Neumann Weakens The Buzz

USWA National Director Ken Neumann outlines the Steelworkers' position during the recent federal election campaign in today's Globe and Mail. In his article, Neumann takes Buzz Hargrove to task over his endorsement of Liberal candidates and "strategic" voting, and questions how the CAW President or anyone else could consider the Liberals "progressive".

Let's meditate on the notion of the Liberals being "progressive" for a moment: As Finance Minister, Paul Martin made the largest cuts to public services and transfer payments (for education and health care) in Canada's history. The Liberal Party's spiritual icon, Pierre Trudeau, was the only Prime Minister to invoke wage and price controls AND martial law, plus he repatriated the Constitution without the consent of the Quebec government.

For those of you scoring at home, at least those of you who aren't members of a union, the CAW may be one of Canada's largest unions, but it by no means constitutes a majority of union members in Canada. In fact, thousands of CAW members ignored the "progressive" urgings of their President, and voted for NDP candidates, some were even elected as NDP candidates. Others voted Conservative, and a few in Quebec voted Bloc. The moral of the story is, the overwhelming majority of union members in Canada could care less what Buzz Hargrove thinks.

So why does the Buzz appear to matter so much? It's not that he's speaking for 'Big Labour', it's that he's speaking as head of the Canadian AUTO Workers. Next time you're flipping through newspaper ads, or watching TV commercials, pay attention to which industry easily outspends all others in terms of advertising - Those $30,000 SUVs don't roll off the lot by themselves. Heading the union for the industry who does the biggest media buy means that it's not a problem to get Big Media's attention. If only Stelco and Dofasco bought a few more TV spots...