Feb. 11, 2012, For Immediate Release
Grey-Bruce Labour Council Conducts Planning Session
Caterpillar, Goodyear, Public Services, Pensions, CPP, OAS, Occupy Movement, Union Rocks. Whether it is the reprehensible act of greed perpetrated by Caterpillar, the needless loss of jobs in the former Goodyear plant, the Drummond driven impending attack on our public services, Harper’s failure to understand the need for retirement with dignity for all Canadians, the so much needed direct action of Occupy or Union Rocks elevating the next generation into activism, the Grey-Bruce Labour Council set its course today to ensure that our region will hear loud and clear the voices of “the people”.
For over 50 years the Grey-Bruce Labour Council has been the voice of working people in our region and through the decades of working on behalf of all working people the rights of working people and the public services so critical to our lives have never been at more risk.
Representatives of the Labour Council from CUPE, CAW, OPSEU, OECTA and UFCW worked through a session on the 11th of Feb. to prepare for the struggle to protect Canada’s heritage of social responsibility and to engage the broader community in a region wide coalition to line up against the forces that seek to destroy the jobs and services that support workers.
The details of the planning session align with the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress and will have to be vetted by the entire Labour Council before being committed to action, but as Brad Drake of Union Rocks and a UFCW delegate stated “the days of depending on traditional methods to carry out this work will not get the job done this time. The integration of youth and direct action with our traditional methods along with seeking to increase our density and political influence is the only framework that will lead to success and that success is measured only by one standard; the ability to ensure a fair and equitable of share our wealth to all in our society”.
For More Information
Dave Trumble
President Grey Bruce Labour Council
dtrumble@bmts.com
5199551061
Monday, February 13, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
For Immediate Release, Grey-Bruce Labour Council, Feb 4, 2012, Electro-Motive Plant Closure
For Immediate Release, Grey-Bruce Labour Council, Feb 4, 2012, Electro-Motive Plant Closure
Two weeks ago the community, labour, the occupy movement and citizens from all walks of life stood in London in support of workers; not just the workers at Electro-Motive, but the Canadian worker. Yes, the focus was the CAW Members on the picket line, but the workers on the line that day represented every single worker in Canada being wilfully targeted by corporate and government organs and repreresentatives that have made it the purpose of their existence to destroy the ability of workers in Canada and around the world to exercise any form of self defence such as collective bargaining. In Canada it is particularly heinous and despicable as these agents of terror are purposefully undermining the right of Canadian workers to their charter right to free collective barging.
In a week where the former Goodyear plant in Owen Sound announced the closing of it's doors the announcement by Caterpillar cannot help but stir the call to direct action. What form does such action take? Dave Trumble, President of the Grey-Bruce Labour Council and one of many that journeyed to London and stood with USW 818L at the Goodyear plant some years ago believes that this will become only too obvious when in the near future those "left to deal with poverty, illness, injury and the 99% who no longer see the inequality in our society as sustainable take up the call to change the status quo". The battle plan will no doubt exhibit a focus on seeing progressive governments elected, but people should not be surprised if the streets begin to fill up with people that have had enough.
In an interview on Friday Trumble called the actions of Caterpillar and the Harper government sad and despicable. The Grey-Bruce Labour Council will be carrying out a planning session in the next week and will align itself clearly with the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress and the 99% as the time nears to re-establish fairness and equality in Canada.
For Information;
Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council
http://www.greybrucelabour.com/
dtrumble@bmts.com
519 955 1061
Two weeks ago the community, labour, the occupy movement and citizens from all walks of life stood in London in support of workers; not just the workers at Electro-Motive, but the Canadian worker. Yes, the focus was the CAW Members on the picket line, but the workers on the line that day represented every single worker in Canada being wilfully targeted by corporate and government organs and repreresentatives that have made it the purpose of their existence to destroy the ability of workers in Canada and around the world to exercise any form of self defence such as collective bargaining. In Canada it is particularly heinous and despicable as these agents of terror are purposefully undermining the right of Canadian workers to their charter right to free collective barging.
