Banks vs. Workers

I read this quote on rabble.ca. It may very well help explain why workers are not prepared to make concessions even in these tough economic times.

• "several weeks ago, over 2,000 union and community members met in Toronto and pledged solidarity to one another.
  
  “They pledge solidarity on the picket lines, in their struggles to get collective agreements that will be strengthened, not gutted through concession bargaining” she said. Kennedy’s seen tough times for many unions in Toronto, going back to SARS when UNITE HERE was devastated by cuts and layoffs.
  
  Now, as many Steelworkers have been laid off with no chance in the near future of finding another manufacturing job, union activists are prepared to stand up and say: “We are not the problem. Don’t try and fix the economic crisis on our backs. Don’t continue to bail out the banks.”
  
  “You need to look at the workers, so that we can have a decent living for our families, our children and our communities,” said Kennedy."

A different perspective isn't it!

Look at the manufacturing sector. Notwithstanding the financial help given to the auto companies, provided they went into bankruptcy and restructured, one can still wonder why it was so painful for them to get Government money but so easy it seems for the financial institutions.

It still boggles my mind that Governments have taken such a hard-line position on our manufacturing industries, especially one which directly or indirectly impacts so many workers.

I am surprised that we have not read many "conspiracy theories" yet about why this world economic mess has really happened and why it happened so quickly. As for me, I just do not believe that it is all due to "sub-prime" mortgages!

Wait until some of these big multi-billion dollar private deals start collapsing under their own weight of debt! Then we will be talking huge amounts. It would not surprise me if that is really why the banks are quietly being helped out.

Here is one conspiracy story just to whet your interest:

• "Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory
  
  By Jonathan Duffy
  BBC News Online Magazine
  
  The Bilderberg group, an elite coterie of Western thinkers and power-brokers, has been accused of fixing the fate of the world behind closed doors. As the organisation marks its 50th anniversary, rumours are more rife than ever.
  
  Given its reputation as perhaps the most powerful organisation in the world, the Bilderberg group doesn't go a bundle on its switchboard operations.
  
  Telephone inquiries are met with an impersonal female voice - the Dutch equivalent of the BT Callminder woman - reciting back the number and inviting callers to "leave a message after the tone".
  
  Anyone who accidentally dialled the number would probably think they had stumbled on just another residential answer machine.
  
  But behind this ultra-modest façade lies one of the most controversial and hotly-debated alliances of our times.
  
  On Thursday the Bilderberg group marks its 50th anniversary with the start of its yearly meeting.
  
  For four days some of the West's chief political movers, business leaders, bankers, industrialists and strategic thinkers will hunker down in a five-star hotel in northern Italy to talk about global issues.
  
  What sets Bilderberg apart from other high-powered get-togethers, such as the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), is its mystique.
  
  Not a word of what is said at Bilderberg meetings can be breathed outside. No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted.
  
  The shadowy aura extends further - the anonymous answerphone message, for example; the fact that conference venues are kept secret. The group, which includes luminaries such as Henry Kissinger and former UK chancellor Kenneth Clarke, does not even have a website.
  
  In the void created by such aloofness, an extraordinary conspiracy theory has grown up around the group that alleges the fate of the world is largely decided by Bilderberg."