Share The Wealth

Inco workers win takeover protection, raises

With the mere threat of a strike. In a boom economy, when nickel prices would go through the roof if they struck. While the big Canadian mininge Corporations are in the midst of an orgy of mergers and acquisitions, that is market monopoly, the mineworkers got job protection. Way to go.

The agreement "reflects Inco's extremely strong financial position and recognizes our members' contribution to that success, as well as protecting Inco employees through any merger or takeover process," Fraser said in a release.

But no matter how well paid or what signing bonuses they get they still won't be making as much as this guy.

	Inco Ltd.	Scott Hand, CEO	$10,715,736
Salary: $1,240,969 Bonus: $2,416,888 Subtotal: $3,657,857 12% chg Other: $161,791 Share Units: $2,436,903 Option Gains: $4,459,173 TOTAL: $10,715,736 New option grant: 54,000 ($800,789)

Even though it is the mineworkers who create the weath. Which is proven by the fact that had they gone on strike nickel would have become more valuable as well as making the companies involved more valuable. Maye the Steelworkers settled to short, and should have demanded shares and a seat on the board.

A looming strike at Inco Ltd.'s key Sudbury operations could send nickel prices higher and potentially make Inco's offer for Falconbridge Ltd. more attractive. That's because a strike at Inco's Sudbury operations, which account for roughly 9 per cent of global nickel output, tends to mean higher nickel prices as traders bet on potential shortages.

Also See:

Criminal Capitalism: Xstrata

Monopoly

Inco

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Soccer Scandal

Got this interesting email in response to my article on the Juventus scandal in Italy. This is the site of one member of European proto-situationist culture jammers and net artists collectively known as Luther Bissett.

Hi there,
I bumped into your post. If you're interested in following the development of this football scandal, with particular focus on its links to Italian politics, I built a lenspage on squidoo called "Calcio. Italian soccer and its nightmares", with daily updates etc.
http://www.squidoo.com/italiansoccer
And re Berlusconi's conflicts of interest:
http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/outtakes/burlesquoni.htm

Ciao,

R. / WM1

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Uh Oh

Dodge also noted that interest rates are still historically low, 
which one analyst said seemed to be a suggestion 
that there might be room for more increases.

Told ya. Never trust the Bank of Canada. Their interventionism is old school, predictable and disastourous. Disastorous as in job losses, just like in the Mulroney era when this policy originated.

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Capitalist Demands Regulation

Regulate the market for me please.

"While I understand the Bank of Canada's role is to control inflation by varying interest rates, I have a hard time understanding why it only steps in when there is a loss of confidence in the Canadian dollar, and not in the opposite case when there is excess confidence." Laurent Beaudoin, chairman and chief executive of Bombardier Inc., questioned Bank of Canada policy at the company's annual general meeting yesterday.

See: Before the Crying Starts


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Cry Me A River

Unless the Canadian dollar cools off, he warned that manufacturers, such as Bombardier, would have little choice but to move jobs to the United States or elsewhere to remain competitive. Bombardier says its costs in Canada have increased by hundreds of millions of dollars relative to its largely U.S. dollar revenue base.

Bombardiers chicken little threats to cut jobs are hogwash. The reality is their drop in earning is BECAUSE they already cut jobs.

Bombardier's first-quarter earnings fell after a charge for job cuts at its train-making unit, but business jet deliveries and prices rose, the company said on Tuesday.

And then they will come cap in hand and ask for more corporate welfare from Ottawa to bail them out. And the reality is that Bombardier's problems are perenniel. Less to do with the dollar than the collapse of the American airline industry, and competition in Europe.

MONTREAL -- Bombardier Inc. posted a 56% decline in net income for the fiscal first quarter amid a 6% drop in revenue, as slower rail-equipment sales in Europe, the strengthening Canadian dollar and the financial struggles of U.S. airlines weighed on results.

Bombardier stock derailed over results

Cameron Doerksen of Versant Partners in Montreal said Bombardier's aerospace margin of 2.8 per cent in the first quarter was only slightly higher than the 2.7-per-cent reported a year ago.

The margin "is essentially unchanged from a year ago despite higher deliveries of business jets that were presumably sold at better prices," he wrote in a research update.

In the transportation -- or rail -- unit, the first-quarter margin was 3 per cent, up from 2.4 per cent a year earlier.

Mr. Doerksen questioned the company's ability to sustain higher margins in the longer term.

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Ho Hum Folk Festival

The problem with Terry Wickham is that he takes his audience for granted. The Edmonton Folk Festival is no longer exciting, nor experimental, in fact it is downright pedestrian. That's cause Terry leaves all the good acts for his Calgary Folk Festival. Which has been apparent over the last couple of years.

You see the Edmonton Festival is suffering from its own success. The consumers will come and consume, regardless of the performers presented. Wickham takes that as a given. Hence this years really, really, boring line up. No matter how they dress it up, with their syncophantic media relations.

Folk Fest reveals richest roster ever Not rich in performers but in fees probably and gate reciepts. About the only exciting act in this group of retro performers, really gimme a break Linda Rondstadt and David Bromberg, is Chumbawamba. And they are only mentioned in passing.


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Wrong Move

The Edmonton Police Service has dumped the cop in charge of community relations, who organized the largely peaceful crowd control situation on Whyte Avenue on Sunday night, in favour of this Orwellian named crew; the public safety unit, also known as the riot squad.

"I, quite unabashedly, state that yes, I was fired from that job," said South Division Insp. Bryan Boulanger, still reeling yesterday over the abrupt sacking. Boulanger said his approach to policing Whyte - "professionalism, discretion and tolerance" - clashed on more than one occasion with that of the commanders of the public safety unit, also known as the riot squad. "They wanted to put on their hats and bats and go out swinging," he said.

