My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world. Jack Layton
President of the CAW apparently came out pro-merger. So, what if the unions successfully push a merger with the Liberals? Then there'll be no NDP to dump.
I'm a union guy myself, and I wonder if I'd rather just vote on my own rather than having some honcho I never voted for deciding how the block vote is going to go. I don't know about the CAW, but CUPE doesn't have direct elections for the top people--it's the local's leaders that send folks to convention and then the conventioneers vote, and most of the union members barely know who the top person is. Then that person goes and votes for the NDP leader? This is pretty dashed attenuated democracy and I have little confidence that the results are going to have anything to do with my wishes. Especially since the top union brass seem to tend to be accommodationist political wimps; I suspect diminishing their voices would make the NDP less neoliberal rather than more.
I think PLG that speaks to the need for better union leadership, rather than the NDP's relationship with them. Buzz Hargrove poisoned the CAW and it will take time and patience to cure them of their Liberal love.
The New Waffle?
ReplyDeletePresident of the CAW apparently came out pro-merger. So, what if the unions successfully push a merger with the Liberals? Then there'll be no NDP to dump.
ReplyDeleteI'm a union guy myself, and I wonder if I'd rather just vote on my own rather than having some honcho I never voted for deciding how the block vote is going to go. I don't know about the CAW, but CUPE doesn't have direct elections for the top people--it's the local's leaders that send folks to convention and then the conventioneers vote, and most of the union members barely know who the top person is. Then that person goes and votes for the NDP leader? This is pretty dashed attenuated democracy and I have little confidence that the results are going to have anything to do with my wishes. Especially since the top union brass seem to tend to be accommodationist political wimps; I suspect diminishing their voices would make the NDP less neoliberal rather than more.
I think PLG that speaks to the need for better union leadership, rather than the NDP's relationship with them. Buzz Hargrove poisoned the CAW and it will take time and patience to cure them of their Liberal love.
ReplyDeletePLG, that is the first time I read the opposition against providing unions with additional voting clout that I can "agree with".
ReplyDeleteThat said, if I am a member of a union and also a member of the NDP, it does not preclude me from voting as an individual, correct?