Hotline, Spring 2011 Could this happen in BC? Click here for more photos. More than a hundred thousand workers have been marching in the streets in Madison, Wisconsin and occupying the state legislature building for weeks now in an unsuccessful effort to stop legislation put forward by Republican Governor Scott Walker that strips 175,000 public service workers of their collective bargaining rights. In March, with the stroke of a pen in a disputed vote in the Wisconsin Assembly, those workers saw their rights disappear with the passage of that legislation. In an effort to destroy the labour movement and to shred public services, the draconian legislation was supported by big business after a significant tax cut had just been granted to the powerful lobby group. Public sector workers and their collective agreements are falsely being blamed for the fiscal deficit the state finds itself in – a crisis that has been caused by failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and irresponsible risk-taking in the financial sector, according to the conclusions of a US government Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Now, public service workers will no longer be able to negotiate working conditions, health and safety and worker’s compensation provisions, leave entitlements, seniority rules, equality provisions, grievance procedures, representation rights, pensions and benefits. Real salary increases will have to be put to a referendum. The IBEW is supporting the battle over collective bargaining rights, right-to-work legislation, and other labour issues taking place in Wisconsin and other states that have spurred the labour movement to its greatest level of international and grassroots activism in decades. Could something like this happen in BC? Local 258 members may recall when the BC Liberal government passed Bill 29 in 2002 – legislation that was eventually struck down by Canada’s highest court in 2008 – that dismantled the collective bargaining rights of tens of thousands of health care workers in this province. Despite massive opposition, Republican legislators have pursued their course, and other US states are considering similar action. This assault on long accepted collective agreements is disastrous for all workers and for citizens who depend on quality public services. Labour movements across Canada and the US oppose this hostile agenda and are standing in solidarity. | 