In a week where the former Goodyear plant in Owen Sound announced the closing of it's doors the announcement by Caterpillar cannot help but stir the call to direct action. What form does such action take? Dave Trumble, President of the Grey-Bruce Labour Council and one of many that journeyed to London and stood with USW 818L at the Goodyear plant some years ago believes that this will become only too obvious when in the near future those "left to deal with poverty, illness, injury and the 99% who no longer see the inequality in our society as sustainable take up the call to change the status quo". The battle plan will no doubt exhibit a focus on seeing progressive governments elected, but people should not be surprised if the streets begin to fill up with people that have had enough.
In an interview on Friday Trumble called the actions of Caterpillar and the Harper government sad and despicable. The Grey-Bruce Labour Council will be carrying out a planning session in the next week and will align itself clearly with the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress and the 99% as the time nears to re-establish fairness and equality in Canada.
For Information;
Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council
http://www.greybrucelabour.com/
dtrumble@bmts.com
519 955 1061
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Letter to the Editor; Re, Former Goodyear Plant to Close
Feb. 1st, 2012
Letter to the Editor; Re, Former Goodyear Plant to Close
Black Lawson Kennedy, Russell Brothers, PPG, Bell Canada Operator Services and now Veyance Technologies (former Goodyear plant) and manufacturer’s too many to name have left Owen Sound or downsized over the years since the early eighties. This does not begin to identify the list of other manufacturing sector jobs and / or well paying public service sector jobs that have left the entire Grey Bruce region since the same time period.
The three conservative horsemen of economic destruction (Mulroney, Regan and Thatcher) ushered in the era of free trade and deregulation and three decades later the conservative mantra set out in those days continues to manifest itself in more an more jobs disappearing across Owen Sound, our region and Canada; millions to be more precise. What troubles progressive people such as Trade Unionists is that 30 some years later and with countless friends and families destroyed or forever financially crippled by job loss that is directly tied to neo conservative legislative policy is why there is one vote cast for the candidates that represent the parties that have legislated into existence the polices and deregulation that facilitate the very loss of this base of work for the working class and the source of middle class and community prosperity.
As we discover more about this latest closure let us not forget that these closures have been underwritten and empowered by neo conservative policy since the 1980’s and if there is one thing we can learn is that unless candidates arrive with progressive platforms, manufacturing jobs strategies and support for public services it is time to unelect the purveyors of economic destruction that are dressed in blue and sometimes red.
Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council
Letter to the Editor; Re, Former Goodyear Plant to Close
Black Lawson Kennedy, Russell Brothers, PPG, Bell Canada Operator Services and now Veyance Technologies (former Goodyear plant) and manufacturer’s too many to name have left Owen Sound or downsized over the years since the early eighties. This does not begin to identify the list of other manufacturing sector jobs and / or well paying public service sector jobs that have left the entire Grey Bruce region since the same time period.
The three conservative horsemen of economic destruction (Mulroney, Regan and Thatcher) ushered in the era of free trade and deregulation and three decades later the conservative mantra set out in those days continues to manifest itself in more an more jobs disappearing across Owen Sound, our region and Canada; millions to be more precise. What troubles progressive people such as Trade Unionists is that 30 some years later and with countless friends and families destroyed or forever financially crippled by job loss that is directly tied to neo conservative legislative policy is why there is one vote cast for the candidates that represent the parties that have legislated into existence the polices and deregulation that facilitate the very loss of this base of work for the working class and the source of middle class and community prosperity.
As we discover more about this latest closure let us not forget that these closures have been underwritten and empowered by neo conservative policy since the 1980’s and if there is one thing we can learn is that unless candidates arrive with progressive platforms, manufacturing jobs strategies and support for public services it is time to unelect the purveyors of economic destruction that are dressed in blue and sometimes red.
Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council
Friday, January 20, 2012
Buses to London, For Immediate Release, January 21, 2011, Grey-Bruce Labour Council
For Immediate Release, January 21, 2011, Grey-Bruce Labour Council
In response to Caterpillar’s vicious and unnecessary attack on worker’s wages, pensions and benefits at Electro-Motive in London ON two bus loads of Grey, Bruce and Huron County residents are joining thousands of others in London to paint a great big black mark square between the eyes of Caterpillar and their corporate reputation.
