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We’re Approaching A Crossroads.… |
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| 24-Feb-06: We’re Approaching A Crossroads....
The B.C. labour movement is fast approaching a crossroads. 90% of the province’s public sector workers are voting on contracts this spring, and the decisions we take will affect every working person in B.C., whether public sector or private sector, whether unionized or not. The stakes are huge. Campbell is trying to set the stage for a huge leap in privatization of public services. In education he is already reneging on verbal agreements on class sizes he made to end last fall’s teachers strike. BCGEU is facing government demands targeting 6,000 of its members jobs in the public service, and the Throne Speech made it absolutely clear the Liberals are poised to bring in unprecedented health care privatizations that threaten the very existence of public health care. But Campbell has a problem. Last fall the teachers strike showed the huge support there is throughout B.C. for keeping public services public, even if it meant being forced out on an illegal strike. Tens of thousands supported the BCTF. Even the Crown prosecutors refused to go after the teachers. CAMPBELL HAS BAITED THE HOOK So this year Campbell’s trying a different, and altogether more dangerous strategy. He’s offered a package designed to divide and conquer.
Now, more than ever, we need to form a common front against the Liberals. If we stand together, if we negotiate together, if we refuse to settle separately, we are unbeatable. The teachers have shown us that the vast majority of working people in B.C. are prepared to support a fight to preserve public services, and that when faced with determined opposition the Liberals can be forced to back off. Why are we not fighting to win? We need a common front. That means we need a common resolve to say no to the Liberal’s March 31st deadline. The $3500 signing bonus is poison. It’s a big juicy worm, wiggling on a big sharp hook. We need a common agreement to reject it, because Campbell put it there for a reason. It’s there to bait our members into agreeing to concessions that will pave the way to destroying public education, healthcare and social services between now and the Olympics. We need a common agreement that no one will fall for the Liberals’ demand for a four- year contract, and that we stick together for one that expires no later than the 2009 provincial election. We need a joint recognition that any wage settlement must be adequate for all our members and must also reflect the fact that different unions are at different starting points — most of us had our wages frozen over the last couple of years, but HEU members had a 15% cut. Any just settlement has to correct that situation. We need a common front to start developing contingency plans for a province wide public sector strike in the event Campbell does not budge from his concessionary demands. We saw last fall that there is huge support there, if we go out and organize it. A strike vote is all very well, but needs real preparation to make it an effective weapon. Without real preparation, it’s only a transparent bluff. To give it teeth, we need to lay the basis for multi-union, province wide job action, because when push comes to shove, a general strike in the public sector may well be necessary to achieve our demands this year. And last of all, we need a public commitment from the leadership of all our unions that there will be no move to sign agreements until every union under attack is ready to sign. The labour movement has always been based on the notion that “an injury to one is an injury to all.” Unity is not a vague ideal we pay lip service to – it’s life or death. If we manage to organize a united fight back against the Liberals over the next weeks and months, there is every reason to be confident that we can defeat them. But unity does not come cheap, or easy. We need to work for unity. We need to demand it. And we need to raise our voices together to ensure that it happens, in negotiations, and, if necessary, in the streets. |
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| letters@generalstrike.ca | ||||||||||||||
