By Stephen Gray
20 August 2002
“Delegates from around the world attending the International Transport Workers' Federation Conference in Vancouver, Canada, will condemn the campaign by Canadian multinational shipping company CSL to introduce Flag of Conveniences shipping to the Australian domestic transport industry tomorrow midday (Australian time).
A motion moved by Maritime Union National Secretary and ITF executive member Paddy Crumlin is scheduled to be seconded by Canadian Auto Workers'' President Buzz Hargrove…." The motion calls on CSL and in particular the honourable Paul Martin (aspiring PM, MP, former finance minister and major CSL shareholder) to apply the same standards of protection to Australian maritime workers as CSL does to Canadian seafarers in their domestic trade.”1
According to the above information Buzz Hargrove was involved with the ITF condemning the practices of CSL, the shipping line owned by Paul Martin. Now fast forward to today and brother Buzz has become a big booster of the Paul Martin Liberals. What is going on? Has Buzz the workers’ voice become Buzz the Liberal shill? There, they were Brother Paul and Brother Buzz engulfed in each others arms, brothers in solidarity, in front of the gathered Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union politburo. "We're out to stop the Tories,"2 said Buzz. We have to protect our “values” said Paul and the watching union politburo applauded in unison.
Meanwhile hard working, thinking union members toiling away in their workplaces were surely saying to themselves: “As usual Buzz is shooting off his mouth, telling the members how to vote and who to vote for.” Still this is the usual consistent B.S. from Buzz. He also wrote his Liberal buddy Paul Martin on the “same-sex marriage” issue and said: “Dear Prime Minister: Clearly the debate around same-sex marriage is heating up. I am writing once again to offer the support of our union, the Canadian Auto Workers, and to encourage you to hold strong on protection of minority rights through the Charter and press forward with same-sex marriage legislation….”3
Can you believe the cheek of this loud little labor man? Is he on a power trip? Does he speak for every union member on social, moral and political issues? I don’t believe so. Outrageous statements from Hargrove are nothing new. Yet he gets away with declaring ALL his union members support “same-sex marriage. He never even polled his members on this issue. Now he’s shooting off his mouth again telling them how to vote.
This little man Hargrove with the ever open mouth never gets challenged by the unionized media on his ridiculous statements, but instead gets fawning attention from them. Will none of the unionized media ask this noisy little person with what authority he has, to say: "We want a clear minority government, led by Paul Martin, with as many New Democrats holding the balance of power as possible."4 Who is “we” they might ask? Since when did “we” take in every one of the CAW’s 280,000 members? Union members don’t all think the same or vote the same way. This use of “we “by Hargrove is surely not true. He can only speak for himself, not all the 280,000 union members, yet the media does not challenge his misinformation. He is not only claiming to speak for ALL his members but says, “every Canadian should agree” on the Liberals return to “Ottawa.” He had this to say about his buddy Paul’s Liberal government:
"If you look at the record, and every Canadian should agree, this government, this minority government, deserves to go back to Ottawa with even bigger numbers,"5 And Paul on hearing this endorsement from Brother Buzz had this to say:
"Let me just tell you, Buzz, I could listen to you all day," Mr. Martin beamed as he took the stage yesterday, while his aides were visibly gleeful.”6
So there we have it, Mr. Democratic Deficit teams up with the Comrade of Compulsion and this show will be on the road for the next number of weeks. Where no doubt we will see Buzz go Buzzing for Paul.
Stephen Gray
December 4, 2005.
graysinfo@yahoo.ca website http://www.oocities.org/graysinfo
Endnotes:
1 http://www.mua.org.au/news/general/toronto.html
2
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2005/12/02/martin-CAW051202.html
3 http://www.caw.ca/whatwedo/pride/letters/martin_jan05.asp
4
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051203/ELXNLIBERALS03/TPFront/TopStories
5 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051203/ELXNLIBERALS03/TPFront/TopStories
6 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051203/ELXNLIBERALS03/TPFront/TopStories