Normally other corporations and CEO’s clamber to support their corporate friends when they attack workers and communities, but in this case the silence is deafening! It appears that even Caterpillar’s friends are reluctant to show support for such an unnecessary brutalization of people and their workplace.
Dave Trumble, President of the Grey-Bruce Labour Council, and Jim Vance, President of the Huron Labour Council, with numerous other Union Delegates from the Grey Bruce and Huron Labour Councils have worked very hard to attract people from our region to London and those that are attending realize that pushing this attack back is critically important to the future of collective bargaining everywhere. The other CEO’s may be quiet now, but should Caterpillar be successful in their unconscionable abuse of the workers represented by CAW 27 be rest assured the more vicious and greedy will be empowered to make similar attacks. Trumble says “when you add this type of possible empowerment to provincial and federal governments in Ontario and Canada that have nothing but contempt for workers and adulation for their corporate friends workers need to be ready to up the ante to levels unforeseen in any time since the birth of the Trade Union Movement”.
Contact
Dave Trumble
dtrumble@bmts.com
519 955 1061
In response to Caterpillar’s vicious and unnecessary attack on worker’s wages, pensions and benefits at Electro-Motive in London ON two bus loads of Grey, Bruce and Huron County residents are joining thousands of others in London to paint a great big black mark square between the eyes of Caterpillar and their corporate reputation.
Normally other corporations and CEO’s clamber to support their corporate friends when they attack workers and communities, but in this case the silence is deafening! It appears that even Caterpillar’s friends are reluctant to show support for such an unnecessary brutalization of people and their workplace.
Dave Trumble, President of the Grey-Bruce Labour Council, and Jim Vance, President of the Huron Labour Council, with numerous other Union Delegates from the Grey Bruce and Huron Labour Councils have worked very hard to attract people from our region to London and those that are attending realize that pushing this attack back is critically important to the future of collective bargaining everywhere. The other CEO’s may be quiet now, but should Caterpillar be successful in their unconscionable abuse of the workers represented by CAW 27 be rest assured the more vicious and greedy will be empowered to make similar attacks. Trumble says “when you add this type of possible empowerment to provincial and federal governments in Ontario and Canada that have nothing but contempt for workers and adulation for their corporate friends workers need to be ready to up the ante to levels unforeseen in any time since the birth of the Trade Union Movement”.
Contact
Dave Trumble
dtrumble@bmts.com
519 955 1061
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
In Response to Rudy Fiebiger’s Article “Reader feels Ontario should strive to be nuclear-free” published in the December 28th, 2011 issue of the Kincardine News
Dec. 28, 2011
Dear Editor;
In Response to Rudy Fiebiger’s Article “Reader feels Ontario should strive to be nuclear-free” published in the December 28th, 2011 issue.
Rudy’s letter will without a doubt attract a lot of technical feedback and the vast majority of it will clearly and factually refute Rudy’s letter. I, however, wish to address some issues on the edge of Rudy’s focus.
The all or nothing single minded approach that many wind proponents take is unique to wind proponents and in direct opposition to almost all nuclear proponents. The single minded approach is certainly in clear opposition to the voice of workers in the Nuclear Industry, the Canadian Nuclear Workers’ Council (CNWC), where the optimum electricity grid is seen to be made up of a firm base load of nuclear generation in addition to other traditional generation methods such as hydro electric and fossil and a percentage of renewables such as wind and solar. There are many other organizations, professional, scientific, etc, that would be aligned with the CNWC, but I will limit my remarks to the CNWC aspect.
