Between a Rock and a Hard Place

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A nyone riding the emotional wave of a labour strike can feel powerless at some point.
The employees are left without a paycheque. Managers are forced into irregular duties. And consumers are inconvenienced by the lack of product or services. All become victims riding that emotional wave.
Certainly, it's better when we all get along. But, sometimes, we need to check our feelings at the door when we try to understand why labour conflicts, such as strikes and blockades, become necessary.
From a human rights point of view, some employers only behave themselves because they are deterred by organized labour. The rights of any worker can be stomped on without the labour laws for which unions fought.
Certainly, unions got no respect during these hot summer days in the City of Toronto, where the stench of rotting garbage was overpowering in some neighbourhoods. People were mad, but surprisingly tolerant of these workers' right to strike. Garbage collection is hard work that can easily wear out a person's body before its time.
The now-resolved labour blockade at the Meridian automotive plant on Henry Street is a bittersweet win of little meaning for a large number of local employees who have lost long-term jobs with nary a pittance of legally owed severance pay. Many American controlled firms are pulling up stakes in Canada and shifting production to cheap third world factories.
Across Henry Street, at ECP, the United Steelworkers were confronted at the bargaining table by a reportedly profitable company demanding a 25% wage reduction. These demands caused a strike that has lasted almost a year. According to media reports, the steelworkers have offered wage concessions of 16% but the company's use of replacement workers (a practice that was once illegal in Ontario) has elongated the strike.
Private sector unions have always been under-the-gun to a greater extent than their public sector counterparts. Both public and private sector unionists face the job cuts created by contracting out, but the latter is threatened by companies closing more than ever before. Today's corporations far too easily bankrupt themselves and move on to form new corporations. Slack corporate law, as manifested by lazy governments, controlled by the upper classes is a major threat to modern job security and economic stability.
The US Steel plant closings in Hamilton and Nanticoke will prove devastating for
many employees and their families. I expect this organization to eventually become a shell company importing Chinese and Indian steel into North America. The profit margins are huge and the environmental laws are virtually non-existent.