CLC dumps on Hargrove
CLC dumps on Hargrove
In what is no surprise to many, the CLC delegates at the convention in Vancouver embraced the status quo. Buzz Hargrove who is an outspoken leader of the CAW was slammed by delegates and in particular Manitoba steelworker Bob Desjarlais.
Desjarlais told Buzz Hargrove-"Stay the hell out of the press if you've got nothing good to say about my party" . This gained Desjarlais a standing ovation.
Sudbury, Ontario steelworker delegate Wayne stood up and said-"There's only one party that represents the rights of working people". "We've had fights, but we had those fights behind closed doors. Never did we attack the party leaders in public."
Hargrove who has been booed at this CLC convention refused to be quite and told the CLC delegates-"Don't let those who would silence debate destroy our party." And there in a nutshell is one of the biggest road blocks to change.
The insistence of labour unions to stifle open debate prohibits free debate, freedom of expression and the possibility of change. Even the mere thought of keeping things behind closed doors is a sure indication of an unwillingness for change. Too many dirty, dysfunctional and destructive evils are allowed to occur when we insist on keeping our thought bound by rules of secrecy. It may be great for power hungry status quo union leaders, but it is a memorial to the death of working union members rights across this country.
aboutunions
source: www.canada.com
quote:
Sudbury, Ontario steelworker delegate Wayne stood up and said-"There's only one party that represents the rights of working people". "We've had fights, but we had those fights behind closed doors. Never did we attack the party leaders in public."
Hargrove who has been booed at this CLC convention refused to be quite and told the CLC delegates-"Don't let those who would silence debate destroy our party." And there in a nutshell is one of the biggest road blocks to change.
It's the denial that the labour elite could possibly be wrong, and the refusal to do an brutally-honest internal look-see that will leave the North American labour movement stone, cold dead.
Herman Benson said it best in his 1999 article Rising Tide of Union Democracy:
quote:
The Secret Code of Union Officialdom
'...the chiseled-in-stone commandments that govern relations among union officials, is a code seldom broken that mandates loyalty, mutual support, and a live-and-let-live attitude…. In its most extreme and debased form, the code prescribes that you may run your union as you see fit, even honestly, as long as I am permitted to run mine as I see fit, without public criticism.'
These blind labour fundamentalists are brainwashed into accepting that which isn't. I believe Noam Chomsky explains it this way:
quote:
You begin to conform, you being to get the privilege of conformity. You soon come to believe what you're saying because it's useful to believe it, an then you've internalized the system of indoctrination and distortion and deception, and then you're a willing member of the privileged elite's that control thought and indoctrination. That happens all the time, all the way to the top. It's a very rare person, almost to the point of non-existence, who can tolerate what's called "cognitive dissonance" -- saying one thing and believing another. You start saying certain things because it's necessary to say them and pretty soon you believe them because you just have to.
To boo Buzz Hargrove makes me SICK! Some of you union dudes love this,don't ya!
Well up your a***s,in politics the opposition parties are forever being openly critical.
The NDP has been losing support steadily for years now,and they certainly need a
WAKE-UP CALL TO GET SUPPORT BACK. Buzz speaks for over a quarter MILLION
members,and also for wannabe members as myself, I told Buzz myself to not forget
about our Maple Grove situation[let the workers decide] at the CLC convention.
I have the opinion that the CAW should break affiliation with the CLC,and head in its
own direction which has been successful since its beginnings.
The CAW gives the CLC more $$ than MOST affiliated unions.
The CAW's Constitution is straightforward and definately was drafted with the rank
and filers best interests. Cheers to the Legendary Mr Bob White for being the corner-
stone in the creation of the CAW. I wonder what Mr. White thinks of the CLC delegates
booing The National President [Whites long time freind] of the Canadian Auto Workers,
for being openly CRITICAL of the faltering Federal NDP?
Give'em Hell Buzz they absolutely positively deserve it more than we know. 
"Ditto" for me too. Right on WannabeCAW!!!
Regardless if you fully support Buzz or not, to not admire him for trying to bring change to a corrupt and out of touch dying organization like the CLC is a tragedy beyond measure. It tells me that you've either got your hands in the pockets of working people...or your hoping to get them in there soon.
The CLC convention should be an open debate from start to finish, not a pat me on the back rhetoric filled love fest that accomplishes little and cost's working people a great deal. I can't tell you how badly I wish I could have been there to support Buzz for trying to bring change to a system that doesn't work [for working people anyway] When I get phone calls from members late in the night telling me the UFCW had rep's in their stores offering to pay members for the day to attend the CLC convention just so they can stack the vote against Buzz's proposals I feel sick to my stomach. Why wasn't there an election for delegates to go to that convention months ago?
