Thursday, July 2, 2020
Quebec’s hard-right premier reshuffles cabinet for stepped-up class-war assault
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/07/01/shuf-j01.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws
By Louis Girard
1 July 2020
Quebec Premier François Legault reshuffled the cabinet of his right-wing populist “Quebec first” Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government late last month. His aim is to initiate a new phase in his government’s drive to exploit the coronavirus pandemic to restructure class relations at the expense of the working class.
One of the two major changes in the cabinet shuffle concerned Danielle McCann, a health professional who had served as Minister of Health in the CAQ government since it came to power in October 2018. McCann was demoted to Minister of Higher Education, while her deputy minister, Yvan Gendron, was ejected from his post.
Legault is serving up McCann and Gendron as scapegoats for his government’s disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like all levels of government across Canada, the response of Quebec’s CAQ government to the health emergency has been characterized by:
* a total lack of preparation for a pandemic that was both foreseeable and foreseen. This includes both the failure to take urgent action when the coronavirus was identified as a major health threat in January, and the decades-long pursuit of capitalist austerity that has left the health care system in a shambles;
* the refusal to provide health care workers with personal protective equipment (PPE);
* the adoption of a strategy of “herd immunity,” which promotes mass contamination and blithely accepts mass fatalities;
* the premature reopening of nonessential economic sectors so as to protect the wealth and profits of the rich.
These criminal policies have led to the terrible toll of over 5,500 deaths in the province of Quebec alone, one of the highest per capita mortality rates in the world.
The new health minister is accountant and businessman Christian Dubé, who hitherto had served as head of the Treasury Board. “Why is it that the Treasury Board president will be managing the health department,” asked political observer Thierry Giasson in the daily newspaper Le Devoir. “Is this a harbinger of cuts?”
Indeed, that is precisely the intention of Premier Legault, who called the Health Ministry a “monster” before issuing a thinly veiled warning, “I think it is possible, as a businessman, to improve things in the health care system.”
A few days before his appointment as Health Minister, Dubé was more explicit about the real objective of the CAQ government, i.e. a new round of brutal budget cuts and ever more authoritarian methods to impose them. “In times of crisis,” Dubé argued, “we cannot continue to do things the way they were done before. But some folks don't want to go any further ... Is it because they're afraid of change?”
Almost as soon as Dubé became Health Minister, the CAQ government said that it would stop holding daily press conferences to update the population on the spread of COVID-19 in Quebec. This was followed the next day by an announcement from the Quebec government’s National Institute of Public Health that it too was ending its daily reporting of infections, deaths, and tests. These figures, which are essential for both the public and medical professionals to assess the progress of the pandemic, would instead be released only once a week.
In other words, the CAQ wanted to hide from the public the impact of its premature “reopening” of nonessential businesses, which will inevitably lead in the coming days and weeks to a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections, as has already been seen in the United States and Europe. Only after a public outcry and protests from health care experts did the Legault government back down and pledge to continue the daily release of key COVID-19 data.
The other major change in the cabinet shuffle was the replacement of Dubé by the former Minister of Justice, Sonia LeBel. In her new role at the head of the Treasury Board, LeBel will be tasked with imposing new concessions on the 600,000 public sector workers whose collective agreements expired on March 31. She also inherits the controversial Bill 61, whose adoption had to be postponed until the fall because of widespread popular concern over the extraordinary powers the CAQ government is trying to arrogate under its provisions.
Presented by the government as a means to facilitate the rapid launch of infrastructure projects so as to revive the economy, this omnibus bill has in fact a much broader reach and sinister political implications. It would indefinitely extend the public health emergency and associated extraordinary government powers. It would give the CAQ government the power to arbitrarily change construction industry rules and regulations, directly threatening the rights of construction workers. Moreover, a vaguely worded provision in Bill 61’s Clause 36 authorizes the government to “take any measure it considers necessary to make any adjustment to any provision of an Act,” suggesting the government could use it to rewrite virtually any law at will.
In the name of fast-tracking 202 construction projects, Bill 61 also allows the government to circumvent environmental standards. Section 4 stipulates that any future proposed public infrastructure project be studied for no more than one hour by the responsible committees of the Quebec National Assembly. Section 51 stipulates that the government or any other public body cannot be sued for any action taken under the legislation once it becomes law.
The public committee charged with following up on the recommendations of the Charbonneau Commission, an inquiry set up by the former Liberal government following a spate of construction industry corruption scandals, has criticized Bill 61, because it “creates conditions extremely favourable to the emergence of corruption, collusion and other malfeasance.”
