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:
Monday, January 2, 2012
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.
Rick Salutin on The Decline of Deference to Authority
As is so frequently the case, The Star's Rick Salutin has written a thoughtful and original piece, this time on some of the factors involved in our increasingly dynamic resistance to traditional sources of authority. Thanks to the arrogance of the financial world, even after receiving massive taxpayer bailouts for their incompetence, coupled with the vast array of information afforded by the Internet, people now have a much greater opportunity to effectively challenge the status quo, as evidenced by the Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, and even in the give-and-take of readers' forums on media sites.
It is an article that provides a framework for the changes we are seeing all around us.
It is an article that provides a framework for the changes we are seeing all around us.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Coming To An Institution Near You
I have long held a very critical view of institutions. Whether they be political, educational, religious, charitable or protective, I believe the effectiveness and integrity of any organization declines with age as self-interest, self-promotion, and lust for power and control supplant the original purposes of serving the common good.
Two recent reminders of the inevitability of institutional senescence are found in today's Toronto Star. The first details how an RCMP officer, Const. Susan Gastaldo, is facing dismissal after she was coerced into a sexual relationship with her superior officer, Staff-Sgt. Travis Pearson, while Pearson himself only faces the possibility of a demotion:
Lawyer Walter Kosteckyj, who represents Gastaldo in a separate civil case against the RCMP, says his client’s situation shows that those who bring forward complaints about the RCMP are more severely punished than those found guilty.
“Susan Gastaldo refused to bow down to pressure and, as a consequence, she could lose her job. The RCMP board decided she was more guilty than Pearson was even though he was a senior officer and maintained his denial up to the last day,” said Kosteckyj, a former RCMP officer.
He went on to say, “Time and time again, we have seen the RCMP is not interested in dealing with harassment and is more interested in protecting their present culture.”
As a retired teacher, I know only too well the measures that administrators will take to silence those it feels compromise the status quo or their own upward career trajectory, so the RCMP's reaction is hardly surprising to me.
The next instance involves a little girl being harassed, threatened, and both verbally and physically abused by a religious institution. No, I am not talking here about the Taliban, but rather another group of religious fanatics, some ultra-orthodox Jews in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh who think they are doing God's will by expressing hatred and intolerance for those who don't share their views, which include the desire for sidewalk segregation of the sexes, and the use of “modesty patrols” which they have dispatched to enforce a chaste female appearance and [hurl] stones at offenders and outsiders. Walls of the neighborhood are plastered with signs exhorting women to dress modestly in closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts.
The little girl who has been an especially vulnerable target to this hate-group is 8-year-old student Naama Margolese. These religious fanatics have spat on her and called her a whore for dressing “immodestly.”
Nama attends a religious school and dresses with long sleeves and a skirt. Extremists, however, consider even that outfit, standard in mainstream Jewish religious schools, to be immodest.
Unfortunately, this kind of criminal behaviour has apparently been countenanced by the authorities because the Ultra-Orthodox hold a fair bit of political power.
I rest my case.
Two recent reminders of the inevitability of institutional senescence are found in today's Toronto Star. The first details how an RCMP officer, Const. Susan Gastaldo, is facing dismissal after she was coerced into a sexual relationship with her superior officer, Staff-Sgt. Travis Pearson, while Pearson himself only faces the possibility of a demotion:
Lawyer Walter Kosteckyj, who represents Gastaldo in a separate civil case against the RCMP, says his client’s situation shows that those who bring forward complaints about the RCMP are more severely punished than those found guilty.
“Susan Gastaldo refused to bow down to pressure and, as a consequence, she could lose her job. The RCMP board decided she was more guilty than Pearson was even though he was a senior officer and maintained his denial up to the last day,” said Kosteckyj, a former RCMP officer.
He went on to say, “Time and time again, we have seen the RCMP is not interested in dealing with harassment and is more interested in protecting their present culture.”
As a retired teacher, I know only too well the measures that administrators will take to silence those it feels compromise the status quo or their own upward career trajectory, so the RCMP's reaction is hardly surprising to me.
The next instance involves a little girl being harassed, threatened, and both verbally and physically abused by a religious institution. No, I am not talking here about the Taliban, but rather another group of religious fanatics, some ultra-orthodox Jews in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh who think they are doing God's will by expressing hatred and intolerance for those who don't share their views, which include the desire for sidewalk segregation of the sexes, and the use of “modesty patrols” which they have dispatched to enforce a chaste female appearance and [hurl] stones at offenders and outsiders. Walls of the neighborhood are plastered with signs exhorting women to dress modestly in closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts.
The little girl who has been an especially vulnerable target to this hate-group is 8-year-old student Naama Margolese. These religious fanatics have spat on her and called her a whore for dressing “immodestly.”
Nama attends a religious school and dresses with long sleeves and a skirt. Extremists, however, consider even that outfit, standard in mainstream Jewish religious schools, to be immodest.
Unfortunately, this kind of criminal behaviour has apparently been countenanced by the authorities because the Ultra-Orthodox hold a fair bit of political power.
I rest my case.
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