Big Canadian Labour And Bill C-377 - A Solution?

Let us then know our limits.
Blaise Pascal, Pensees, No. 43

One of the major topics of discussion in this break between Sessions will no doubt be about Bill C-377. This is a private members bill that was introduced by an obscure, right wing, bible thumping wacko by the name of RussHiebert . He went to one of the better bible thumping schools in the U.S.A, no doubt because he wasn't smart enough to get into Boston College! You really know when a Conservative MP is a thin skinned right wing wack job when he posts his clips from Parliament on You-Tube and disables the comments and the likes/dislikes counter! What a small town prairie piece of crap.

Lets bring Jimmy Hoffa(left) back from the dead!

 Bill C-377 is a bill that will require most labour unions in Canada to comply to near impossible reporting requirements. It is really just a warm up to "Right To Work " legislation. If the Oracle of Ottawa remembers correctly it got third reading in the House and is on its way to the Senate. But the biggest joke of it all, if you check out the text, is that this was a real private members bill. The legislation text no doubt came from the Prime Ministers Office and the hapless Russ drew the short straw to be the member that would raise it as a private members bill. Standard arms length practice.

Trade unions have been around for a very, very long time. They grew out of guilds, (or gilds...) and some are hundreds of years old in Europe, and are still going. There is a very extensive historical literature on the subject matter. There are three titles that come to the mind of the Oracle of Ottawa. A very early text is by Adam Smith, the father of modern economics! He spoke loud and long in the Wealth of Nations of the rights of workers to gather together to strike up the best deal they could get. After all, the employers were colluding amongst themselves all the time!  But old Russ Heibert probably never used his Parliamentary Library card, he could have no doubt checked out a first edition (in two volumes) of the landmark work. But everyone knows that western bible thumping hicks never read books...

The second title that is very illuminating of why labour unions had to come into existence is very well covered in Das Kapital Buch I by, of course, Karl Marx. Now we all know that there are no copies of Capital west of the province of Ontario, so Russ has probably never even heard of Karl Marx. To Russ Heibert, Karl Marx was a guy that worked with Mark Carney at Goldman Sachs, that never made partner..

The third title on labour union history that the Oracle of Ottawa would have to recommend is "History of Trade Unionism" by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, in the revised  1920 edition. It starts in great detail from the earliest days (1400's)  through to the early 20th century! Yes indeed dear reader, unions have been a tough thing to kill. And they are on the verge of a mighty comeback around the world, and it will all be due to Russ Heibert kicking a nest that he will greatly regret for the rest of his worthless life. Why he won't even be welcome at his church at the end of all this...

Ask yourself dear reader, what is a trade union really? Well first and foremost it is a lobbyist for the best interests of its members. It is also a communications and advertising company. Why a trade union is just three corporations rolled into one! Now the Oracle of Ottawa realized that he had the solution to Bill C-377. All the entities that are now at present known as trade unions have to do is incorporate! The shareholders will be what is known today as the "membership" and the "big fat union bosses" will be the board of directors! Now we all know the purpose of  a corporation don't we? To make as much money for its shareholders as possible! And we all know how much the 'Harper Government' loves corporations don't we? So there it is! All organized labour has to do is upgrade so to speak. And we all know how corporations tend to grow larger and larger in the relentless pursuit of profit and shareholder approval... Why the working man could rule the world and create a near perfect workers state, all nice and legal too!

Here is a little more background in greater detail of the approaching problem. But remember it was the Oracle of Ottawa that came up with the solution, and you read it here first!

'Harper Government' - Labour Union Transparency Act

I'll be back.
Jimmy Hoffa, Hoffa The Real Story, p. 218

For all of my fellow Canadians that follow the 'Harper Government' somewhat closely, you are probably worried about the noises of the back bench minions of the contents of the proposed Labour Union Transparency and Accountability Act. The Act of course will be damn near impossible to interpret, and therefore every required submission will be found to be illegally submitted! And then there will be all those nasty surprises that will surely come out, and in turn will be used by the 'Harper Government' to play off the Unions to the public and maybe even be the base for outlawing unions, of any kind altogether!

Jimmy Hoffa (left) attending Labour Union School...

Well, the Oracle of Ottawa says bring it on! Surprised? Well the Oracle of Ottawa can explain his logic. This is the point where the hubris will in the end kill the beast of the 'Harper Government'. This will be the self inflicted Trojan horse, with all of its unintended consequences, that will play a very large part in bringing down the 'Harper Government'. Let us explore this line of reasoning further, shall we?

