The 13-day strike has demonstrated that dockworkers confront a battle on two fronts: against the union-NDP backed Liberal government, which enforces the demands of the corporate elite and seeks to smash any resistance that obstructs the ruling class agenda of war and austerity; and against the union bureaucracy, which serves the ruling class by suppressing the class struggle
  • phx@lemmy.ca
    7·
    1 year ago

    How the fuck can a union accept a contract without putting it to vote with their membership?

    • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
      12·
      1 year ago

      I believe the union reps (heads?) can accept a contract/offer and people go back to work - but the contract is still voted on by the union.

      If the government offer is rejected by the union, the strike will resume.

      This system prevents having the entire union vote every time something is offered, and helps encourage that best offers are tendered so employers can’t just force hundreds of votes increasing wage offers by pennies at a time etc.

      There is potential for soft or corrupt union leaders to accept a bad deal in the hopes that enough striking workers need to work again/don’t care enough to vote etc and accept the worse deal. But if they become known for accepting bad deals, they will likely be ousted and replaced with someone who better represents the union members.