Shameful Anti-Worker Actions of the Quebec Government
 
By publicly taking stands in favour of the Alcoa/Rio
Tinto cartel during the 18-month unjust lockout of ABI smelter workers,
the Quebec government covered itself with shame. The government
considered it more important to serve the global cartel than to defend
Quebec workers and their communities and society. The government could
have intervened at any time to establish equilibrium in the relations
between the unionized workers and the global cartel, one that respects
the workers' rights and the well-being and rights of all in Quebec.
Instead, the government allowed the global cartel to unleash the full
power of its social wealth and international productive and
distribution
capacity to attack the workers with its refusal to negotiate, arrogant
final offers and threats to close the smelter.
The Quebec government distorted the issues in the
conflict making wages a point of contention, which they were not, while
covering up the anti-worker concessionary demands of the cartel that
would lower the standard of living and working in Quebec. The
government used its power of control over the media to publicly
denounce the
workers' resistance as unreasonable and put pressure on them to accept
Alcoa's concessionary demands.
The Quebec government authorized Alcoa's self-serving
misappropriation of $400 million from Hydro-Québec. The
government declared that the lockout was a force majeure, an "unforeseeable,
irresistible event beyond the control of a Party," which was Alcoa in
this case of the unjust lockout. On the contrary, the lockout was
premeditated and planned as a weapon to force workers to accept
concessions. The government agreement with the lockout as a force majeure, as something not
planned and controlled by the cartel, released the company from its
obligation to pay for the block of energy reserved for it at
preferential rates.
Everyone knew that the lockout was not "unforeseeable,
irresistible" or beyond Alcoa's control. It was a planned and
consciously executed move by the global cartel to attack the Quebec
working class. The actions and in this case inaction of the Quebec
government directly contributed to the launching and continuation of
the lockout for 18
months. This so-called nationalist government helped to impose an
unjust lockout by a foreign cartel on its own workers, and made
Quebecers pay for the lockout through an enormous loss of revenue for
Hydro-Québec.
The resistance of the ABI workers and the support of
their allies have put the shameful activity of the Quebec government up
for discussion to find ways to hold it to account and counterattack its
anti-worker anti-social politics. The actions of the Quebec government
expose the real nature of its call to make Quebec "open for business"
as one
that serves the rich global oligarchs in their drive to transfer yet
more social wealth out of Quebec in an unjust atmosphere of
disequilibrium.
This article was published in
Number 25 - July 18, 2019
Article Link:
Shameful Anti-Worker Actions of the Quebec Government
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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