We all know that organized labour in Canada needs a good shot up the side of the head, don't we? The Oracle of Ottawa will readily admit that the leadership of some unions has ossified greatly over the decades. And if there was a financial reporting requirement, there will be some mighty shocks. Both good and bad. The Oracle of Ottawa is almost certain that several of the biggest unions by membership got all but wiped out financially in the 2008 bust up. Brace yourselves. But, conversely, there will be many of the smaller and much older unions and brotherhoods that will have financial results that will simply stun the 'Harper Government' not to mention the general public.

This will be the long sought for catalyst that will create a very powerful and deep reaction in organized labour in Canada. Why it could all but get out of control, and very quickly. It will most certainly bring forth the patiently waiting "next generation". And who knows, maybe the Oracle of Ottawas dream of a another Jimmy Hoffa will be fulfilled! And the Canadian worker could certainly use another golden age. Another age where the only knees that knock will be those of the management side of the table. It has been a long time and we are really, really due... 

 He is still out there...The Oracle of Ottawa can feel it. The next one is soon to be coming along... and we will get it all back and more.

Globalization - How It Will End

In the end, we can't outsource more than 100 per cent of manufacturing, we can't transport goods with zero energy, and we can't enlist the efforts of workers and count on their buying our products while paying them nothing.
Richard Heinberg, The End Of Growth - Adapting To Our New Economic Realty, p. 12

Yes, the Oracle of Ottawa has been tardy as of late, but he has hit a very rich patch, yet again, with the ongoing "Thinking About Thinking" project. This one has been very productive, and is being pursued on several fronts all at once. William Greiders "Globalization - One World Ready Or Not", Anthony Kenny's "A New History Of Western Philosophy", Hans Kung, "Does God Exist?" and Rene Descarte, "The Meditations", in a most excellent and full translation. Arthur Schopenhauer; "The World As Will And Idea".  And, oh yeah, David Hume, "A Treatise Of Human Nature", now that sucker was tough! But the Oracle of Ottawa is deep into volume three of the unabridged edition, which was a real bitch to find, you believe me! 

Rosa Luxemberg

Yet even though the Oracle of Ottawa was off his usual prodigious amount of pensive missives, last month was an all time record month in the "hits" department! Ye Gods! Perhaps less is more after all! But the Muse is rising again just as the scum always rises...and the Oracle of Ottawa is feeling up to explaining how the dreaded age of Globalization will actually come to an rather abrupt and ugly end. Also the Oracle of Ottawa will share some possible investment tips that you might want to consider in the ongoing future, which will soon belong to the people that created it in the first place.

The New World Order losses its hard on....

It was Rosa Luxemburg that originally figured out how globalization would end, way back, in the early 20th century! Why, it can, and still could be argued that she even predicted globalization! She saw some things much further out than Marx himself did. She correctly predicted the future algorithm of big capital in the far future with an uncanny accuracy that makes the Oracle of Ottawa shudder with envy and awe. She predicted that as big capital grew larger and larger it would fan out farther and farther on the face of the Earth in search of new Surplus Labour. Farther into the future, she predicted that since the resources of the Earth are at the end of the day finite, big capital, or otherwise known today as Multinational Corporations (MNE's), could literally run out of new surplus labour, that it would underpay for and then ship the product to the "developed" world for the same price as if it was made in the first world! Got that? Now we all know it is that kind of thinking that will eventually get you dead at the age of forty seven. And that is what happened to Rosa Luxemberg.

Well, it dawned on the Oracle of Ottawa recently that we are very near to that time. Now a lot a very real weird things will seem to happen all at once. And if you don't understand the game plan, it will all appear as chaos and anarchy. As the past endless supply of surplus labour dries up, and the MNE's have no other next cheap country to open up in, costs will start to rise. The Oracle of Ottawa suspects that around this time, the Chinese peasants will make their move. And like the Boxer Rebellion  it will all rise up at many places all at once, and when it gets going it will all be very interesting CNN coverage. Party officials of whole areas hanging off of freeway light standards and overpasses will continue for months, possibly years.

Of course this will cause a massive shortage of stock for the dollar stores of the Western World. Not to mention all the other more valuable manufactured goods. So the moral of this story is that if you still have that huge milling machine and drop forge press, you might want to put it some place in the back room so to speak. There may be a very big demand for such tools again in the near future...     

Chris Hedges explains the collapse of globalization....