The CNWC is made up of many affiliated unions and they stretch across all aspects of the nuclear industry. Examples would be the USW, CAW, CEP, IAFF, IBEW, PWU, PSAC, CRTT, SPEA, IAMAW and these workers work in everything from mining / fabrication and generation to medical isotopes and research. This diversity is representative of a large part of the nuclear industry, but given Rudy’s vision of a nuclear free Ontario these jobs, in an already damaged Ontario economy, would disappear as would the life saving isotope work and the lion’s share of the $7.2 billion industry that the Canadian nuclear industry represents; not to mention that 95% of all parts and materials in a CANDU reactor are sourced in Canada. Can’t say that we hear that about almost anything else today!
Rudy’s comments about Bruce employees (“Don't worry Bruce employees; you are not going to lose you fantastic pay cheques and benefits”) demonstrates that ever present lack of understanding so often found in people who refuse to educate themselves about Trade Unionism, and intrinsic to that, the process of collective bargaining and the rights to that under the Charter of Rights of Freedoms. To use Rudy’s words the cheques and benefits came about not as the result of some benevolent entity, employer / government or otherwise, but from 65 years of collective bargaining lead by the Power Workers’ Union and its predecessors and many years of hard nosed collective bargaining by the Society of Energy Professionals and the BTU.
So, Rudy, I am sure that you will get lots of feedback, but on the issues responded to herein you have already lead with your chin and sadly in this case not very credibly.
Dave Trumble, President Grey-Bruce Labour Council
Originally Posted in the Dec. 28th 2011 Issue of the Kincardine News
Reader feels Ontario Should Strive to be Nuclear Free
Posted 1 day ago
Dear Editor,
I have observed with amazement the wind power issue plaguing the Kincardine area for the past few years.
Terms like bewilderment, stunned, dazed and at time stupefied come to mind.
Here we are living next door to a nuclear plant which albeit very safe to today's standards is nevertheless a ticking time bomb which cannot be turned off by just throwing a switch.
Nuclear waste is going to be with us for hundreds if not thousands of years and yet I some 'official' people think it's a good idea to have it buried here in the ground for the next 1,000 years.
I wonder if the people in this area have somehow been brain washed by a very clever pro-nuclear group to think that wind energy will herald Armageddon and destroy this are a beyond recognition. (Don't worry Bruce employees; you are not going to lose you fantastic pay cheques and benefits).
Is this a severe case of the noisy minority getting undeserved air play? In every conflict, the truth is the first casualty.
Yes, wind power needs to be put under more scrutiny before we go ahead and plant them en mass in our landscape but let's be realistic and honest... wind power is a very small menace compared to nuclear power.
Let's open our minds to alternatives in energy generation.
We all want clean energy, reliable energy, and cheap energy... (Easier said than done) but let's keep in mind too that neither of the two mentioned energies can do it alone.
Let's think outside the 'proverbial' box.
Stop the herd thinking and let's be a little more in touch with what lies before us.
A nuclear-free Ontario would be something worth striving for... it can be done.
Rudy Fiebiger Point
Dear Editor;
In Response to Rudy Fiebiger’s Article “Reader feels Ontario should strive to be nuclear-free” published in the December 28th, 2011 issue.
Rudy’s letter will without a doubt attract a lot of technical feedback and the vast majority of it will clearly and factually refute Rudy’s letter. I, however, wish to address some issues on the edge of Rudy’s focus.
The all or nothing single minded approach that many wind proponents take is unique to wind proponents and in direct opposition to almost all nuclear proponents. The single minded approach is certainly in clear opposition to the voice of workers in the Nuclear Industry, the Canadian Nuclear Workers’ Council (CNWC), where the optimum electricity grid is seen to be made up of a firm base load of nuclear generation in addition to other traditional generation methods such as hydro electric and fossil and a percentage of renewables such as wind and solar. There are many other organizations, professional, scientific, etc, that would be aligned with the CNWC, but I will limit my remarks to the CNWC aspect.
