12.01.2005

Punch a Gift Horse in the Mouth

After five years of ignoring the flashing message "STICK NOT WORKING, TRY CARROT", it appears that the BC Liberals are looking to try a different approach in public sector labour negotiations.

Finance Minister Carole Taylor ....oops, Carole Taylor announced yesterday that $5.7 billion is being set aside to encourage Unions to negotiate long-term agreements, with signing bonuses if agreements are reached before existing contracts expire on March 31, 2006 (For a union like mine that's been without a contract for eight months, that money's already out the window). In making this announcement right after the blowback over MLA pay raises, this page has a hard time taking Taylor seriously (especially when she gets wardrobe tips from Andrea Martin).

It's also hard to accept when those most brutalized by the Liberals first-term mugging of public sector unions, i.e. front-line health care workers in the Hospital Employees Union, aren't even public sector workers anymore. Thanks to Bill 29, they became employees of deep-pockets multinational Sodexho, and they're still trying to negotiate a living wage. Of course, none of Carole's Carrot can be peeled off to these workers, as it would amount to a subsidy for Sodexho, a corporation that has way more scratch than Victoria. There's no way the BC Liberals would ever engage in corporate welfare, right?

Excuse me, I have a really expensive train to the airport to catch...

2 comments:

horsesshouldbesoluckytoo said...

Never has a train from airport to in town ever made a profit ,so are all the taxpayers again going to subsidize a few ,who just happen to spend bucks at hotels own usually by out of country corps. who by the way could maybe donate in a circumventing way to liberal insiders , a bribe is not abribe if rec'd after a MLA's term is over. soooo maybe we are subsidizing bribes?

RossK said...

Bear--

Amazing.

I had another fashion instrument in mind but Ms. Prickley is appropriate.

Mine runs to the most derisive of Mr. Robert Zimmerman's offerings.

Has to to do with idiots and their winds.

Post coming soon I hope.