effort in Alberta to promote Right To Work, watch for a private members bill. Luckily for us the Opposition is stronger than the Minority government.
The empirical results indicate four distinct groups. The first is a group
of 22 US States, often called Right-to-Work states. They scored 9.2 out of a
possible 10.0 indicating that they have the most balanced and least
prescriptive labour relations laws in Canada and the United States. The next
group is the remaining 28 US states (non-RTW states); they scored 7.5 out of
10.0.
Right-to-Work states differ from other US states in that they allow
workers in unionized firms to completely opt-out of paying any union dues.
Workers in other states are only permitted to opt-out of certain types of
union dues that are not related to worker representation.
The third group is a single Canadian province: Alberta. It scored 6.0 on
the index and led all Canadian jurisdictions, but fell short of competing with
any of the US states.
The final group is the remaining nine Canadian provinces and the Canadian
federal government. These jurisdictions have the most biased labour relations
laws; all received scores below 5.0.
Of course "biased labour relations laws" is Fraserspeak for actually having labour laws that recognize workers rights. And Right To Work does not mean full employment it means the right of bosses to exploit workers without fear of unionization.
Never say never is the Fraser motto, as they whined about biased labour laws only last August. But then the Harpocrites were only in opposition, now they are in power.
RIGHT TO WORK?
NO THANKS.