LeBel was the chief prosecutor of the Charbonneau Commission. Her appointment to the Treasury Board is clearly intended to provide the CAQ government with political cover so it can defuse opposition to Bill 61. It will cite LeBel’s past as she attempts to steer the legislation through the National Assembly, hoping thereby to counter accusations that it will pave the way for a return to the corrupt practices of the past.
Extending the state of health emergency indefinitely instead of renewing it every 10 days would remove any limit on the government's ability to use decrees to abrogate workers’ collective agreements—as it is already doing. This has allowed the government to impose even more disastrous working conditions on health care workers on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19, whether it be by cancelling vacations and holidays, forcing employees to change workplaces and duties (offloading), or forcing them to work overtime.
Salivating at the prospect of obtaining lucrative government contracts, the Quebec Council of Employers and construction industry representatives have all warmly welcomed Bill 61. However, some business representatives, aware of the fact that the huge scandals in the construction industry have contributed to the discrediting of the political establishment, warned that the government needed to be more “rigorous” and “accountable.”
Since coming to power, the CAQ, a government dedicated to deregulation, privatization, and massive tax cuts for big business and the rich, has intensified the anti-worker agenda of its Liberal and Parti Québécois (PQ) predecessors.
Bill 61, which would give the government quasi-dictatorial powers, is the logical continuation of the class-war program that the ruling class has been waging for decades, both in Canada and internationally. After gutting social programs, attacking living standards and fabulously enriching a tiny minority, even a façade of democracy is less tolerable for the ruling elite. It is increasingly turning to authoritarian forms of rule to impose its programme of social counterrevolution at home and neocolonial wars and great-power conflict abroad.
It remains to be seen whether the new version of Bill 61 that LeBel will present this fall will maintain, beyond a few cosmetic changes, the openly authoritarian bent of the previous version. But two things are certain: no section of the ruling class is fundamentally opposed to the turn toward antidemocratic forms of rule; the defense of democratic rights depends entirely on the independent political mobilization of the working class against the crisis-ridden capitalist system (see: Why is Canada’s ruling elite deploying the military amid the COVID-19 pandemic?).
The opposition parties—the Quebec Liberals, the PQ, and Québec Solidaire—fully agree with the massive subsidies to construction companies under the pretext of “economic recovery.” All they are asking is that the government not trample on the rules for awarding contracts, out of fear that doing so will further discredit the entire political system.
This is also the case with the unions, who have eagerly collaborated with the CAQ since its election in imposing its right-wing agenda. “We have an opportunity today to make a shift in our economic development strategy,” wrote the presidents of Quebec's four main labour federations (FTQ, CSN, CSQ, and CSD) after the temporary withdrawal of Bill 61. These loyal defenders of the capitalist system merely want to be part of the process as “partners of Quebec society, in an open and constructive dialogue” with the government and big business.
New York City transit worker suffers miscarriage on the job
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/07/01/nyct-j01.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws
By Sam Dalton
1 July 2020
On June 27, reports emerged that a pregnant Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) subway conductor had given birth at a train yard. Initially workers reported that the baby appeared to have been safely delivered but later that evening coworkers familiar with the mother’s situation revealed the baby had in fact died.
The responsibility for this tragedy falls squarely not only on the shoulders of the Democratic administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo, which runs the MTA, but also on the Transport Workers Union (TWU), the organization that falsely claims to represent over 41,000 workers, primarily in the New York City subways and buses. The death of the child is a part of a pattern of systematic and deliberate neglect of workers’ basic health and safety needs by the union for many years.
East New York subway yard (Photo by Phillip Lee)The worker’s miscarriage takes place as the number of COVID-19 deaths among New York’s transit workers has exceeded 140. As New York state and city authorities, headed by the Democratic Party, continue their deadly drive to reopen businesses during the pandemic, this number will only increase in the coming weeks and months.
The mother had filed a written request for special accommodation on June 24 because of her advancing pregnancy. Even though an appointment was scheduled on June 29 at the MTA’s Medical Assessment Center to review her responsibilities, she was forced to come into work on June 28. Following the death of her child, the MTA has granted the worker the standard two weeks paid maternity leave.
The mother was a second-generation New York City conductor. At the time of the incident the mother was six months pregnant and she was assigned to moving switches on the subway tracks. At the notoriously outdated East New York (ENY) yard, this job requires the strenuous pulling of heavy levers to switch over tracks, the continuous crossing of electrically charged third rails, climbing of ladders on and off trains and walking over uneven ballast.
Furthermore, the East New York yard is raised, therefore, to come in and out of work every day workers must scale multiple flights of stairs. Strenuous and dangerous even at the best of times, during a pregnancy these conditions severely endanger the lives of both mother and child.
