Heidi Barathieu-Brun

Watch this video, published on Socialist Project (also on YouTube), 3.40 min, December 11, 2011.

Transcript: In 1981, Ronald Reagan took on and smashed PATCO, the Air Traffic Controllers. The American labour movement expressed outrage but did nothing. This sealed the fate of American workers for over three decades. Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, has declared war on city-workers. He intends to smash unions. This is our PATCO moment (in Class war in Wisconsin, 22 February 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/22/wisconsin-tea-party-movement  … //  

… Ford will not be swayed. We need direct action. Particular sections of CUPE could embark on rolling days of action that minimize damage to the public while putting pressure on Ford. We could engineer a slowdown in one sector, and remove services for half a day in another sector. We could hold a sick-in at one sector, and a teach-in with clients in another sector. This could coalesce into city-wide days of action. Only workers – union and non-union, public and private sector – acting as a class, can stop Ford.

CUPE workers, demand from your leaders a unified strategy for this struggle.

Workers everywhere, pledge your support to city-workers and mobilize your co-workers to participate in direct actions. The fate of city-workers is the fate of us all.

Ford will continue the general trend of locking-out workers and forcing them back to work as befits the interest of capital. We know what they’re going to do. What are we going to do?

Solidarity. Resistance. Change. (full transcript).

Links:

Canadian Union of Public Employees CUPE
and its Convention. http://cupe.ca/cupe-national-convention

Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (1968) PATCO, on en.wikipedia;

PATCO disambiguation on en.wikipedia.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 at 2:11 am and is filed under politics.