Former Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) national president Buzz Hargrove paid a visit to Sudbury April 16, weighing in on both the nine-month-long Vale Inco strike and on the province's health care system.
Since he retired from his job with the CAW in 2008, Hargrove has started his own labour relations consulting business, become a visiting professor at Ryerson University and written a book called Laying it on the Line: Driving a Hard Bargain in Challenging Times.
He was invited to speak at a Ontario Hospital Association conference at the Holiday Inn about how the economic crisis is impacting on the health care system. Before giving his speech, he also dropped in on some strikers in Copper Cliff to speak about the strike.
Hargrove, who spoke to Northern Life before his hospital association speech, said he is interested in health care because the CAW represents about 30,000 health care workers, and he's “heard the horror stories about cutbacks (in health care).”
He said the economic crisis will impact the province's ability to pay for health care. So many people have been laid off, that the province is bringing in less tax revenue, he said.
“When those people aren't paying taxes, it puts a hell of a strain on the finances of governments,” he said.
Hargrove said he is concerned that the province is going to try to reduce the salaries of health care workers, much how they pressured the CAW to make concessions to the auto sector during the peak of the economic crisis.
He said hospital board should demonstrate to the province that they are innovating, and making good use of taxpayers dollars to convince them not to reduce funding.
As for the strike, Hargrove said the province should bring in anti-scab legislation to prevent Vale Inco from hiring replacement workers.
“It's wrong to have the legal right to strike, and the company has the right to bring in people to take your job while you're on the picket line. The McGuinty government could do a lot by bringing in anti-scab legislation.”
The federal government, which argued that the sale of Inco to Vale in 2006 was in the country's best interests, “could step in and say 'Treat people properly, or we're going to nationalize. These are our resources. You're not building widgets or cars, you're taking the resources out of the ground that belong to people.'”