Unions like the UFCW will die a slow death and they will take working people down with them. Everyday more and more people think of unions and their leaders as corrupt and they think of dues as a form of extortion to pay off self serving leaders who stuff their own pockets. It's obvious from this past week that these so called leaders can't [or won't] see the writing on the wall and unfortunately I've been right all along. You can't change thing's from the inside
I'm certain Buzz made amens with the CLC hoping he could do more from the inside to help workers than he could being seen as a rogue leader of an outcast union. And don't think for a min that the CAW doesn't have their own self serving opportunist waiting in the wings for Buzz to fall so they too can join the party. That's why I admire this guy so much. By standing up to the establishment he's sticking his own neck out and risking his own place in the CAW. He may not always have the right answers but the important thing is he's searching for them and he's being as open about that quest as he can be. If only we had more people like him.
The sad thing though is change will never come from within. If history teaches us anything it's that those in power never relinquish it voluntarily. From the dawn of time it's always been taken from them by force. We need to set aside this idea that "I'll just toe the line and wait until I'm in a position where I can effect positive change and make things right" Buzz is as close to such a position as anyone can be. He is the highest elected official in Canada's largest private union. The media loves to hear what he has to say, people respect him and some love him...yet it's not enough is it?
The only way to right the course of the labour movement is for working people to declare war on unresponsive, despotic union officials. Break your ties with unions that are only spectator democracy's. This is a war for working peoples very survival and it's no time for mercy or half measures. These people don't seem to care about anyone but themselves and as working people we need to recognize they're never going to change. We must Destroy their stranglehold on the lives of working people before they sell us off to the highest bidder and ruin us all!
Leaders like Buzz need to take their members out of the CLC for good and declare war on CLC unions. Organize, liberate or Raid, call it what you will but the time has come for an all out last man standing civil war on the left before the right get's the upper hand for good. Presently we're being sold out and picked off one by one. To think you can protect your own people while other's fall is foolish and nieve. The big bad wolf always makes it to the next wooden house.
The only way working people are ever going to see change and see the values we hold dear survive is if we seek out and destroy those who are holding us back. " organizing the unorganized" ? as far as I'm concerned if your a member of a CLC union you have no more input on your workplace environment that if you were non union, so liberating CLC union members "is" organizing the unorganized and I say lets get to it.
quote:
The only way to right the course of the labour movement is for working people to declare war on unresponsive, despotic union officials. Break your ties with unions that are only spectator democracy's. This is a war for working peoples very survival and it's no time for mercy or half measures. These people don't seem to care about anyone but themselves and as working people we need to recognize they're never going to change. We must Destroy their stranglehold on the lives of working people before they sell us off to the highest bidder and ruin us all!
Scott: This is where you and i part company. You are advocating what? Members walk away from their unions? Rely on the generocity of the employer? Give up their union pensions and health coverage? Go without seniority protections? You don't really believe that's a better way to live? Hell, you only have to look at walmart to see an employer who does as they please. Of course, everyones happy right? If you even look like you will complain, they fire you.
Uniions and their leaders will change when more people feel like you do. They'll be the ones to force them to be something more than what they are today. We're not there yet, but we get closer with each passing day.
These guys don't really have views that mesh with the CLC brass.
quote:
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees president Dan MacLennan pushed against the rules when he championed the rights of individual union members by saying that there is a "continued need for change in the labour movement to recognize that all of our members are intelligent people who have the right to make decisions affecting their working lives. These people are not the property of the union of which they happen to be a member." Mr. MacLennan stood by his words and was kicked out of the house.
Buzz Hargrove pushed against the rules when he forcefully said, "It doesn't matter how badly a union represents its members, or how much it loses the confidence of those who pay its bills. Its members can't switch affiliations.... And as long as dues money keeps flowing in from workers who are treated more like indentured servants than trade unionists, then the picture of happy solidarity is preserved-for the union leaders, anyway." Mr. Hargrove, stood tall and received the boot as well.
For his efforts, honesty and iconoclastic views, Buzz Hargrove was repeatedly booed by the CLC delegates who are too obtuse and one dimensional to really understand what he is up to. The guy is doing the Heimlich Maneuver on Canada's labour body and the machine-heads and their wannabes mistake it for a mugging.
And Ken Georgetti says that after the stupid convention that he and his pals are going to make the world a better place. 
