EYE ON: Crash courses
eye WEEKLY
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eye WEEKLY October 10, 1996
Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday
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EYE ON EYE ON
CRASH COURSES
by
GREG BOYD
The Canadian Auto Workers union's strike at General Motors was big
news last week, and as this page went to press it seemed likely to
continue for a good week more.
The GM strike was portrayed by Canadian media as a quarrel about job-
security. But elsewhere, such as the New York Times, the issues look
quite different. The Times' take was simple: the union wants more of a
say in running the company, or at least in setting employment and
investment plans, and is engaged in an arm-wrestling contest to get
its way.
This doesn't just put the GM strike in a different light -- it also
explains why the city of Toronto is preparing for a day-long general
strike on Oct. 25. Like any industrial-age entity, Big Labor feels it
must grow or die.
Labor disputes are usually portrayed as set-piece battles in the media
because it's always cheaper and easier to report the battle than the
background. As is customary in labor stories, TV and radio coverage
relies most heavily on body-count journalism, ticking off the numbers
of people off the job and how many other workers may be laid off
unless the strike is settled. The actual points of contention are
usually left to a final summarizing sentence.
One thing that electronic media convey well, though, is the eerie
similarity of the appearance, speech and mannerisms of CAW leader Buzz
Hargrove and GM public relations director Stew Low. Hargrove's clothes
are better tailored, perhaps, but then he does run a bigger, more
important department.
The strike is part of a power-grab by Hargrove's department of GM. The
CAW insists on more of a say in what plants the company operates, how
many people it employs to do what, and whether GM should earn more
money by sending some of its work to other companies -- which may or
may not employ members of the CAW.
It seems that organized labor has become increasingly unclear about
the purposes for which it is organized. Canadian unionists may speak
disparagingly about huge multinational corporations, international
trading blocs and so on, but their own behavior has become nearly
indistinguishable from that of the structures they decry. Unions too
have merged, growing fewer and larger. As they get bigger, they have
shifted their attention to bigger things.
The CAW and its like have grown so grand and self-important that they
feel competent to determine not only investment and employment for GM,
but (as we will see Oct. 25) the policies and budgetary decisions of
the provincial government. The choice of leaders between Buzz Hargrove
and Mike Harris is undoubtedly an unappealing one, but it is certainly
a decision that the electorate has already made once.
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