"The right to bargain collectively with an employer enhances the human dignity, liberty and autonomy of workers by giving them the opportunity to influence the establishment of workplace rules and thereby gain some control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their work... Collective bargaining is not simply an instrument for pursuing external ends…rather [it] is intrinsically valuable as an experience in self-government... Collective bargaining permits workers to achieve a form of workplace democracy and to ensure the rule of law in the workplace. Workers gain a voice to influence the establishment of rules that control a major aspect of their lives."
- Facilities Subsector Bargaining Association v. British Columbia
Supreme Court of Canada, 2007
The Harper government is moving to force striking Air Canada workers back to work with justifications as plausible as the Reichstag Fire and now they've got the same in store for striking Canada Post employees.
Canada once honoured its commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 23 of which acknowledges the right to organize trade unions as a fundamental human right.
Apparently Harper's thuggish corporatism now trumps even universal, fundamental human rights. Harper and the greasy minds that follow him will, of course, argue that they're not impeding the right to organize trade unions. No, indeed, all they're doing is cutting the legs off those unions once they seek to invoke collective bargaining.
Fiends.
