Canada's largest unions have condemned a Senate report that recommends Ottawa be empowered to halt strikes and impose contracts through binding arbitration in the rail and marine sectors.

After nationalizing the rails and ports. I mean, if they're that important to the economy, and all.

Stop fucking getting involved!!!!!

These companies are not negotiating because they know the government will intervene. They ARE NOT negotiating in good faith.

Yes please. I'm a railway worker. When it comes to arbitration, they reference the wages of the only other railway to justify shotty pay increases. 2 years later, arbitration steps in for them and references our shitty wages are justification to fuck them. We're in a feedback loop...or a death spiral. Oh, and until it was mandated by the federal government a few years ago, we had 0 sick days, 0 personal days, 0 floater days etc... small vacation only. Very little quality of life. Always travelling, always on call. No wonder they can't keep employees.

From what I recall hearing about the job from the one CN conductor I knew, it sounded like what they really need is some work life balance provisions. The on call requirements that guy put up with were nuts.

Now? This been going on for decades. Governments of both red and blue stripes have done various kinds of union busting both federally and privincially. We still have more unions left than say the US but shit ain't looking up in the status quo.

Your intellectual shallownes is showing, you might want to hide it.

1. That is the entire point of a strike. Don't blame the workers, blame the companies for forcing the workers to have no other option.

2. The second you wean off the unions, the companies will go 180 and turbo-charge the path back to where we currently are, but worse because there is nobody left to fight them.

It's the companies not accepting the union contract that's the problem.

Back to work legislation should force companies to accept the union contract until they can negotiate a proper one.

Companies sell goods or services that people are willing to pay money for. Hence the company operations being disrupted would naturally cause hardship for society. Your approach would rule out all effective labor action.

In general, a rising tide lifts all ships. If wages in one sector rise, it creates pressure to raise them in other sectors. Part of working class solidarity is enduring those hardships.