LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Boom and Bust

While inflation in Alberta is 6% annually workers just get by whether unionized or those free riders in the Merit shops. Is it any wonder they are asking for more.

In Alberta, 25,000 electricians, pipefitters, millwrights, plumbers and refigeration mechanics in the oilpatch are in intense negotiations for new contracts and another 5,000 could join them on strike by mid-August if talks break down. Electricians recently rejected a four-year deal offering 5%, 6.5%, 6.5% and 6.5%.
The precedent for robust increases was recently set at Sun-cor Energy Inc., where 2,100 unionized won annual gains of 7%, 6% and 6% over three years, plus a $4,000 lump sum payment, up from a previous contract averaging 3.2% per year and no lump sum.
Meanwhile in the booming Alberta construction sector, wage settlements have gravitated toward the 7% to 8% range over the past two years, up from previous gains of 3% to 5%, said Stephen Kushner, president of Merit Contractors Association, representing non-union employers in the province. About 160,000 of the 200,000 construction workers in Alberta are open shop.

"We can all talk about core inflation and the niceties of that, but for the average person in Alberta, the overall inflation rate is 6%," said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

See:

Molsons Strike

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
class-war, class-warfare, classagainstclass, workingclass, proletariat, bourgoiesie, middleclass, rulingclass, anarchy, anarchism, anarchist, communism, communist, socialism, socialist, workers, labour, labor, unions, syndicalism,
Strike, strike, Molson, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Beer, CAW,

No Justice In Canada

There is no justice in Canada when it comes to war crimes or white collar crimes.

No charges to be laid in friendly-fire death of Canadian soldier

Bre-X case an "embarrassment" for Canadian law, says expert

Judge sets aside Mulroney ruling on $470000

Also See:

Friendly Fire

Scandal in the Alberta Stock Exchange

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Stock-Eschanges, Canda, economy, capitalism, Flaherty, Conservatives, Regulation, Stock-Regulation, SEC, TSX, Cornfeld, Bre-X, Skalbania, Lord-Black, crime, corporate-crime, corporation,
NDP, liberals, Afghanistan, PB, BT, Canada, Progressivebloggers, bloggingtories, blogs, blogging, bringthetroopshome, Layton,NDP, Layton, TroopsOut, Afghanistan, War, Harper, Conservatives, Liberals, Canada, politics, military, NATO, peacekeeping, Karzai, NDP, liberals, Afghanistan, PB, BT, Canada, Progressivebloggers, bloggingtories, blogs, blogging, bringthetroopshome, Layton,NDP, Layton, TroopsOut, Afghanistan, War, Harper, Conservatives, Liberals, Canada, politics, military, NATO, peacekeeping, Karzai, Liberals, Canada, Soldiers, Death, Injury, Afghanistan, Government, Politics, values,

Softwood Redux

Harper said this would never happen again when he forced Canada's Lumber industry to accept his billion dollar bribe to the Americans with his Softwood Lumber Accord.

The U.S. asked an independent panel to resolve a dispute over a softwood lumber accord with Canada, saying the country is ignoring a cap on exports to the U.S. and that Canadian firms are still getting unfair subsidies.

Just like Harpers new formula for Provincial transfer payments were to end the years of bickering over equalization.

Didn't happen.

This is a government that likes to say it doesn't just talk it takes action..... forgetting Newtons Third Law.

SEE:

How The MacDonald Commission Changed Canada

Job Loss It's The Environmentalists Fault

There Is No Free Market

Behind the Eight Ball

US Housing Market Crash

Between a Bloc and A Hard Place

Softwood Republican Slush Fund

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Harper, Emerson, softwood, US, NAFTA, free-trade, lumber, duties, taxes, Canada, B.C., Ontario, Quebec, mills,

I Am Canadian

And I got screwed by Molson's.

Molson Coors profits rise on Canada business

Molson to close profitable Edmonton brewery, throwing more than 100 out of work

See:

$63.90 Per Hour

Molsons Strike

Bump

The owner of the Utah coal mine where miners are trapped says it was caused by an earthquake, while the seismologists are not sure.

Murray also angrily rounded on reports on Monday that suggested the mine collapse had been mistakenly recorded as an earthquake.

"This was caused by an earthquake," he said. "It was a natural disaster, an earthquake, and I can prove it."

