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- From: SPRAGGEJ@QUCDN.QueensU.CA (John G. Spragge)
- Newsgroups: can.politics,soc.culture.canada
- Subject: Re: NDP "communism?" (was Re: A vote for Reform...)
- Message-ID: <93027.153321SPRAGGEJ@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
- Date: 27 Jan 93 20:33:21 GMT
- References: <93024.170954SPRAGGEJ@QUCDN.QueensU.CA> <4087@isgtec.isgtec.com>
- Organization: Queen's University at Kingston
- Lines: 60
-
- In article <4087@isgtec.isgtec.com>, robert@isgtec.com (Robert Osborne) says:
-
- >John G. Spragge (SPRAGGEJ@QUCDN.QueensU.CA) wrote:
- >
- >: I ask again, who's "business"? The most controversial feature of this
- >: law involved the prohibition on using scab labour for strike-breaking.
- >
- >No, it's the prohibition of using ANY labour, whether management, workers
- >from other plants or divisions, for 'strike-breaking'. I notice
- >you use the loaded word 'strike-breaking' when in fact this law
- >also prohibits keep-alive actions by management (eg. customer support,
- >shipments for contractual obligations, shipping for trade shows,
- >keeping machines with LONG startup times running, etc).
-
- That would cause controversy. Alas for the critics of the NDP, it
- doesn't appear in bill 40. You can use management personnel to
- keep the plant going. You can also shift production to other (non-
- striking) plants. You just can't bring other workers in. In other
- words, only management people can cross the picket line.
-
- >The case where this won't lead to problems is where a healthy
- >relationship already exists between management and labour,
- >and any such law is unnecessary.
-
- Well, such a law will certainly encourage management to build a
- healthy relationship with labour.
-
- >If an adversarial relationship exists, this law gives labour an
- >unjustified upper hand; the pendulum swings the other way.
-
- Please define "unjustified".
-
- >It gives labour power without the benefits that such enpowerment
- >usually gains for management: good will and increased responsibility
- >from labour.
-
- Define "increased responsibility". Explain to me why, in the aftermath
- of the past decade, where "managers" squandered trillions of dollars
- in an egotistical feeding frenzy while the actual wages paid to workers
- fell, the workers should have to establish their responsibility.
-
- >: And that, (as we see in the Japanese example) will likely
- >: result in a more productive enterprise.
- >
- >'Likely' is a good word to use here.
-
- You got that right.
-
- >The Japanese have had a feudal civilization until recently. This means
- >that there is a strong cultural bias in favour of the tradeoff between
- >loyalty from the workers and fair treatment from the company, or at
- >least for the ideal represented by this. North American culture
- >worships individualism, our popular icons are rebels and loners.
-
- Your point, please? That we should treat senior commercial bureaucrats,
- who got their positions by exact attention to, and conformity with,
- the "corporate culture" as "rebels and loners"? As a rebel and a loner,
- I can tell you this law doesn't bother me at all.
-
- standard disclaimers apply ----------------------- John G. Spragge
-