Concessions cripple labour’s fight against capitalist austerity

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The author is a former OPS mobilizer (resigned), Toronto Region, currently vice president, OPSEU Local 532.

Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU) members of the Ontario Public Service (OPS) ratified a two-year col­ lective agreement with a two-year wage freeze. It represents a wage cut of over 4% when inflation is considered. While members will continue to progress up the wage grid, the 3% lower first new step in the grid will have a major impact on new hires. The deal also removes termination pay for new employees. These are dan­ gerous moves towards inequality among workers in the OPS.

The steps towards a two-tier wage struc­ ture is a betrayal of young members. It sows the seeds of a union divided. OP­ SEU is on the way to joining the ranks of major Canadian unions that have sur­ rendered serious concessions. Leaders of intervention in Mali! autoworkers, steel workers, postal work­ ers, and Catholic teachers gave way. Then elementary and secondary public school teacher leaders caved to the OLRB ruling banning a one-day political strike. Now all teachers are forced to work under the thumb of undemocratic terms imposed under the former Bill 115.

Labour brass rhetoric aside, concessions bargaining is now the norm, not the excep­ tion, impacting most harmfully youths, women, and immigrant workers. Lack­ ing was any attempt to work in a common front with the house of labour against Dal­ ton McGuinty’s austerity agenda. Indeed, in true sectarian fashion, OP­ SEU organized a separate early morning protest at the Ontario Liberal leadership convention, where MPP Kathleen Wynne won the top post on Jan. 26. This denied members from outside Toronto (who re­ lied on union-booked buses) the opportu­ nity to participate in the Ontario Federa­ tion of Labour afternoon protest demon­ stration and rally. The OFL effort, which parties against labour. Needed now, more than ever, is a working-class fightback in the NDP, to push the party to the left to challenge austerity, and to abide by more democratic and socialist principles.

There are good examples of effective protests against austerity. The Occupy movement, under the slogan “We are the 99%,” showed for the first time in a gen­ eration that there is a class struggle, that working people did not create the eco­ nomic crisis, and should not pay for it.

The massive Quebec students’ strike in 2012 was an excellent example of a fight­ back against austerity. Quebec students rallied public support for universal access to quality post-secondary education, and hastened the defeat of the governing Que­ bec Liberal Party and the reversal of the tuition hike. This shows what is possible when there is progressive leadership.

OPSEU would have been in a better po­ sition to fight and win if it had launched a mobilization effort months before the beginning of bargaining, through bulle­ ment without consultation must stop.

The Tuareg people of Northern Mali have been waging a campaign for independence for decades, which has been a thorn in the side of both the Malian government and to those who wish to exploit the natural resources of the area. The borders drawn up by the French colonialists were never ap­ propriate to the needs of the primarily nomadic peoples of the deserts in the north.

More recently, the overthrow of the Libyan government by NATO (with direct Canadian military participation) has allowed for huge numbers of weapons to fall into the hands of local militias. The Mali situation is, therefore, yet another case of blowback against Western interests. Sending West­ ern troops to the region does nothing more than compound that folly and continue the cycle of perpetual war in the re­ gion. Canada should not participate.

The real reason for NATO’s involvement is to secure stra­ tegic, resource rich areas of Africa for the West. Canadian gold mining operations have significant holdings in North­ ern Mali, as do many other western nations. Canada’s new vided. Instead of holding a ratification vote on a concessionary agreement, OP­ SEU should have launched a strike vote prior to the Liberal Convention. Based on reports from mobilizers across the province, there would have been a strike mandate. This could have had an impact by putting pressure on the Liberal party, which heads a minority government, sus­ pended the Legislature, and was busy choosing a new leader.

By accepting concessions, OPSEU sig­ nals to the ruling class that it will toler­ ate what the Liberals are doing—in ef­ fect making working people pay for the economic crisis we are enduring. State­ ments such as “the government would not budge” are a very poor excuse to accept concessions. If the bosses don’t budge, should we collapse?

The idea that labour will turn things around “when the economy recovers,” or that a struggle against management will occur without the union rank and file challenging and overcoming the union bureaucracy, are grand delusions. The fos­ tering of class-struggle opposition in each union is no abstract ideal. It is an urgent necessity to avoid an accelerating descent into labour hell. n interventionism, which includes the building of three mili­ tary bases in Tanzania, Senegal, and Kenya, is therefore pri­ marily about securing the area for further plunder. Canadian troops are already stationed in Niger ready to launch an in­ vasion.

We urge the Canadian Government to withdraw all troops from the surrounding region. We also call on Canadians to demand of the Harper government that it withdraw from membership in NATO, which constantly drags us into every neo-colonial, military adventure of the Western powers in the world.

Also of concern is the use of the “Islamist” threat to justify any intervention by the NATO powers. Islamophobia is a key tool in perpetuating these foreign advances. It is ironic that since the death of Osama Bin Laden, the U.S. military boasts that al-Qaeda is on the run and has no ability to wage its war. Meanwhile, any time there is a need for intervention, there is suddenly a new al-Qaeda threat that comes out of the woodwork. Canada must not participate in this process of unending war. n