The 7,400 dockers on Canada’s West Coast are voting today and Friday on a third government-dictated tentative contract after International Longshore Warehouse Union (ILWU) negotiators agreed to a slightly amended version of the one repudiated by the workers last week.
The agreement was reached late Sunday night following a further anti-democratic intervention by the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), a government agency. Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan had ordered the CIRB to find a way to impose a settlement, while vowing that the federal Liberal government would ensure no “further disruption”—i.e. worker job action. The dockers struck for 13 days in early July and then again on July 18-19. 'The Government,” declared O’Regan’s Saturday morning statement,” is prepared for all options and eventualities.”
Throughout the dockworkers’ struggle, the World Socialist Web Site has warned that in their fight to win wage increases to keep pace with inflation and enhanced protection against automation and contracting-out workers face a political struggle against the big business Liberal government, which stands four-square behind the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA). We have further warned that the ILWU bureaucrats and their Canadian Labour Congress and New Democratic Party allies are all vehemently opposed to the mass mobilization of the working class necessary to beat back the state strike-breaking.
The events leading up to and following Sunday’s...
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