Hey, I just thought, maybe the CLC party guys weren't booing Buzz, but were yelling booze, booze. They were hung over and needed more booze. 
quote:
Give up their union pensions and health coverage?
You've made reference to this several times now and I'm wondering what you mean by it. Are you suggesting that the UFCW owns my pension and by not being a UFCW member I forfit it? are you suggesting that in order to collect a pension any union member pay's into they have to remain in that particular union for life?
I'm not implying, suggesting or even recomending workers rely solely on the generosity of employers. I am a unionist. I believe in workers collectively pooling their resources and focusing their collective energy on achieving a better standard of living. I believe an effective group of workers committed to more than just themselves can become a political force that compels politicians to bow to the wishes of the working class on a number of issues, including issues outside the labor movement such as health care and social services. I would never recomend union members decerify and go non union indefinately.
What I am saying is that there can be no room in the labor movement for both of us and I compair this fight to that of a host trying to get rid of a parasite. Despotic, corrupt, self serving burocratic union officials and the workers who's lives they treat as property can no longer continue to co-exist. [The trick is killing the parasite without killing the host.]I think of this past week as a benchmark of what one can expect from any mainstream union official with any power when workers hope to change the status quo. It's not working Bill, and before a health inspector condems the house of labor I think workers better call in the Orkin man to wipe out the termites eating away at the foundation
I think your good man, from all indications I have you at least try to listen to your members and address their concerns. I'm sure there are plenty of others out their who opperate the same way. But it's the ones who don't that are killing the labour movement and weakening the political left. You've heard the saying "it only take's one bad apple to spoil a batch"? well you do the math. Unions are fading and fading fast and I fear once their gone workers will really be in a pickle.
You seem to think a grassroots movement from the inside can change things. It can't, not by itself. These movements need a big stick to wave in order to get peoples attention and what better than the threat of joining another union? Whether it's the CAW or who ever, workers need an aggressive ally that takes the position that no CLC, AFL-CIO union can exist in piece as long as that union fails to recognise the needs of it's members and pratice "participatory democracy" as opposed to the current " spectator democracy".
When workers from these unions begin to leave in hordes and these unions are on the verge of total collapse just watch how fast they start to listen. Just watch how accomidating they'll be when members want change of substance and not just window dressing. Just watch how hard they fight for workers rights at the bargaining table with the axe hanging over their heads. Competition breads excellence.
Your trying to spin my words into some call to decertify all unions and go non union and that's a load of crap. I'm saying workers need to demand change and if they don't get it immediately they should leave their unions and either form new ones or join another union that address's their needs. If the mainstream unions won't listen or change then these other unions should continue to try and organize their members until they either fall in line with the wishes of workers or fade off into oblivian. If the CLC officials try and stop them then they're fair game as well. Either way the corrupt despots will not be around to continue to destroy the lives of working people.
"at the end of the day" I seldom settle. Second place is still the first loser Bill and this asine notion that a bad union is better than no union at all has got to go. A bad union does more damage to workers because of the impression of unions it leaves with anyone who comes into contact with it. For every worker that leaves a bad union you can expect dozens of people will be convinced by that person that "all" unions are corrupt and no good. The labor movement can no longer afford incompetence and corruption. There is simply no margin of error left.
[QUOTE] Give up their union pensions and health coverage?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You've made reference to this several times now and I'm wondering what you mean by it. Are you suggesting that the UFCW owns my pension and by not being a UFCW member I forfit it? are you suggesting that in order to collect a pension any union member pay's into they have to remain in that particular union for life?
--------------------------------------------------
I have made that statement several times and there is a purpose. In the US, the vesting is different than in Canada. Some members would lose their pensions, and others would be frozen at where they are at. The point is, there is no guarentee that they would continue to grow or that they could take them with them. If you were able to go to another union, then it would depend on what they were able to negotiate. Way too often, you guys minimize the benefits that have been built over years of negotiations. One of the best aspects of my job has been to deliver first time pension cheks to retirees. Let me be clear, there are millions of them across the US and Canada. I would hate to think that those kinds of benefits would be placed in jeopardy over getting rid of the despots.
I'm here because i agree, the labor movement has got to get it's head out of its ass and admit, we are failing. I'm tired of the let's pretend its all right bullsh!t, and it will just get better. It won't. Only a fool would long for that point where there were no unions. I know you are not a fool, but it is foolish to think that if workers just abandon their unions, things will magically improve. Put a fire in workers bellies, make them challenge their leadership, demand free, fair elections of officers, hold leadership accountable for outcomes, tell them what you expect; all of these things will rekindle labor.