The CNWC is made up of many affiliated unions and they stretch across all aspects of the nuclear industry. Examples would be the USW, CAW, CEP, IAFF, IBEW, PWU, PSAC, CRTT, SPEA, IAMAW and these workers work in everything from mining / fabrication and generation to medical isotopes and research. This diversity is representative of a large part of the nuclear industry, but given Rudy’s vision of a nuclear free Ontario these jobs, in an already damaged Ontario economy, would disappear as would the life saving isotope work and the lion’s share of the $7.2 billion industry that the Canadian nuclear industry represents; not to mention that 95% of all parts and materials in a CANDU reactor are sourced in Canada. Can’t say that we hear that about almost anything else today!
Rudy’s comments about Bruce employees (“Don't worry Bruce employees; you are not going to lose you fantastic pay cheques and benefits”) demonstrates that ever present lack of understanding so often found in people who refuse to educate themselves about Trade Unionism, and intrinsic to that, the process of collective bargaining and the rights to that under the Charter of Rights of Freedoms. To use Rudy’s words the cheques and benefits came about not as the result of some benevolent entity, employer / government or otherwise, but from 65 years of collective bargaining lead by the Power Workers’ Union and its predecessors and many years of hard nosed collective bargaining by the Society of Energy Professionals and the BTU.
So, Rudy, I am sure that you will get lots of feedback, but on the issues responded to herein you have already lead with your chin and sadly in this case not very credibly.
Dave Trumble, President Grey-Bruce Labour Council
Originally Posted in the Dec. 28th 2011 Issue of the Kincardine News
Reader feels Ontario Should Strive to be Nuclear Free
Posted 1 day ago
Dear Editor,
I have observed with amazement the wind power issue plaguing the Kincardine area for the past few years.
Terms like bewilderment, stunned, dazed and at time stupefied come to mind.
Here we are living next door to a nuclear plant which albeit very safe to today's standards is nevertheless a ticking time bomb which cannot be turned off by just throwing a switch.
Nuclear waste is going to be with us for hundreds if not thousands of years and yet I some 'official' people think it's a good idea to have it buried here in the ground for the next 1,000 years.
I wonder if the people in this area have somehow been brain washed by a very clever pro-nuclear group to think that wind energy will herald Armageddon and destroy this are a beyond recognition. (Don't worry Bruce employees; you are not going to lose you fantastic pay cheques and benefits).
Is this a severe case of the noisy minority getting undeserved air play? In every conflict, the truth is the first casualty.
Yes, wind power needs to be put under more scrutiny before we go ahead and plant them en mass in our landscape but let's be realistic and honest... wind power is a very small menace compared to nuclear power.
Let's open our minds to alternatives in energy generation.
We all want clean energy, reliable energy, and cheap energy... (Easier said than done) but let's keep in mind too that neither of the two mentioned energies can do it alone.
Let's think outside the 'proverbial' box.
Stop the herd thinking and let's be a little more in touch with what lies before us.
A nuclear-free Ontario would be something worth striving for... it can be done.
Rudy Fiebiger Point
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Working / Middle Class Incomes
In many parts of the world exposure to an intense level of commercialism, advertising and marketing is part of the last months and weeks of every year. Curiously the miniature stories portrayed in television commercials and the plethora of full page ads in national newspapers and magazines tells the recipient that the consumer world is flush with people capable of acquiring all the goods, services and the lifestyle displayed. Perhaps this would be true today if the world that existed before the destruction of the middle / working class was launched by the three horseman of economic and working class apocalypse, Regan, Mulroney and Thatcher, and perpetuated by the Harpers, Fords and Canadian Federation of Independent Business type organizations. One way to quantify this is that based solely on the ads one could think that working people are winning and prospering when in every way working people see the level of prosperity that would be needed to access these goods and services intentionally eroded by government and business alike.
There is tragedy and irony in this in that the tragic and needless destruction of middle and working class prosperity is dictated first and foremost by right wing ideology and an unfounded fear that educated, represented and properly compensated working people demanding their fair share of the wealth are to be feared instead of warmly embraced by government and business. Ironically, along with the many working class lives destroyed by these ideological convulsions the very people paying untold millions on the advertising and marketing in hopes of attracting this financially impaired middle class consumer remain silent, or perhaps are complicit in the attacks, when it comes to destruction of working class lives and middle class incomes.
