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NEWS & LETTERS,
August-September 2002
OUR LIFE AND TIMES by Kevin A. Barry
Walkout in Canada
Toronto city workers staged a two-week general strike in
July. At its height, some 22,000 workers walked picket lines. The strike left
garbage uncollected and closed down swimming pools, ferry service, and needle
exchanges for IV drug users. Finally, the Ontario provincial legislature voted
for binding arbitration, after “pro-labor” New Democratic Party members
betrayed the strikers by giving up plans to delay the vote. This forced an end
to the strike. This strike was not undertaken lightly. It concerned not wages, but the very existence of unionized labor in Toronto. The city government has announced plans to privatize municipal services, which could subject workers to mass layoffs. It offered to guarantee the jobs of only those with 10 years of seniority. The city even spurned a counter-offer from the labor bureaucracy that would have cut this to six years, still leaving thousands of workers in jeopardy. Now the arbitrator will no doubt propose a rotten compromise. |
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