He said the US Geological Survey had recorded the 4.0 magnitude quake as striking at a depth far greater than the location of the mine.

It could be that rare even known in coal mining as the bump which occurred almost fifty years ago in Springhill, Nova Scotia.

The 1958 Bump which occurred on October 23, 1958 was the most severe "bump", or underground earthquake, in North American mining history and devastated the people of Springhill with the casualties it took, and devastated the town: the mines had been the town's economic lifeblood, and were never reopened following the disaster.

It is not exactly known what causes a "bump." However it is believed that it could be caused when coal is totally removed from a stratum and the resulting geological stresses upon surrounding bedrock (shale, sandstone, etc. in most coal-bearing strata) can cause the surrounding pillars of the galleries to suddenly and catastrophically disintegrate, causing the shaft to collapse.

SEE:

Fox Guarding Hen House

Coal Mine Disaster No Accident

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Stickler, Bush, Mines, Mine, Safety, miners, mining, mining-accidents, coal, coal-mining, West, Virginia, MSHA, America, labour, labor, Senate, appointment,

Friday, August 03, 2007

Beast

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Harper says cabinet shuffle could precede resumption  of Parliament




Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Stephen Harper, Harper, NCC, Reform Party, Conservatives, Conservative Party, politics, Government, PM, Ottawa, Canada,
Leo Struass, Calgary School,Carl Schmitt,polls,Harper
Canada, poltics, Conservative, parliament, 
polling, Angus Reid, Conservatives,

Ouch

Fair is fair, I have been trashing the Conservatives today so lets take a look at how Dion's Liberals have been fairing according to Nik Nanos of SES polling;

According to the SES Research tracking, the 10-point Tory lead in May 2006 melted away to a statistical tie on the eve of the Liberal leadership.
Indeed, by the spring of 2007, they had been so successful that Dion trailed Harper by a resounding 25 points on the best prime minister measure.
Of greater concern for the Grits is that, in his home province of Quebec, Dion trailed Harper by 33 points with only 10% of Quebecers giving the nod to their native son.
How bad was it? When the Liberal leader trails an Albertan Tory, a Toronto NDPer and a separatist on the best PM measure -- it has to be pretty grim.

Ouch.

SEE:

Layton and May Winners

Ms. Joe Clark

Waiting For Dion

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
politics, Jack Layton, Conservatives
Canada, politics, Liberals, Dion, NDP,

WSJ

It's a rare occasion when I agree with Margret Wente. But her comment on the Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the Wall Street Journal hits the nail on the head.

Inside the Journal, you can cut the fear and loathing with a knife. The champions of unfettered capitalism are terrified that somebody is actually practising it on them.

Of course she is not the only one to note the irony of the whining of the WSJ staff and their media sycophants.

All of which means that in an ideal world, the Bancrofts wouldn't let Murdoch within a mile of the Journal. But this is hardly an ideal world, as far as the newspaper business is concerned. I'm not one of the doomsayers who see The End of Newspapers As We Know Them lurking around the next corner, but it doesn't take a genius to see that our industry is in the midst of some of that good old "creative destruction" that the Journal's editorial page regularly praises as the engine of capitalism.

The pro capitalist journalists at the WSJ, purveyors of the American Dream are afraid their will lose their journalistic integrity under Murdoch. Please gimme a break. What do they think that Murdoch will put Bill O'Riley on the editorial board?

And while folks have focused on the WSJ, the Dow Jones publishing company owns other papers which may not share the same fate as the august voice of capitalism. And there are concerns raised about media concentration, in other words good old monopoly capitalism in action.

And before the signatures are dry on Murdoch's purchase of the WSJ there are questions about those in charge of maintaining the journals much lauded editorial independence.

Wall Street Journal watchdog member has Murdoch links

Yep business as usual.

See:

Liberal Or liberal Media

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
media, USA, media-bias, capitalist press, Fox News, Globe&Mail, WSJ, newspapers, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, politics, Rupert Murdock, liberal, conservative, leftwing, rightwing

Ban Me Too

Funny that the Federal Department of Agriculture is banning progressive bloggers, while a staff member at the Alberta Government Department of Agriculture was caught emailing nasty "you're all commie pinkos" comments to the Canadian Wheat Board.

Of course progressive bloggers have been defending the Wheat Board, and we wouldn't want our blogs subverting federal civil servants.