Tainted Meat Follies, Part XXX

It appears that my tongue-in-cheek blogpost about unions last week pushed a few hot buttons. Check out the hostility explosion in the combox.

Thus I'm pleased to follow up with an encouragement to go read Just Another Willy Loman for his timely blogpost about the recent confrontation between Stevie and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency workers.

The CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) will be voting on a new contract today. The union for the agency whose purpose it is to protect our sources of food, has played a leading role as whistle blower about the Harper government’s secretive deregulation of Canadian safety standards.

Predictably, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz is nowhere to be seen - or heard.

Dr.Dawg adds:

Meanwhile, on the subject of unions, David Reevely of the Ottawa Citizen points to a good summary of the complexity of the bus scheduling issue and the central importance of that issue to striking OC Transpo bus drivers.

If your life was saved today, thank a union member.

As news about this would-be tragedy trickled out yesterday, several of us marveled at the skills and knowledge that empowered the flight crew and made it possible for everyone to be rescued after the engines on Airbus A320 failed.

In the US, where some elected officials seem hell-bent upon breaking the back of unions, this blogger made an eloquent point:

They're calling it a miracle -the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They're detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, and first responders. What they're not telling you is that just about every single one of these heros (sic) is a union member.

Indeed.

How soon we forget our own heroes.

Gatineau Wal-Mart Death Watch

It's official. The count-down for the eventual closing of the Gatineau, Québec Wal-Mart has begun.

Just months after Wal-Mart shut a unionized tire shop in Gatineau, about 150 employees at another Wal-Mart in the Hull sector have won bargaining rights.

The United Food and Commercial Workers said the Quebec Labour Board has certified the group for bargaining three-and-a-half years after the original application. It said the adjoining tire and lubrication shop was also certified in 2005 but the certification of the main store was delayed by labour board hearings over Wal-Mart motions. ....

"Hopefully, Wal-Mart won't squander another chance to prove its critics wrong, and it will take this opportunity to show the world that it believes in human rights by sitting down with these Hull workers to negotiate a contract in good faith," Wayne Hanley, president of the Canadian UFCW, said in a statement.

Wal-Mart will never admit that its unofficial management policy precludes bargaining in good faith with employee unions. When Wal-Mart closes its Gatineau store, the official excuse will likely be economic considerations.

By the way, the graphic at the top of this blogpost is the marketing poster for a terrific documentary produced in Canada.