Canadian Labour And The Three Tired Regimes

Forget the shrimp Honey I'm coming home with the crabs
Hunter S. Thompson, Better Than Sex, p. 94

The one thing that really eats the Oracle of Ottawa is the deal that today's youngsters are getting in the work place. When I think of the deal that my nieces and nephews have today compared with what the Oracle of Ottawa once enjoyed, well, a man could get weary. Although union labour is still strong in Canada, it just isn't what it once was. Recently I have been pondering much on the problem. When and where did it start to go off the rails? It has been a long and slow process, but the answer came to me just recently. Labour power, in Canada and America especially, started declining on July 30th, 1975. The day that Jimmy Hoffa disappeared.

Winnipeg General Strike - June 21, 1919

At first hearing it all sounds a bit much over the top. But like all profound revelations, it improves with each and every additional pass. What are the foundations of the whole worker thing? What is it all based on? How is that labour got so far behind the eight ball? Well the Oracle of Ottawa actually rounded up some material on the subject recently. The reason there is not much good information on the subject is that the works are so incredibly expensive! It seems to be a conspiracy of some nefarious powers of billable hour powered interests. But already I have learned that the basis of labour law is based on three (tired) regimes. And I will try to share with you what I have gleaned so far.

The first regime is the common law of employment. "Which treats employers and employees as free and equal contracting parties in the buying and selling of labour." Don't you just get a real laugh out of that howler? This is essentially the same common law that Adam Smith and Karl Marx bitched about in their major works over a hundred years ago. And what is even more depressing is that their arguments are still as relevant today as the centuries of the past that they first recorded them! You as a worker, essentially have no power what so ever under the common law. We had better hope that the other two regimes left have something better to offer.

Jimmy Hoffa - Left - Where Labour Leaders Come From...

The second regime is collective bargaining. " It is based on the realization that the usually inferior economic position of the employees vis-a-vis the employer keeps the individual employment contract from being a satisfactory mechanism." No shit! Once labour was totally on top of this and really ran successfully with it for many many years. Then somehow, during the recent right wing wave that has circled the earth, this most powerful tool has been slowly and very successfully undermined. The one weird thing about all this to the Oracle of Ottawa is that the corporate overlords have no problem forming as a block against the workers of the world, through such "unions" as the Bilderberg Group, and all the other various secret societies! And yet they will not seem to allow and are never at all happy when we try to do the same thing for our own protection! Are you starting to see the problem here? 

The third regime is statutory regulation. This is the employment standards legislation of you province or state, that you happen to reside and / or work in. You don't need the Oracle of Ottawa to tell you that, depending where you live, this regime is now, it seems, constantly under attack. The Oracle of Ottawa is just in shock when he watches the incredible decline of American workers rights, especially as of late. It seems that the corporate blue suited whores will use any trick method, or naked power to even accelerate this dismantling. The old days of hearing the knees knock on the other side of the table is long gone it seems to me. What is to be done?

We need another Golden Age. And perhaps a Global Master Freight Agreement??

Air Canada Strike - Really Starting to Smell

There is arguably something wrong with a method of persuasion that cannot pass the test of publicity.
Randal Marlin, Propaganda & The Ethics of Persuasion, p. 166

Once upon a time in this country, for a Minister of Labour to refer to the Canada Industrial Relations Board was a last resort. It was only invoked by the Minister when everything else had failed and the situation was on the verge of escaping control that would have an adverse affect on the security and economy of the nation. This happened in the past on things such as rail unions and longshoreman unions that could really shut down the whole country! Clearly with this recent Air Canada pending strike this is not the case! For a Minister of Labour to go to the CIRB for any other matter was and is tantamount to screaming out loud "I am a Shit Poor excuse for a Minister of Labour!" "I am in so over my head, that I just don't have a clue where to begin or end!" And it is clear that is the case with the present Minister of Labour Lisa Raitt!

Lisa Raitt - Much thinner now....

You would think that someone who articled in the freak'in Middle Temple in London England, the veritable seat of the Common Law as we know it and claims to have specialized in arbitration, no less, would be able to call the two parties to her office and settle this in 20 minutes! Air Canada no longer has a monopoly over air transport in Canada. Canada is an "open skies" area. The right wing interpretation of economics states that the "invisible hand" will make everything all right. The claim that a strike at Air Canada will bring down the Canadian economy is a barefaced lie! There are a multitude of choices to be had.

