The article was so amateurish, its argument so high-schoolish and simplistic that it had me wondering if she has a blackmail tape buried somewhere in her closet that safeguards her job.
Ms. Bagnall was arguing for a strengthening of the law banning any manner of replacement workers during a strike, in light of circumstances in the ongoing conflict at the Journal de Montreal, where Quebec's craftiest boss, Pierre-Karl Péladeau, used a flaw in Quebec's labour law to circumvent the picket line to employ contract journalists to replace strikers.
Ms. Bagnall worries that any fiddling with Quebec's sacred anti-scab law will turn Quebec into China, where workers she tells us, make a $1 a day and commit suicide regularly.
Hmmm....Not exactly a description of conditions at the Journal de Montreal where workers made salaries ranging upwards of $60,000 to over $100,000 a year, for jobs that included a four-day, 32 hour work week, as well as six weeks of paid vacation including a 50% bonus. LINK{fr}
As background to this story, Péladeau has set up his own independent news agency (QMI,) to provide replacement content for striking journalists.
The cost of the non-unionized agency is a fraction of what staff journalists cost him before.
The content is transmitted electronically over the Internet and so, technically does not constitute the definition of crossing a picket line. Ha ha!
The newspaper has been publishing effortlessly throughout the strike and has been making even more money with reduced costs. Incidentally, the union's call for a public and advertiser boycott has gone unheeded. In fact readership and ad revenue is UP!
Suffice to say that Mr. Péladeau is not interested in re-hiring the striking journalists- ever!
And so Quebec's unions (and Janet Bagnall) are demanding that Quebec labour law be amended to include a prohibition against this 'virtual' crossing of the picket line.
The concept that Ms. Bagnall defends (the banning of replacement workers,) is not as natural or popular as she would intimate. In fact, nowhere in North America, other than British Columbia and Quebec are companies so enjoined and nowhere in North America are the tables so badly tilted in favour of unions as in Quebec.
The belief that a company should not be able to hire replacement workers as long as the strike is ongoing is sacrosanct in Quebec. Of course no rule says that strikers can't find new employment during the strike and in the case of this labour conflict, workers have even set up and published a rival newspaper!
But let us examine the no-scab rule in a more understandable context.
Consider the case of your friendly neighbourhood babysitter who shows up to your door one day and tells you that the $9.50 minimum wage that you pay her is no longer satisfactory and that from now on, you'll have to cough up $18 plus benefits, for her services.
"Forget about it, " you might say in a rage."I'll hire someone else!"
"Not so fast!" says a burly stranger standing right behind her, patiently waiting for his turn to speak.
"I'm her union rep and I want you to know we've unionized your house. Three of the five babysitters who regularly service your house have signed union cards and from now on, you can only hire personnel affiliated with the CSN, the parent union.
"WHAT THE HELL, it's a free country, I'll hire who I want!, " you scream.
"Actually it's not. The law backs us up. If you want a babysitter, you must now hire a union babysitter and you must pay the going rate. " he retorts smugly.
"Your only alternative is to declare a lock-out and do the babysitting yourself. By the way, that means no calling your mother-in-law, you aren't allowed to hire scabs to replace us, it's the law."
"So What's it's going to cost me?"
"Well, lets see. There'll be no more exploitation of these girls. From now on the hourly wage is $18 and that's for the first six hours. Anything over that is double time and by the way there's an hour of travel time added to the bill as well as another half hour, for each block of four hours as compensation for breaks that cannot be taken due to responsibilities. There are pro-rated charges for vacation and for mandatory training. You'll have to collect the union dues and send them to us directly. Here, it's all covered in this pamphlet.
"TRAVEL TIME!!! She lives next door, you bastard! All this must add up to $22 an hour. I can't afford that, what are my alternatives?"
" You don't have alternatives, this is Quebec. If you don't like it, move your family to Ontario"
"Hmmm..."Oh by the way, does a $22 an hour babysitter sound ridiculous?
It's actually what Quebec's newly unionized day care workers cost us, more than double the price just a few short years ago when they weren't unionized. Yup, $22 for babysitting!
There was a time when unions were needed to protect workers from the company excess, but today the government regulates all manners of working conditions, including minimum wage, hours of employment, statutory holidays and vacation, health and safety issues as well as worker recourse to unfair treatment including harassment and unjust termination,
All that is left for the union is to negotiate salaries and benefits above and beyond what the government mandates.
And so, because of the power bestowed upon them by the Quebec labour law, unions can tell the company that unless they pay workers so much, they cannot operate. The company's only recourse is to close or cave in to demands.
Incidentally, the Mafia operates almost identically, telling the company where they must buy cement and which company they must use for garbage removal. The prices of course, are always above competitive rates, but hey, if the company doesn't 'cooperate,' they will of course, be
Unions and the Mafia in Quebec, have so much in common that they work hand in hand, squeezing what they can from the company by way of government regulation and intimidation.
Certain neighbourhoods in the city of Montreal have been informally divided among snow removal contractors, where nobody but the designated operator can offer services, lest some unfortunate 'accident' befall the interloper. Of course prices remain artificially high under these circumstances, but I wouldn't suggest trying to hire a cheaper alternative!
I bet Ms. Bagnall is opposed to this type of gangsterism, but somehow remains firmly in favour of unions applying the same techniques.
Overpriced and under performing employees is what today's unionism is about. The stronger the union, the lower the productivity and the higher the cost.
The monopoly and unfair negotiating advantage accorded to them by the government makes Quebec the most inhospitable market for any North American company to operate in. That is why jobs have been exported not only to poor countries, but even to the United States, as in the recent case of Electrolux, who is packing up their factory in Quebec and moving it's 1,300 jobs to Memphis, Tennessee. Link
Ms. Bagnall has no pity for Mr. Péladeau, he's rich and his companies make a lot of money. If he's forced to dish out over the market prices for labour, all the better!
Let the rich pay!
Quebec may be the last place on Earth where this theme still resounds.
Let me finish with a story, told by Charles Adler, the syndicated radio talk show host, out of Winnipeg.
A college student is arguing with her father over his opposition to paying more taxes to support other 'less' fortunates.
"Dad, its only fair, I can't even imagine by what right someone like you, who has so much is unwilling to share."
"Daughter, let me ask you a question. How are you doing at school?
"Excellent, Dad, you know it, I'm maintaining a 4.0 grade average. I'm working like a fiend to do well. But what's this got to do with what we're discussing?
"Well, how is your friend Debbie doing, I heard she isn't working very hard"
"You better believe it, she's a party animal, skips classes and studies too little. She's flunking with a 1.8 GPA and doesn't seem to care"
"Well how about this? You've got an amazing average, much more than you need. Why don't you give her enough points to let her pass. In other words, let's lower your GPA to 3.2 and give her the 8 points to boost her score to 2.6, allowing her to maintain a passing grade. Everybody comes out better!
"Whoa, Dad, how do I come out better? I worked my ass off for the grades, I'm not giving away what I earned to some lazy under performer. I deserve the benefits of my work. How does your plan possibly makes sense for me?
"Daughter, you've got so much, why are you unwilling to share!
"Dad, with all due respect, ARE YOU RETARDED?! Are you actually suggesting that I give away my GPA average!!!!
Yup, let the rich pay...
"Daughter, I think we're more alike than you think!
Ms Bagnall fantasizes that overpaying unionized employees, doesn't have a deleterious economic effect. She is woefully ignorant of the real world.
Tomorrow I'll tell readers about the unbelievably sad story of how a Quebec union killed its own golden goose. It isn't pretty.
