When looking at collective agreements in Mexico, I was unable to find a readily available management rights clause. Perhaps there are some, and if anyone has information concerning them, please make a comment so that I can incorporate them into this blog. However, perhaps Mexican management rights are expressed in a different way. The obligations … Continue reading Implied Management Rights in a Collective Agreement in Mexico: Workers’ Obligations and Prohibitions
Tag: Collective Agreements
Transparency in Collective Bargaining: A Necessary but Insufficient Condition for Democratic and Rational Working-Class Practice
Rebecca Keetch wrote an article that was posted on the Socialist Project's website on transparency and collective bargaining (https://socialistproject.ca/2020/09/canadian-auto-workers-fight-for-contract-transparency/). Ms. Keetch was a former GM worker at Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, and she is a member and activist of Green Jobs Oshawa. Ms. Keetch advocates for transparent bargaining in a form similar to what I tried … Continue reading Transparency in Collective Bargaining: A Necessary but Insufficient Condition for Democratic and Rational Working-Class Practice
The Contradictions of Social Democracy: Mr. Gindin’s Musings on the Closure of GM’s Oshawa Plant
The following is a critique of an article written by Sam Gindin before the coronavirus pandemic emerged. It is relevant to the current situation because of the current call for public ownership as a solution to the problems that we face. Mr. Gindin published an article on February 3, 2020, titled Realizing 'Just Transitions': The … Continue reading The Contradictions of Social Democracy: Mr. Gindin’s Musings on the Closure of GM’s Oshawa Plant
The Canadian Labour Congress’s Idealization of the Collective-Bargaining Process
Relatively recently, Hassan Yussuff, the president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), wrote an article praising collective bargaining: Collective bargaining is good for everyone December 23, 2019 By Hassan Yussuff, as published in the Globe and Mail. The holidays aren’t solely about gift-giving and spreading good cheer. Many workers find themselves having to walk a … Continue reading The Canadian Labour Congress’s Idealization of the Collective-Bargaining Process
Review of Jane McAlevey’s “A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy”: Two Steps Backward and One Step Forward, Part One
Jane McAlevey is everywhere these days. Recently appointed a senior fellow at Berkeley’s Labor Center, she is now also a regular columnist for both the Nation and Jacobin. Her webinar (“Organizing for Union Power”) has a global audience. She continues to be called on to address unions and run training sessions in the United States, Canada, the … Continue reading Review of Jane McAlevey’s “A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy”: Two Steps Backward and One Step Forward, Part One
The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Five: Middle-Class Delusions
This is a continuation of a critique of an academic leftist (aka academic historical materialist), the philosopher Jeff Noonan. As noted in a previous post, Professor Noonan makes the following statement in relation to employees at a university (from Thinkings 4: Collected Interventions, Readings, Evocations, 2014-2015, page 13): Instead, all members of the institution– faculty, librarians, … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Five: Middle-Class Delusions
Management Rights, Part Eight: Private Sector Collective Agreement, Quebec
Here is another clause from a collective agreement concerning management rights, this time from the private sector--and in a province in Canada where French is predominant officially. Undoubtedly for the social-democratic left, it expresses a situation where there is decent work--a cliché among the left, who refuse to investigate its meaning in a democratic fashion. It … Continue reading Management Rights, Part Eight: Private Sector Collective Agreement, Quebec
The Silences of the Social-Democratic Left
I had two recent conversations with social democrats on two different (though undoubtedly related topics). The first conversation is a representative of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4400 (education workers). The Local's website indicates the following: Toronto Education Workers/Local 4400 is made up of approximately 12,000 Education Workers who primarily work within the … Continue reading The Silences of the Social-Democratic Left
Do Collective Agreements Convert Working for an Employer into Decent Work?
Tracy MacMaster is a union steward for Local 561 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU); she was also vice-president of the local union at one point. However, she prides herself most on her activity of organizing part-time college workers (she works at a college as a library technician). . On March 25, 2019, … Continue reading Do Collective Agreements Convert Working for an Employer into Decent Work?
The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Three: Collective Bargaining and the Interests of the Working Class
This is a continuation of a critique of an academic leftist (aka academic historical materialist), the philosopher Jeff Noonan. Another example of the limitations of Professor Noonan's analysis is the following (from Thinkings 4: Collected Interventions, Readings, Evocations, 2014-2015,page 10): And sometimes it is necessary to struggle to protect or extend our rights as workers to … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Three: Collective Bargaining and the Interests of the Working Class
The Abolitionary 