29 April 2017

One British Columbian USW Member's Take On Christy Clark's Flood of Lies



Once I was initiated into the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) as a young lad I thought they would be my union until the day I died. Retiring from work to a life on the lawn bowling green in my sixties seemed an unlikely life outcome at the time for this death wish punk rock motherfucker.

In time however the American wing of my international union weakened and the Canadian wing I belonged to disengaged from our long, close association with the American working class. We became IWA-Canada. A little further down the line, having realized the limitations of being an insufficiently large national union, we merged with the United Steelworkers of America (USW).

It was not a seamless transition, the IWA was very much a part of our individual and collective identities, but we soon came to appreciate our new identity and our increased strength. Fucking Steelworkers we are now.

That is as brief a run up to what I really want to write about as I can manage which is Christy Clark's lies, part of the set of lies which have come to frame her doomed campaign to be re-elected, which question my union's international president's, Canadian Leo Gerard, support of his Canadian forest industry members now that America is once again fettering Canadian lumber's access to its market.

Clark's lies, slander really, are nothing more than an attempt to suppress voters from purposely casting their ballots to remove her from an office they are all too aware they mistakenly elected her to four years ago. My union, and Leo Gerard, believe and are pressing for Canada to be conferred preferred trading partner status with America. A trading partner with comparable (if not superior) labour, market and environmental standards to its own. A mutually beneficial trading partner.

Too bad for Christy Clark her understanding of mutually beneficial is illegally accepting corporate campaign donations in return for obscene government contracts. The USW is trying to help put a stop to that corrupt practice. And we are not doing it for us. We are doing it for everybody, except the filthy few; British Columbians who deserve much better than what they have been getting from Christy Clark.


6 comments:

Bill said...

Great post Beer.

Don't suppose there will be an apology from Christy to Mr Gerard for her dirty Liberal politicking slander. I would sure be happy if the Steelworkers and Mr Gerard would raise a media howl and demand the Pirate Prince retract totally her false campaign assertions.


Christy reluctantly and lamely apologized for the Theraputic Initiative Inquisition and the tragic suicide of Mr MacIssac. She pawned off a belated and insincere apology for her foot in mouth false accusation re the 'Horgan Hack'... leaving a phone call message. In the last election debate she went all in JOBS rather than admit and apologise her total failure to a whole generation of public school students, their parents and educators. Apologies only for her one percent family.

I will not be apologizing to anyone when she is kicked to the (s)crap heap May 9th.

Lulymay said...

I understand your dilemma, DC. My father was President of the 3rd largest IWA Local in BC which encompassed from the Pitt River to Boston Bar and Harrison Lake to the US border, back in the day when there was something like 40,000 IWA members in BC who while didn't earn anything CEO wages, they did earn a "living" wage which allowed them the ability to support their families without having to send their wives out to work
to try to make ends meet.

To-day we have Weycan, who have access to the management of a huge AAC cutting BC timber, are lobbying the US government to stop finished lumber from going south across the border free of tariffs. What most folks don't realize is that Weycan acquired that AAC by buying out smaller operations, simply for that valuable AAC and shutting down mill after mill (jobs lost) and now they want the privilege of shipping raw logs across the border to keep their own iron hobs operating.

And the sad reality is we have no politicians currently in power who see no problem with that and continue to take donations from this same American company.

davemj said...

Man great comment! but the truth is like water off of a duck,s ass of these soulless mindless piles of shite, people dying on the streets kids dying in their care while they are besmirching decent people like Mary Turpel Le Fond { child advocate & John Doyle auditor general the list too long to go there.Hopefully, the unions can be introduced to the younger and new immigrants so they can see what the Canadian Dream was at one time . Keep up the great work. A BIG THANKS

Sub-Boreal said...

Thanks Beer, you always lay it out straight and clear. Keep it up!

Ray Blessin said...

In my circle of friends there are many who are not interested enough in "politics" to even bother to vote!
I have been asking them if they are planning to vote and the answer is a blank look.
I explain that the so-called "Liberal" party candidates, for example, here in Kamloops, don't give a shit about them but
if you look at the New Democrat candidates, it is OBVIOUS that they do! (give a shit about you, I mean). That should be enough.
I mean, does anybody really think that Todd Stone gives a fuck about you?!

rob said...

Simple really, want massive job creation, just stop raw log exports period. That's our lumber and if other countries want it they can have it milled anyway they want but we'll do the work. I want to know why aren't the NDP calling the Lieberals out over the W/H donations. I think the NDP need to sit down and watch some Dave Barrett clips for inspiration.