While corporations continue the arduous task of union-busting and contract-gutting, their efforts are being amply rewarded. Not only has a beneficent and ideologically-driven Harper government cossetted them with a record-low tax rate, but the captains of industry who lead these voracious job-destroying entities are also prospering quite nicely thanks to compliant and obsequious boards. To put their good fortune into perspective, according to a report published Tuesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, by lunchtime today, Jan. 3, the highest-paid chief executives officers in Canada will have earned as much as the average Canadian makes in an entire year.
As announced in The Star today, while the majority of Canadian workers are struggling with either stagnant, eroding or minimum wages, in 2010 those toiling as corporate CEO's, regardless of company performance, garnered an average 27% increase in remuneration over the previous year, while by comparison, the average Canadian earned $44,366 that year, or 1.1 per cent more than in 2009.
I ardently await the renewal of the Occupy Movement.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
American 'Rocket Scientist' Pronounces on The Electric Car
[Sigh,] and some say this is the best the Republicans have to offer in the next election.
Our Prime Minister's Great Economic Plan Seems To Be Working .... For the Corporate Sector
In light of the ongoing dismantling of our industrial base by our corporate 'masters,' coupled with the latest reduction in the corporate tax rate engineered by the pseudo-economist Stephen Harper, this video is worth viewing:
Caterpillar Locks Out Employees at London Plant
After unilaterally imposing the terms of its last contract offer on its workers, terms of which entail the halving of wages and a substantial reduction in benefits, Electro-Motive Canada, a subsidiary of U.S. industrial giant Caterpillar Inc., has locked out its Lomdon-based workers.
The Harper government, which permitted the company's sale to an American corporate entity through Industry Canada, remains silent on the performance guarantees given by Caterpillar as a condition of the sale.
A great beginning to 2012, one that follows a pattern well-established in 2011.
One final note: Caterpillar's earnings for the third quarter ending Sept. 30 totaled US$1.14 billion, up 44% from a year earlier.
The Harper government, which permitted the company's sale to an American corporate entity through Industry Canada, remains silent on the performance guarantees given by Caterpillar as a condition of the sale.
A great beginning to 2012, one that follows a pattern well-established in 2011.
One final note: Caterpillar's earnings for the third quarter ending Sept. 30 totaled US$1.14 billion, up 44% from a year earlier.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Michael Ignatieff on the Politics of Fairness
Many of the worst excesses of the age of greed occurred in markets that were anything but free, anything but transparent. Government must be there to clean up markets riven by fraud, corruption, insider trading and toxic products that made risk systemic. Competition demands that governments are prepared to use their anti-trust, anti-monopoly functions to dismantle institutions that have become “too big to fail.”
The above excerpt, taken from a piece recently written by Michael Ignatieff, sounds great, doesn't it?
Unfortunately, like his other suggestions found in the article, none will ever become reality for one simply reason: Today's political parties and their leaders are usually much more concerned about their own fortunes than they are about those of the larger society they govern or aspire to govern.
A safe prediction for 2012: Nothing will change.
The above excerpt, taken from a piece recently written by Michael Ignatieff, sounds great, doesn't it?
Unfortunately, like his other suggestions found in the article, none will ever become reality for one simply reason: Today's political parties and their leaders are usually much more concerned about their own fortunes than they are about those of the larger society they govern or aspire to govern.
A safe prediction for 2012: Nothing will change.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Industry Canada Fails Yet Another Group of Canadian Workers
Hot on the heels of the Harper government's capitulation to U.S. Steel in Hamilton, yet another failure by Industry Canada to protect the interests of Canadians is evident in the latest contract 'offer' from London, Ontario-based Electro-Motive Canada, a subsidiary of U.S. industrial giant Caterpillar Inc.
The C.A.W. has taken a strike vote, with a Saturday night deadline, after the company offered to chop the workers' $35 hourly wage in half, the rejection of which seems to have bewildered the company:
We are disappointed that a competitive collective agreement could not be reached with the union,” the company said in a statement through Toronto public relations firm Fleischman-Hillard.
What is especially demoralizing about this situation is that it comes three years after $5 million in tax breaks [were] announced on the factory floor by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Although since sold to an American company, the government refuses, as it did in the U.S. Steel takeover of Stelco, to reveal the terms stipulated by the government in the purchase; Industry Canada, an increasing oxymoronic and redundant department thanks to the Harper government's policy of appeasement of the all things American, states: “It would be inappropriate to comment on this matter until the future of the plant is more clear.”
Happy New Year, everyone. Thanks to the incompetence or indifference of our political 'masters,' it sounds like 2012 will see 'business' as usual for unfettered capitalism and our rapid return to being hewers of wood and drawers of water.
The C.A.W. has taken a strike vote, with a Saturday night deadline, after the company offered to chop the workers' $35 hourly wage in half, the rejection of which seems to have bewildered the company:
We are disappointed that a competitive collective agreement could not be reached with the union,” the company said in a statement through Toronto public relations firm Fleischman-Hillard.
What is especially demoralizing about this situation is that it comes three years after $5 million in tax breaks [were] announced on the factory floor by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Although since sold to an American company, the government refuses, as it did in the U.S. Steel takeover of Stelco, to reveal the terms stipulated by the government in the purchase; Industry Canada, an increasing oxymoronic and redundant department thanks to the Harper government's policy of appeasement of the all things American, states: “It would be inappropriate to comment on this matter until the future of the plant is more clear.”
Happy New Year, everyone. Thanks to the incompetence or indifference of our political 'masters,' it sounds like 2012 will see 'business' as usual for unfettered capitalism and our rapid return to being hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Friday, December 30, 2011
If You Are What You Eat .....
Many thanks to my son for sending this link to a story that may give pause to those who are eager consumers of burgers from McDonald's.
Makes me also wonder how successful we can be at composting such fare.
Makes me also wonder how successful we can be at composting such fare.
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