Discussions

So workers at Canadian National Railway are going to take strike action when the economy is at its most vulnerable and when they will further impact supply chain disruption hurting the most people.  
I’m sorry but this is unacceptable. It’s time that the federal government steps up and makes strike action illegal in Canada. It’s time that employers are given the upper hand. People should be grateful that they have a job.

references to CN employees and strike action and substitute oil companies and fuel prices - any better? It's called capitalism. They are exerting their power to ensure the best results for themselves, all other factors be damned.  
 
Pretty amusing when conservative, pro-business governments act like socialists and set prices.

After seeing the federated coop locking out their workers for 6 months, yeah it totally makes sense to strike when the pressure is on. It's almost as if the work they do is important and they should be compensated for that...  
 
I work somewhere where I am well paid and get unlimited paid time off, I wish my fellow workers the same.

Such actions make Canada, its economy and its workforce increasingly uncompetitive on the world market. Reform is needed to improve productivity and provide competitive advantage.

The right to strike is constitutionally protected. We don't need the government to make exploitation loopholes, companies need to treat employees better. It's not by squeezing employees that's going to make Canada competitive, it's real vision by company leaders.

I was very anti-union for years - nay, decades - but then I realized how poorly some workers are treated. I still don't love unions, but they have a valuable role in helping workers get a fair deal.  
 
The striking employees don't have a contract. I wouldn't want to continue to work without a contract, especially with inflation the way it is. You can also argue CN is hurting people by not meeting the union half way. CN described it's earnings in recent quarters as "outstanding".

Improved productivity and competitiveness is driven by businesses leaders with vision. The vision to reduce excessive employee costs, the boldness to not compromise and the willingness to modernize, adopting new technologies and further automation. We need business and political leaders willing to fight back against over zealous unions, to tell unions they are outdated and their time is over and leaders that will not back down.

The only reason to stick up for the faceless corporation is if you are a large shareholder. Workers deserve the be paid fairly. I'm all for capitalism but if there are no unions the corporations run wild and employees will be poorly compensated so share prices can increase. That's all that matter to the corporate leaders who are making sure they get a huge slice of the pie whether they perform or not. Unions like this are keeping middle class jobs as middle class jobs, anywhere else they are disappearing and wealth gaps are widening.  
 
Also, railroading isnt an easy job. Being on call all your life and working all hours, having to follow strick rules when operating a 20000 ton train when you are worn out is hard on the body and mind. Not to mention work/life balance when all you do is turn and burn. I did it for years, not easy.

I consider the damage done to the wider economy , some temporary and some permanent and the loss of important markets .

Most government employees that don’t work at desks are under paid and over worked for what they do. And striking when the economy is poor is a tactic that hopefully would keep the government from dragging its feet about fair employment agreements. Because let’s look at some differences in health care nurses threatened to strike and their contracts were ratified quicker because if they did strike it would affect the bottom line and patient care, and they could prove they were doing more than their “ job des:cription” but health care aides tried the same thing but the wording on their job des:cription allowed for so much Lee way the government went uh huh sure and still hasn’t ratified the agreement 5+ years without a contract and almost 3 yrs of bargaining because the government doesn’t care.  
Long story short government will screw you coming and going if you don’t have a way to make them come play fair- ish

Productivity and corporate profits have been doing very well for the past few decades. Wages have generally not kept up with those increases. If the workers feel like they should strike, then they should have the freedom to do so.

Sure thing. That is why most of our manufacturing is outsourced abroad where cheaper labour is available. This kind of approach will serve to continue increasing our cost of living and create further inflation.

I consider those too but that should fall on the business leaders with vision and not the peasant employees trying to stay in the middle class. The business leaders still have the power to give a fair compensation, you know they dont skimp on their own. Cut out the middle class and you dont have a healthy economy. CN profits have increased exponentially more than anyone's wages other than the exec's possibly

If u take a look at some of these CEO’s payouts and salary’s, you would shake your head. Nobody is worth that money but they get all the pay and bonuses  
 
Not the boots on the ground doing all the work.

You would be good if Canadian employers went back to child labor, sweatshops, crappy pay and dangerous working conditions (cuz that is what a lot of factory workers get in places like Bangledesh). Remember the collapsed building that killed many seamstresses in a clothing factory? Workers get locked in the factory (totally a dangerous, deadly situation if fire breaks out). Yeah, if you want cheap labor in Canada to keep jobs here-that could be what you are going to be aiming for.

No I wouldn’t be good with that but we are all supporting those work conditions with our current buying habits.  
If our workers were a just a little more competitive and productive we could bring back some of that manufacturing capacity domestically.

Your opinions on unions and strikes are at best uninformed or at worst come from a place of extreme privilege.  
 
Advocating for the exploitation of workers, as well as advocating for the abolishment of what is essentially the right to gather is horribly shameful. Companies have far too much power and already exploit their workers too much as it is. In what universe is it admirable that a select few can accumulate billions of dollars and leave their employees to suffer? As a collective, workers have the bargaining power, companies would be nothing without their workers and a strike is simply a culmination of the employees frustration. Life is getting increasingly expensive and if these workers feel like their job security, pay, benefits, or retirement are threatened, then they have every right to protest those conditions. Insinuating that those rights should be illegal is astonishingly horrible.

You don’t have a clue about my background. I worked my way from the bottom right out of school.did as I was asked and did hard, dirty work with unsociable hours while supplying all of my own equipment. I progressed slowly but steadily through hard work and commitment. Never received any benefits from an employer. If I got offered a raise I was grateful. If I was unhappy I went out and found a different job. I was thankful and fortunate to have work. I was offered jobs with compulsory union membership which I turned down because I have never believed in the way the unions exploit their members.  
Some of us saved when we were employed so that we could go on our own and become business owners you know.  
. If you think I am in a privileged position frankly that’s your mistake and your problem.  
Fact is unions and work stoppages or strikes cause trouble, damage markets, damage the economy and ultimately cause job losses and make life harder for other people. I don’t believe in that and will fight against it till my last breath. If it wasn’t for employers and their investment in people there would be no work for everyone else and there would be no economy.  
The cost of running a business is rising exponentially now as well and those businesses can’t always easily pass those cost increases on to their customers.  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-06-21 23:06:15

Top 3 executives received 10 million in bonus.  
Looks like they have room to pay their staff a couple percent more.

The Constitutions are outdated. Laissez Faire society is just that, capitalist vs capitalist. Workers sell labour for the means of a living wage. Back in the 1840s when Karl Marx theorized The Communist Manifesto there were poor to sometimes extreme working conditions for workers in the factories/fields. If a worker failed to show up and work for their wage, they were replaced for a willing worker who wanted to be there. The whole solution to Marx and Engels' class struggles is a revolutionary situation where the workers took control of the means of production, so far this has not happened globally for the greater good. The Proletariat and Bourgeoise have a history of trying to one up each other.

This one's going to binding arbitration...  
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/cn-strike-to-end-early-tuesday-after-union-agrees-to-binding-arbitration-1.1787651