Decision and Division NSTU and NSCC

The Roman Catholic Lectionary for today presents decision to people. The psalmist suggests there are two ways. Paul in addressing the Romans offers sin and death or the Free Gift and life. NSTU members are considering a decision too. If the tentative agreement is accepted, it brings “life” to the College, the Students and the NDP. Rejection means that the retirees and the those who plan long service at the College may have another chance to reduce the “missed” revenue as it compounds over the years from this settlement. Does this settlement set a precedent for the NDP? For the NSTU? Is it a healthy precedent?

Watchful Slaves and NSCC FAPS

Luke 12:35 ‘Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; This is the exhortation in the Roman Catholic Lectionary for today. In some way, I think the Faculty and Professional Support at NSCC were prepared for action today. Fortunately, a tentative agreement was reached. A spiritual and motivational question remains in my mind. What is the best path to healing the damage? Is it necessary to determine how we ended up prepared to strike even though, as the NSTU ads suggest, we were part of the last cycle of negotiation that did not complete. Did it not complete because we were overlooked or taken for granted? If that might be the case, are we ready to find out why it happened so the path of reconciliation can truly contain the promise of it never happening again?

Is the NDP building idea barns in NS?

Today, in the Roman Catholic Lectionary, Luke presents an episode in Jesus ministry when He comments on the folly of the accumulation of riches. This is a folly in which most of us participate. The temporal concerns are often given priority over the infinite matters. In the current dispute between NSCC and the Faculty and Professional Support, something more than money appears to be sought by both sides. The folly of the rich man would not be less if he were accumulating pride, prestige or reputation. All of these are pursuits which lead to fleeting reward and endanger the development of ourselves as givers and servants. An idea or an ideal can also be unworthy of our headlong pursuit. In many ways it can block our movement toward others and the Divine. In the NSCC, NSTU and NDP scenario ideas are blocking progress. What is fair? What is equitable? What ‘principle’ are we standing on? It is wise to consider the finite effect of holding ground compared to the infinite implications of pride and arrogance. In the time frame between finite and infinite, now, we see much damage to goodwill has already been done. A heart for reconciliation is needed now and even more so if our desire to be like the Rich Fool continues.

The NDP in Nova Scotia mystery

On the Grand Lake Road, which is part of the highway between Sydney and Glace Bay, near Victoria Junction, is a set of traffic lights which allow traffic to come and go to Grand Lake Road from a few large parking lots. When I stand in the closest of these parking lots to the highway, my mind recalls a great Cape Breton and Nova Scotia mystery which has remained unsolved for at least four decades. Who are the voting constituency for the NDP in Nova Scotia? I grew up in Glace Bay and Sydney. Close to my backyard in Glace Bay were six operating coal mines. My grandparents lived in Sydney where on 3 shifts a day members of my family made steel. The United Mine Workers and the Steel Workers Union were strong healthy voices for hard working labour in Industrial Cape Breton. The Sterling district of Glace Bay was home of the “red” barn. These people who worked so hard in back breaking labour and rallied with their unions for better wages and conditions most often returned Liberal and Progressive Conservative members to the Legislature in Halifax. Today, this parking lot separates the Cape Breton University Campus from the Marconi Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College. This past week, two events involving teachers at these institutions raised the question of the NDP mystery again. The Faculty Association at Cape Breton University ratified a contract giving them an increase 2.9% a year for 4 years. The Faculty and Professional Support staff at the NSCC Marconi Campus prepare to strike because the NDP government will not allow the NSCC to even discuss a 2.9% in one year contract. I am confused. On which Campus are the constituents who support the NDP? Perhaps it is the CBU Campus where the NDP finds support. Thirty years ago, when I was taking a course in political science at Dalhousie, I was thrilled that the professor was a member of the executive of the NDP. As my political interest matured I came to understand the great division between academic socialists and workers struggling for fair wages and decent safe working conditions. I hope that the solution to “my NDP mystery” is not that they are “academic socialists”. The evidence from the voters of Cape Breton, with some exceptions, may favour a conclusion that socialist ideas and rhetoric may make a political party but not a party for fairness and equity in the workplace.