The commercialism associated with the high intensity consumerism of the latter part of each year brings focus and examination that further undermines the ideology that in the context of this letter damages and destroys countless lives while making less and less useful the traditional advertising that shows prosperity as if it is a part of our lives as it was when people across this nation proudly created countless items that said “Made in Canada”. As the advertisers still try and convince the millions now living in much diminished circumstances due to the intentional destruction of Canada’s manufacturing base that this imaginary life is easily accessible it makes it easier and easier to clearly see the failing of the policies that have not only destroyed livelihoods but will continue to do so in an ever widening degree until governments and corporations both realize that prosperity is only ever attained by the widest dispersal of wealth possible.
In 2012 as the Harpers, Fords, and in the US, the ever increasing trend to intolerance and right wing extremism sadly continue to be more and more emboldened one will have to wonder when the progressive change in direction started by the occupy movement will be joined by the same corporations that lose more and more customers as right wing government policy drives more and more workers out of work and less and less into the stores.
Dave Trumble, President Grey-Bruce Labour Council
There is tragedy and irony in this in that the tragic and needless destruction of middle and working class prosperity is dictated first and foremost by right wing ideology and an unfounded fear that educated, represented and properly compensated working people demanding their fair share of the wealth are to be feared instead of warmly embraced by government and business. Ironically, along with the many working class lives destroyed by these ideological convulsions the very people paying untold millions on the advertising and marketing in hopes of attracting this financially impaired middle class consumer remain silent, or perhaps are complicit in the attacks, when it comes to destruction of working class lives and middle class incomes.
The commercialism associated with the high intensity consumerism of the latter part of each year brings focus and examination that further undermines the ideology that in the context of this letter damages and destroys countless lives while making less and less useful the traditional advertising that shows prosperity as if it is a part of our lives as it was when people across this nation proudly created countless items that said “Made in Canada”. As the advertisers still try and convince the millions now living in much diminished circumstances due to the intentional destruction of Canada’s manufacturing base that this imaginary life is easily accessible it makes it easier and easier to clearly see the failing of the policies that have not only destroyed livelihoods but will continue to do so in an ever widening degree until governments and corporations both realize that prosperity is only ever attained by the widest dispersal of wealth possible.
In 2012 as the Harpers, Fords, and in the US, the ever increasing trend to intolerance and right wing extremism sadly continue to be more and more emboldened one will have to wonder when the progressive change in direction started by the occupy movement will be joined by the same corporations that lose more and more customers as right wing government policy drives more and more workers out of work and less and less into the stores.
Dave Trumble, President Grey-Bruce Labour Council
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Occupy Movement
Dear Editor;
Halifax and London ON have now joined the ranks of cities and towns forcibly removing “Occupy” protestors from their camps. Shame on all such cities and local lawmakers for removing people that are speaking up about economic inequality and the notion of fairness through fair and equitable economic legislative policy that will translate into fair distribution of wealth and services for all people! What a great concept this is; after all it is not without precedent when one takes the coloquial wisdom that governements were meant to govern in the best interests of all people.
The people that speak against the "Occupy" message of fairness will say that this is unfair to those that aspire to financially loftier places in our society and that their path to wealth must not be impeded by having to share their wealth. Critical thinking will demonstrate that the ongoing success of the rich and affluent is only as sustainable as the lives of those that now form the foundation of this wealth; the very workers and young people that will come to work in these same places and they deserve lives that are sustainable and provide the necessary income and protections in the workplace and in society to permit a "quality of life" that for some reason so many on the political right or within the corporate elite feel to be their personal responsibility to deny.
Those that have succumbed to this bashing of the protestors, workers and unions are actually subscribing to what might be the last bastion of where hate is tolerated. Society has rightfully stood up to all kinds of hate and prejudice yet our papers and radio are full of so called pundits and columnists who stand firm in their desire to deny people fairness in their workplaces. These same columnists and pundits even attract advertising dollars. Could the cities in question not at least support the Charter Rights in Canada and Constitutional Rights in America of the "Occupy" people to express the need for fairness in our society?
