Imagine my surprise when I read the headline, Feds must honour contracts: premier, in the Chronicle Herald on Nov 10.
Another article in the Herald also goes on to say this: McNeil said, “The fact of the matter is, Irving won this contract fair and square through a competitive process, and we fully expect the national government to respect that process.”
Let’s hope Stephen McNeil is coming around and understands the need to respect the process of bargaining contracts with our unions. After all, as McNeil says, a deal is a deal, and those past promises must be respected. When union members bargain a signed agreement, we expect that our provincial governments must respect the process and keep their fingers out of those past deals, deals that were signed sealed and delivered. The Liberals had no business to reach into those contracts and haul out previously agreed to items. I guess he now knows how it feels to be disrespected.
Maybe it’s time for the Liberals in our province to stop talking out of both sides of their mouth and respect the bargaining process with its unions. Our collective bargaining process is enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For the Liberals, under McNeil's leadership to disrespect our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a major disrespect to our entire country, its people, and our unions.
Danny Cavanagh
President, Nova Scotia Federation of Labour