Again it is another demonstration of the 'Harper Government' interpretation of the invisible hand and the philosophy of a hands off economy. You see, they interpret it differently. The invisible hand is only for the pigs in suits i.e. the managers, if a bunch of working people collude together in a legal trade union, the 'Harper Government' blue suited fat pigs will cut your hands off!! This is the demonstrated interpretation of the 'Harper Government' hands off economy!

With Lisa Raitt as Labour Minister - Wait for it!!

The Oracle of Ottawa is old enough to remember when being a stewardess for Air Canada was the poshest job in the whole wide world! Many of these women forsake married life, children, true love and so much more to serve the brand. When I saw those pictures on the CBC National of Air Canada stewardesses collapsed in a coma in an airport, like abandoned dregs of some Chinese people smuggler, I was enraged! They had probably been up for over thirty hours and are still trying to get the overtime hours and the expense money that they will never see.

I put this down to one Duncan Dee, the creeping Jesus, that is one generation out of a rice paddie and an honours  graduate of the Peoples Republic of China Politburo School of Management! And that story of the "gunman" that drove to his Ottawa house, showing a private security guard a hand gun!! What a crock of shit! The rumour is that guy came from the Peoples Republic of China Embassy employee compound! They were backing up one of their own, must not lose face in front of the world! Plus it was another easy chit on the 'Harper Government' to be cashed for future consideration at some future date... Globalization, ain't it grand?

Sid Ryan - Actually knows what he is talking about! This is so on.....

(Why is Sid Ryans Wikipedia article over twice as big as Lisa Raitts??, Oh My, Out classed by a blue collar type!!)

The Arab Spring Comes To Wall Street And The New World

There is nothing more nervous than a million dollars - it moves very fast, and it doesn't speak any language.
Jean Chretien, My Years As Prime Minister, p. 364


It comes as a great surprise and shock to the Oracle of Ottawa that the Occupy Wall Street protests are in fact another import of foment from Canada! Well actually I am somewhat miffed, I mean with the Perimeter Security Deal all but done, how was it all possible? It seems that what ever can't possibly happen in the United States must originate in a "foreign" land. And Canada is the smartest neighbor nearby. None of this stuff can originate in Mexico, I mean really, the Americans still have some pride left. Don't they?

The Bull yields to the pigs...

It is amazing how similar this Wall Street demonstration is to the one that recently took place in Egypt. No leaders, just a lot of i-phones and a lot of very pissed and desperate people. The state seems to be reacting in the same way that the deposed Egyptian state first reacted in the early days of their demise. I wonder if they will have a camel charge just before the end? And come to think of it, I wonder if the "Harper Government", our government of the Bilderberg Groups little helpers, will still be laughing after the process starts at the location our once great financial institutions? Mikey Moore said there would someday be days like this!!

Nicely said and well...very nice!!

What is going to happen when the real big unions get involved? I figure the Teamsters will kick in large and this event will mark the resurrection and / or birth of the New Labor! When they start happening in Canada this month I strongly suspect that the Canadian Autoworkers will be huge and center! Why the Oracle of Ottawa is feeling better all ready!

Tomorrow will be different from today...

  As per history, that nasty one percent is not taking this at all seriously! It as all but a doddle soon to peter out, and then business as usual. I am certain that these people are in for a very nasty shock, not soon to be forgotten. Perhaps this will move Congress in the United States to pass the Presidents work legislation? One thing that we can be certain of that this is going to take off and the world will not be the same as the world of today.

Why does this make me think of the French Revolution?

A Gold Standard For The Rest Of Us

I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.
John Maynard Keynes, Letter to Duncan Grant, (15 December 1917)


The Oracle of Ottawa reels, albeit in retired bliss, when he watches the price of gold flash buy on the tape of his favorite business news channel. Eighteen hundred dollars an ounce! Sheer freakin' insanity. And when the gold-bugs start up and on how the world would be so much better off if we could bring back the old days and have the central bank gold standard again with all that good old solid money, I just cringe. It was that gold standard that caused, in my humble opinion, two world wars in the last century along with the demise of empires and countless millions of innocent people...

Gold - The barbarous relic or not?

The reality is, for all intents and purposes, we now have a global gold standard! If you check the Kitco company website you can see in near real time what it costs to buy an ounce of gold anywhere on Earth! The old gold standard has simply been turned inside out! Now, the price is set not by governments, but the market demands of the world. An ounce of gold can be turned into any currency on Earth, or a great majority of them. Feel any more secure? Didn't think so!

