As early as the 2nd week of January rural hospital workers will be going on strike in Nova Scotia in an attempt to force the District Health Authorities to concede to giving them wage parity with hospital staff in Halifax. I am attempting to put together a support leaflet from the perspective of other workers, particularly precarious workers; and if that is successful a leaflet encouraging hospital workers in Halifax to support striking workers outside of the HRM (Halifax Regional Municipality). Topics I am hoping to cover are supporting workers rather than their union--CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees), encouraging self organization and direct action by making reference to the 2006 Hospital Workers sick in (http://libcom.org/news/mass-sick-in-by-canadian-hospital-tech-staff-26112006) and other examples, the DHA's attempt to split previous negotiations along the lines of clerical, service and health workers in order to divide workers and attack the impotence of unions in the province, recently the Nova Scotia Teachers Union backed down and did not strike even though the new NDP (New Democratic Party--slightly left of center and the party of labour) government did not concede to the wage increases asked for. Is this too much? Too preachy? I have never written a leaflet about a strike before so i am looking for feedback. I am also looking for support leaflets I could use to model mine after.
I think a common feeling now in the UK at least is a fatalistic one, that in a recession we are all going to have to suffer, and that we can't demand more. If you can find any recent examples of workers winning something new during the recession that could be useful.
That sounds like generalized demoralization and resignation. But even if it's common now, it doesn't seem (from the other side of the pond) to be universal, as we have witnessed a fair amount of workers' militancy in the UK of late -- certainly more than there has been in the U.S. or Canada lately.
Also, a refusal to submit to the scenario in which 'we are all going to have to suffer' wouldn't necessarily have to involve workers' 'winning something new'. It would be sufficient for them to just preserve the status quo in the face of attacks attempting to wrest concessions from them, wouldn't it?
Preserving the status quo through workers' militancy in increasingly regressive times would be an example of refusing to submit. Its grim though. But we are living in grim times. However, with this particular case in rural Nova Scotia where workers not facing an explicit reduction in hours or wages preserving the status quo means struggling successfully for wage parity with Halifax. The media is already beginning to run stories about how the strike will reduce the number of hospital beds and available time for surgery. Smells like fear mongering to me.
Here is a draft of the previously mentioned leaflet:
Support the Nova Scotia Hospital Workers Strike
We are a group of young, precarious workers who believe it is of the utmost importance to support other workers struggling to improve their working conditions and lives. In a world plagued by capitalism we believe the only way for workers to improve their lives is through collective struggle and direct action. The gains workers have made throughout history have never been handed to us by the bosses out of the kindness of their hearts; rather, we have fought back and taken what we deserved. It is for these reasons that we are in solidarity with the CUPE hospital workers’ fight for wage parity.
Thousands of hospital workers in rural Nova Scotia are struggling for a wage that is equal to their counterparts in Halifax. We are inspired to see these workers fighting back against attacks by the District Health Authorities (DHA) designed to divide them. During the last round of negotiations for the 2009-2012 collective agreement, the DHA attempted to divide hospital workers by job type in order to weaken their collective strength. These workers know that regardless of whether one does clerical work, service work, or health care work, one is a hospital worker. The work activity of all hospital workers is what keeps the hospitals open and allows us all to access health care services. Regardless of whether one works in a hospital in the HRM, Colchester, or in Sydney; one is a hospital worker and should be treated with the same amount of respect and dignity.
Nova Scotia has a long history of workers taking back control of their lives from the bosses and the government and we are not just talking about the legendary coal miners’ strikes of our past. As recently as 2006, over one hundred radiological and laboratory staff in five Cape Breton hospitals called in sick, disrupting the day-to-day functioning of their workplaces in order to contest a contract settlement that ignored wage claims. In 2010, collective direct action may be necessary to advance the interests of workers in an increasingly hostile and regressive political climate. NDP politicians and the DHA bosses will justify their attacks against striking hospital workers by raising the spectres of economic recession and the H1N1 virus. Capitalism is once again in crisis and reactionary forces will try to force workers to pay for the cost of their broken system. Workers will need to find ways to resist such attacks.
Our view is that wage parity is just the tip of the iceberg. Capitalism is a system that exploits and alienates all working people while empowering a few bosses. We do not desire to live this way. Instead, we stand for a commonality of power, resources, and opportunities in society. It is only through supporting each others' struggles that we can build the solidarity we need to make this world anew.
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Some feedback would be awesome.
Hi, all that stuff sounds good. I'd be wary of not attacking the unions for things which are actually the result of workers weakness - for example if that teachers strike was called off because really the teachers weren't prepared to strike any more then it wouldn't be fair to bash the union for that (unless it deliberately demobilised the workers of course)
But yeah, covering practical examples would be good. Having a contact detail on the leaflet so that workers could contact you potentially would be good - you never know what sort of response you might get.
I think a common feeling now in the UK at least is a fatalistic one, that in a recession we are all going to have to suffer, and that we can't demand more. If you can find any recent examples of workers winning something new during the recession that could be useful.