There will a percentage of the population who would have us believe that the protestors are nothing more than anarchists and that the camps are a coven of undesirable people. The same lawmakers that have forcibly closed the camps and those who believe they have some kind of moral authority to define an undesirable are the same people that label people who have become homeless due to job loss, job loss that was created by the horrific economic policies of right wing governments going back for decades.
The “Occupy” movement is a manifestation of factors and grievances that span a large part of the last forty years (particularly since the election of the three horsemen of economic destruction; Reagan, Mulroney and Thatcher) and these grievances have destroyed millions of middle class unionized jobs and public services such that the very fabric of our society is now at risk. The “Occupy” movement is the first grass roots movement since the 1960's to say corporate, financial and political leaders are wrong in almost everything they are doing and what is the reaction; not unexpected I would say! Reprehensible nonetheless when one considers that the same policy makers at fault are the very ones that suggest that free speech and the right to assemble are two of our most important rights and privileges yet they take these rights away from the “Occupy” movement.
The “Occupy” protest handle is perhaps the biggest deception of all as the people involved in the “Occupy” movement are a vanguard of social change; the change back towards a better world where a social contract between the citizenry, the government and corporations exists to ensure that the needs of all people are met and that no person is marginalized or left behind.
In Solidarity
Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council
http://www.greybrucelabour.com/
Halifax and London ON have now joined the ranks of cities and towns forcibly removing “Occupy” protestors from their camps. Shame on all such cities and local lawmakers for removing people that are speaking up about economic inequality and the notion of fairness through fair and equitable economic legislative policy that will translate into fair distribution of wealth and services for all people! What a great concept this is; after all it is not without precedent when one takes the coloquial wisdom that governements were meant to govern in the best interests of all people.
The people that speak against the "Occupy" message of fairness will say that this is unfair to those that aspire to financially loftier places in our society and that their path to wealth must not be impeded by having to share their wealth. Critical thinking will demonstrate that the ongoing success of the rich and affluent is only as sustainable as the lives of those that now form the foundation of this wealth; the very workers and young people that will come to work in these same places and they deserve lives that are sustainable and provide the necessary income and protections in the workplace and in society to permit a "quality of life" that for some reason so many on the political right or within the corporate elite feel to be their personal responsibility to deny.
Those that have succumbed to this bashing of the protestors, workers and unions are actually subscribing to what might be the last bastion of where hate is tolerated. Society has rightfully stood up to all kinds of hate and prejudice yet our papers and radio are full of so called pundits and columnists who stand firm in their desire to deny people fairness in their workplaces. These same columnists and pundits even attract advertising dollars. Could the cities in question not at least support the Charter Rights in Canada and Constitutional Rights in America of the "Occupy" people to express the need for fairness in our society?
There will a percentage of the population who would have us believe that the protestors are nothing more than anarchists and that the camps are a coven of undesirable people. The same lawmakers that have forcibly closed the camps and those who believe they have some kind of moral authority to define an undesirable are the same people that label people who have become homeless due to job loss, job loss that was created by the horrific economic policies of right wing governments going back for decades.
The “Occupy” movement is a manifestation of factors and grievances that span a large part of the last forty years (particularly since the election of the three horsemen of economic destruction; Reagan, Mulroney and Thatcher) and these grievances have destroyed millions of middle class unionized jobs and public services such that the very fabric of our society is now at risk. The “Occupy” movement is the first grass roots movement since the 1960's to say corporate, financial and political leaders are wrong in almost everything they are doing and what is the reaction; not unexpected I would say! Reprehensible nonetheless when one considers that the same policy makers at fault are the very ones that suggest that free speech and the right to assemble are two of our most important rights and privileges yet they take these rights away from the “Occupy” movement.
The “Occupy” protest handle is perhaps the biggest deception of all as the people involved in the “Occupy” movement are a vanguard of social change; the change back towards a better world where a social contract between the citizenry, the government and corporations exists to ensure that the needs of all people are met and that no person is marginalized or left behind.
In Solidarity
Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council
http://www.greybrucelabour.com/
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