But, believe it or not, we have a lot of problems that are way more pressing and important in this globalized world of the present. All of us in the present "first world" are more than aware of the exit of nearly all our manufacturing industries and all most other high value, high wage businesses. We suffer dumping by third world countries on a daily basis! Steel, automobiles, and most all manufactured goods. But ponder this. What in reality is really being dumped on our shores? The answer is labour! What is being dumped on the first world shores by the third world is labour that has not been paid for in full!! This practice is also unsustainable in the long run. The millions of Chinese who are left under the bus when the they are finally used up and discarded with no pensions or social programs such as health care are going to make a pretty noisy crowd on the streets of China and else where!

Even the field...

Well how can we make this price of gold which seems to stick pretty close to the economic law of one price the world over work for ordinary people? To act as a gentle brake on the first world and an elevator for the third world? The Oracle of Ottawa believes he has an answer! One ounce of gold avoirdupois equals about 28.35 grams. At $1,800 per ounce, a gram of gold goes for about $63.50. Now ask yourself, how long does it take an auto worker in Detroit or Windsor Ontario to earn one gram of gold? A little over an hour and a half... Ya, that C.A.W. union card is damn nice to have isn't it? Now ask yourself how long does it take the auto worker in China to earn one gram of gold in his currency? Twenty hours? Thirty hours? Therefore what should the rate of import duty be on a Chinese car? Easy, I thought you would never ask!!?  1/20 = 0.05 + -1.00 = 0.95 x 100 = 95 %!! Now if the Chinese government wants that duty lowered, all that they will have to do is make sure that their autoworkers are paid for what their work is truly worth! When this starts to happen the duty will be lowered... This will also work well say between Canada and Germany. But the duty will only be about a few percent either way over the period of a year. But still this would be way fair to every one in the long run...

Enough is enough... Lets level the field...

The real magic here is that the currencies are out of the picture! At the very least this could be used by Big Labour as a measure of aggregate labour time, when they go to the government and make their case!! A car is a car the world over, no?

Gold; lets make it work for us!!

Dementia at Desjardins (II)

Value, therefore, does not stalk about with a label describing what it is. 
Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Buch I, Chapter 1, Section 4, p. 85

Well, well. It seems that all the high powered Fart Catchers in the world, or at least on Bay Street in Toronto, can't make every thing happen, like they sell  it to the hapless corporate clients. In the mail this morning was a letter from my stock broker (RBC) extending the hardly generous offer for my Western Financial stock! The extension goes from Feb. 24, 2011, to March 17, 2011!  My, my! Who says small investors don't have power?

Karl Marx says; Just like I told ya!

The reason I wont take the crummy $4.10 a share is that Western Financial owns a Chartered  Bank! Yeah! A Schedule I Canadian domestic bank!  Called Bank West. In Canada you don't open a bank like a 7-11 corner store! They are a gold mine! And a Charter that is required to open a new bank is rare and very hard to get. I wouldn't take a $100.00 a share! And I strongly suggest that you don't either! If they had to extend this deal, it very clearly  appears to be in trouble! What usually happens on a "done" deal is that the first date is met by the majority of the stockholders. And the majority required depending on the domicile province is usually much more than 50% + 1! So this letter received this morning tells me that this dog is titsed! And enough of that...

Karl Marx said a long time ago that the worker would only get justice when he owned the means of production. Back in his time, in Victorian England, the joint stock limited liability company was in its infancy. It was nearly impossible for a normal working person to open an account with a stock broker. Therefore Karl Marx assumed in his writings the violent course of in the street social revolution. Move the clock up to today, 2011, any working person in the Americas, European Union, and most of Asia can own stocks. So how many do you own? There are nearly 7 billion people alive today. About 3 billion could easily become direct shareholders.

Give me 10 shares of BNS, Karl Marx sent me!

If there is one thing that keeps the ruling class up at night is the thought of the lumpen proletariat deciding all at once that they are going to get theirs! Nightmares of masses of activist share owners. Mutual and exchanged traded funds impossible to market and sell. It would spell the end of their world and the beginning of the dictatorship of  the proletariat! Just like Marx said at the end of Das Kapital Buch I in 1867! The times have caught up to the theory! Are you going to step up?

You will soon find out if you have the knack. Read about what the great investors in history have done. And read about what the great investors alive today have done and are doing. I mean only simple Buy and Hold investors such as say Warren Buffet. Let me tell you from my experience; behind many great fortunes and a multitude of small ones, there exists no crime! It is your birth right to be rich! So get the fuck on with it!

That's all Folks!