Is Selinger Genuine?

Who’s he kidding?

Selinger and his union bosses are still singing Solidarity Forever

By Tom Brodbeck, Winnipeg Sun

Last Updated: February 20, 2010 11:59pm
Manitoba New Democrats are going to “take on the unions” by trying to impose a wage freeze on their members, we found out last week. That’s funny.

Does Premier Greg Selinger really expect us to believe the NDP is going to bite the hand that feeds it by turning their backs on organized labour?

That’s a belly laugh.

The NDP has driven the province’s finances into the ground after 10 years of reckless spending. They’re now $602 million in the hole and have driven provincial debt to record levels.

All of which doesn’t bode well for rookie Premier Greg Selinger, whose most important political task leading up to an October 2011 election is to try to convince voters that he has at least a trace of fiscal conservatism in his bone marrow.

One of the best ways to demonstrate that is to pretend to take on the big bad unions. It’s a pretty good script and the union bosses, including MGEU prez Peter Olfert, are playing along quite nicely by feigning indignation at this latest “attack” on organized labour by the NDP.

The set-up for this stage play probably went something like this over beers at the Union Centre on Broadway.

Selinger: OK you guys, you know we’re in a bit of a financial pickle and in order to get re-elected next year, we’re going to have to show the public that we’re not just a bunch of tire-slashing, raving socialists who get our marching orders from union bosses.

Union bosses: But Greg, you do get your marching orders from us.

Selinger: I know that. And I embrace it. It’s what grounds me. But we can’t get elected on that partnership. We have to pretend that we’re sticking it to you so voters think we’re putting their interests ahead of yours.

Union bosses: What the hell, Greg. The public’s interests ahead of ours? Who do you think pays your bills and provides you with an army of workers at election time?

Selinger: I know. I know. And we all appreciate that. Remember, we’re all brothers and sisters. It’s just that we have to work together or the Conservatives will get back into office and trust me, you don’t want that. The first thing they would do is bring back secret-ballot votes for certification drives. What do you think that would do to our, I mean your, membership?

Union bosses: OK, we get it. But how do we sell this to our members?

Selinger: Oh we’ll give you other things to sweeten the pot. First of all, we don’t really expect a wage freeze. We would just say it publicly to make it look like we’re bringing the hammer down on you guys. Your role is to fight back in the media, call us a few names and accuse us of being irresponsible and anti-union. That’s what we need to help convince voters we don’t get our marching orders from this building. And then we’ll end up negotiating something like a 2% raise over two years and it will look like we fought hard for taxpayers.

Union bosses: What about benefits and overtime rates and things like that?

Selinger: We’ll beef them up but we’ll keep that part quiet. The public will only know what we tell them. It’s not like we ever make an entire collective agreement public after we approve a contract. Hell, your members don’t even see the full contracts they vote on. They only know what you tell them at the brothers-and-sisters meetings.

Union bosses: True. And we definitely don’t want to give prospective members the right to a secret ballot vote again, that’s for damn sure. OK, you got a deal Greg.

eViL tRoLl wrote:This is pathetic. Manitoba already has the weakest union in the country that has been bashed by governments for decades. They have the lowest wages and almost no benefits compared to the rest of Canada. How much more will they be able to take?

Deank wrote:"They have the lowest wages "

thanks for the laugh!

Deank wrote:uhuh.. sure whatever.

Lets just ignore the fact that the nurses for the most part have an agreement that makes them the 4th highest paid in Canada no matter what.

AGEsAces wrote:yeah...but those wages aren't reflected by cost-of-living differences.

For example housing in larger populations of Ontario are much more expensive than housing in Winnipeg.

So taking just flat numbers for salaries is irrelevant unless compared against average cost of living expenses for each area.

Then you'd probably find the salaries are more or less equal...perhaps SLIGHTLY higher in one area or another...but most likely cause there's a shortage and are trying to attract workers...or there's a large majority of workers who have high seniority.

grumpy old man wrote:Best check again evil troli. I lived in TO for many moons and I can tell ya that even centres as far adrift of TO such as London and Barrie and Kingston housing costs are much higher than Winnipeg.

Deank wrote:"One load saves me about $100 to $200 on food costs!"

what the heck kind of stuff are you bringing back?