The worker’s coworkers are understandably outraged at the news. On Facebook, one worker wrote, “As a dad of four and a granddad of two (so far), I hold a special place in my soul for children, and I can say unequivocally that the murder of that newborn baby, committed by Transit officials, at ENY yard yesterday, has hit me the hardest …”
Another commented, “It’s time that the MTA start realizing we are more than just employee numbers.”
This death was not an unfortunate accident, but the immediate consequence of strenuous work on the mother and child. In turn, these conditions are the outcome of decades of attacks on the social rights of transit workers in New York City and across the world. Across the globe, unions claiming to defend the rights of workers have been complicit in attacks that are driving working conditions back to those of the 19th century.
It is unconscionable that a pregnant worker was forced to carry out heavy labor of this kind. This is, however, the norm and not the exception for pregnant workers at the MTA. Workers are not only given a meager two weeks maternity leave but must exhaust all other vacation days and paid time off before they are granted longer unpaid leave. For many, this is simply impossible, and workers are often forced to work late in their pregnancies.
Workers have raised concerns over the conditions facing pregnant colleagues for many years. An MTA worker, who wished to be referred to as Lisa, who gave birth to a child late last year, told the WSWS, “She isn’t the only woman who had an injury while working while pregnant down here either. When I was pregnant another train operator slipped off a train at 7 months pregnant in the yard. There are tons of other incidents as well.”
Lisa continued, “I recently had my baby and worked my entire pregnancy. Lots of us are forced to use our sick time during this period as well, which is incredibly unfair because it either depletes the sick time or lowers it. This means when we come back it is at zero and it’ll be counted against us when we come up for promotion. During my pregnancy, I took a leave of absence and was denied when I tried to add some additional time.”
The pandemic has also posed difficulties to workers with children and families. Thousands of MTA workers have worked under the constant fear that they will contract the virus and spread it among their families. The closure of schools also left many workers with children at home, forcing them to take fewer shifts or find expensive childcare. Lisa explained, “I came back to work at the beginning of the pandemic. Finding childcare has been hectic. I feel that mothers should get at minimum six months.”
As the MTA’s financial crisis intensifies—the agency has accumulated not only $46 billion in debt for capital expenses but also $12 billion in operating expenses during the pandemic—the agency’s chairman Pat Foye assured the agency’s bondholders, “We’re not asking for forgiveness from our creditors.”
The MTA’s orientation to Wall Street—at the behest of the Democratic-run state government under Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is the effective head of the agency—is, in fact, the overriding reason for its deadly neglect of transit workers throughout the pandemic. While ultra-rich speculators trade MTA bonds for billions, workers will be left to bear the brunt of cost-cutting measures taken in attempts to save the agency.
The criminality of the MTA has only been abetted by the complicity of the TWU. The contract pushed through by the union in January cut workers’ access to health care in other ways beside limiting them to the inadequate two-weeks maternity or paternity leave.
In the last contract, the union and MTA also agreed to inaugurate a Women’s Committee “to address issues relating to female employees.” Such window-dressing is typical of the union’s bait-and-switch approach, in which it tries to distract workers with meaningless concessions while green-lighting the MTA’s continuing attacks on its workforce.
During contract discussions the union proposed shifting its members to New York state’s 2014 legislation on parental leave requirements for private companies. Despite granting 12 weeks of leave, this legislation only guarantees full pay for the first two weeks, meaning that workers, many of whom are living paycheck to paycheck, would still be forced to return to work prematurely.
In a statement over the weekend, TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano said about the worker’s miscarriage, “This is a terrible and tragic loss. Our hearts go out to our union sister and her family, and we will do whatever we can to assist them at this difficult time.”
The TWU’s hypocritical statement has angered workers. On Facebook, one worker responded, “Have you no shame? Why on earth in 2020 do we have such horrible maternity rights and light duty rights for women by a multi-billion-dollar agency? Why instead of asking for these things from Transit, you are not just straight up demanding them? The ball is in our court, and the power is in our hands, and yet time and time again, you do nothing. You just offer up more ‘thoughts and prayers.’”
Workers must insist on every pregnant woman’s right to safeguard her own well-being as well as that of her child. This includes the right to safe housing, high-quality medical care, and full pay during maternity leave. The length of leave should be determined with the health of mother and child as first priority and should extend for a period after the birth that gives ample time for the mother to physically recover and care for her newborn child. Workers should also insist on similar rights for paternity leave. Workers must also put forward wider demands for workers’ protection from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The life-and-death struggle for these rights cannot be conducted by anyone other than workers themselves. Appeals to the MTA or attempts to reform the TWU are worse than useless in this struggle.
Following the lead of autoworkers in Detroit, to protect their lives New York City transit workers must form their own rank-and-file safety committees. With the pandemic in resurgence, no time can be lost. The Socialist Equality Party and WSWS will provide full assistance to workers’ efforts to take these vital protective measures.
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