Yep and that would be a PR disaster. All you need to make hooliganism turn into a full scale riot is riot cops.

As I have said here before you need to charge the bars a tax since it is their drunks partying on the streets, plus make sure they are closing early. The other point is that while many revelers are drunk, they are coming from elsewhere, they have not been partying on Whyte all night.

They are encouraged by websites like bluemile.ca and coppermile.ca
Gee do ya think maybe the City should encourage these web sites to be more socially responsible and say post a message about responsible partying versus hooliganism.

Also when you herd all the revelers into the area of 105 st. around the old post office building, you have no control. Period. The crowd becomes too large. It naturally gets out of control. Spread 'em out don't let people bunch up, keep them moving.

The police line last Sunday was well behaved and friendly, it should have continued down to 109 St. The cop in sharge should not have been fired for what has been mainly a media snow job. The hooliganism occured later in the evening.

And interestingly there were three knifings in Edmonton that night, but NOT on Whyte. This of course was deemed less important to report than the predictable hooliganism on Whyte.Three stabbings overnight

Inviting the Riot Cops to patrol Whyte is asking for trouble. Since they won't listen to the cop in charge and undermined his authority on Sunday night they are just as responsible for the holliganism. Reinstate Boulanger.

Whyte reports overblown say business owners

Saturday’s hooliganism at the intersection of 105 Street and Whyte Avenue isn’t as bad as the media makes it out to be, say bar owners and shopkeepers in the area.

But they agree it’s time cops start pushing back at the idiot vandals who’ve been ruining everyone else’s fun.

“Everyone in the world is starting to think Whyte Avenue on game day is like a Saturday night in downtown Beirut,” says Blues On Whyte manager Jim Szakszon.

“Outside of that intersection the late night crowd gets very thin. The wisest thing the police can do is start ticketing every jerk that gives bar owners and fans a bad name.”

See Whyte Avenue


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Ignatieff Calls For Animal Sacrifice

Liberal Leadership Candidate Michael Ignatieff yesterday called for the "murder of the sacred cows" of the Liberal Party says Quebec newspaper Le Presse.

After getting in bed with the Conservatives over Afghanistan, now Ignatief is presenting himself as a Blue Liberal. So why doesn't he just join the Tories? Maybe he will after he loses the Liberal leadership race.

Here are the Sacred Cows that the Liberal version of Kurtz plans to sacrifice.

In the party until very recently directed by Paul Martin, "there are totems, there are sacred cows "and" they should be killed ", said M. Ignatieff, Monday, in front of a handful of militants - a dozen - come to have breakfast with him. He indicated some "sacred cows" which he would like to be sacrificed: financing of the system of health, tax imbalance, protocol of Kyoto and anti-Americanism, were his priorities.


Also See: Ignatieff


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Criminal Capitalism-WestJet

Well WestJet has been caught out. In a classic case of deny, deny,deny, confess out of court, they finally admited to the truth. They are crooks. That in order to take advantage of the consolidation of Air Canada they hacked into AC's customer base and looted information. And did they go to jail? Well unlike joe hacker, no. Of course not. They paid a fine, apologised and looked sheepish at a joint press conference with AC boss Robert Milton. See white collar crime does pay!

WestJet apology means industry can work together on regulatory change: Milton

Milton seeks WestJet's help on landing fees

Competitors? Competition? Nope, Oligopoly.

WestJet straying from its low-fare script

Clive Beddoe did the right thing in settling the espionage case against WestJet Airlines. Fifteen million dollars, plus a few toothpicks to remove the humble pie, doesn't seem like a big price to pay to get rid of a costly distraction.So the airline industry's conspiracy-of-the decade has ended with a whimper, and Mr. Beddoe's company emerged with no lasting damage. Is there a single person who refused to fly WestJet because they were concerned about management ethics? Doubtful. Most people want four things when choosing an airline: (1) low fares, (2) low fares, (3) to not feel as though they've been crammed into a tin of Starkist tuna, and -- What was the other thing? Oh, yes -- (4) low fares.

Here is a take on this from the left;


I think it goes a bit deeper, actually. Westjet has been held up, particularly by the right in Canada, as the paragon of free market virtue compared to Air Canada's incompetence and waste, in large part because Westjet was very profitable. It's been used as a way to bash on Air Canada and its unionized workforce. Layoffs have been a way of life for Air Canada staff for about 15 years. I know someone who is 4 years from retirement, and is at the bottom of the seniority list at his airport.

While Neil Waugh, the Edmonton Sun Columnist who has gone pinko, defends the unions and spanks AC boss Robert Milton (will wonders never cease) in a case of fair and balanced reporting.

Instead, for the grovelling confession and apology Milton is willing to settle for $5.5 million in investigation and legal fees, plus a further $10-million donation to unnamed Canadian kids' charities.

As a sign that Milton wants to bury the hatchet and "turn a new page on this unfortunate chapter," the cheques will bear both Air Canada's and WestJet's names.

But it's not open skies any time soon for Milton - even after recently reporting a "solid first quarter" for Air Canada's parent AEC Aviation Holdings.

The $118-million net profit has attracted the attention of the Air Canada Pilots Association, which took a 30% pay cut and faced massive layoffs when the company sought bankruptcy protection.

"The company can now afford to share this success with the people who helped achieve it," the Air Canada pilots said about upcoming contract negotiations. Especially when it pointed out that Milton took an alleged 13.5% salary cut from 2002-05 when the creditors were circling.

"During the same period, Milton's annual compensation grew by 72%," the pilots scolded. "And nearly doubled from 2004 to 2005."

Say it ain't so, Robert?

Also See:

Criminal Capitalism


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Jimmy Boy Where Are Ya?

Why am I not surprized? !

FBI Finds No Trace of Hoffa and Calls Off Search

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