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All six unions whose members sought recertification under Gov. Scott Walker's controversial new collective bargaining law won those elections by wide margins, state officials reported Wednesday.

The voting demonstrates that the union members remain strong and united, Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin said in a statement.

"Nurses and health care professionals understand that a collective voice is not just about wages and benefits — this is about quality care for all Wisconsinites," Palmer said. "Scott Walker has united the labor movement. As a union we will move forward, and as a union we will succeed."

Under the new state law that removed most public employee collective bargaining rights, bargaining units need to win the backing of 51 percent of their bargaining unit members in order to have limited ability to bargain for cost-of-living wage increases.

The election result "means that we will be issuing a demand to begin bargaining," said Nancy Wettersten, vice president of Wisconsin State Attorney's Association. "It is very gratifying to the leadership of the union to have such a strong show of support and confidence."

Peter Davis, general counsel for the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, reported these results:

• The 261-member bargaining unit for the Wisconsin State Attorney's Association voted 217-6 for the union.

• The 1,033-member Service Employees International Union Healthcare Wisconsin won 658-23.

• The Association of State Prosecutors voted 289-7 for certification. It had 368 eligible members.

• The State Professional Education and Information Council voted 523-12 out of 655 members.

• Wisconsin State Building Trades Negotiating Committee voted 320-11 out of 434 members.

• The state Professional Employees in Research, Statistics and Analysis unit voted 42-0 for the union. There were 57 eligible voters.

The voting took place via telephone over the last two weeks.

The vast majority of state employee union members chose not to seek certification, saying the rules were unfair, the cost too high, and the payoff too small, since a certified union would be able to bargain only for limited wage increases, not benefits or working conditions.

Voting for teachers unions begins later this month. Municipal unions vote early next year.

Wisconsin State Journal, Wed Nov 16 2011

The U.S. State Department is exploring new routes for the Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska, which will delay a decision on TransCanada's request for a construction permit on the American portion of the project.

"Since 2008, the department has been conducting a transparent, thorough and rigorous review of TransCanada's application for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline project," said a U.S. State Department press release last week.

"As a result of this process, particularly given the concentration of concerns regarding the environmental sensitivities of the current proposed route through the Sand Hills area of Nebraska, the department has determined it needs to undertake an in-depth assessment of potential alternative routes in Nebraska."

TransCanada Corporation's proposed Keystone XL pipeline expansion is a 3,200-kilometre, 36-inch crude oil pipeline stretching from Hardisty, Alberta to a delivery point near existing terminals in Nederland, Texas.

The $7 billion project was in the final stages of the Department of State's (DOS) 90-day review period and a final decision about whether or not to issue a Presidential Permit was expected in December.

However, TransCanada was contacted by the DOS on Nov. 10 and informed that further analysis of route options for the Keystone XL pipeline need to be investigated, with a specific focus on the Sandhills in Nebraska.

"I support the State Department's announcement today regarding the need to seek additional information about the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal," said Obama in a press release.

"Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood.

The DOS said this process including a public comment period on a supplement to the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) could be completed as early as the first quarter of 2013.

"We remain confident Keystone XL will ultimately be approved," said Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer.

"This project is too important to the U.S. economy, the Canadian economy and the national interest of the United States for it not to proceed."

Dan Woynillowicz, spokesperson for the Pembina Institute, supports the decision to undertake an additional review of the Keystone XL pipeline.

"By ordering additional environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama has made it clear that he has heard the concerns of Americans about environmental protection, climate change, and the need for the United States to create a clean energy future," he said."

"The fact that climate change will be explicitly considered in the final decision is notable given the higher greenhouse gas pollution associated with oilsands compared to other sources of oil."

The Alberta Federation of Labour also supports the decision to delay the pipeline.

"There's been a parade of Alberta government ministers travelling to the States to sell unprocessed bitumen," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).

"Now perhaps those same ministers can stay in Alberta and consider our needs and our future ahead of those of our neighbours south of the border."

The federation recommends that the provincial government use the delay as an opportunity to pursue value-added opportunities at home, rather than shipping unprocessed bitumen south for upgrading.

The final EIS was issued in August and found that Keystone XL would have no significant impacts and was in the national interest.

The initial EIS studied fourteen different routes for Keystone XL, with eight that impacted Nebraska. They included one potential alternative route in Nebraska that would have avoided the entire Sandhills region and Ogallala aquifer and six alternatives that would have reduced pipeline mileage crossing the Sandhills or the aquifer located within it.

Journal of Commerce, Wed Nov 16 2011

Prime Minister Harper has stated that he intends to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board by Christmas, 2011. It's time to tell him to Stop the Steamroller.

- Prime Minister Harper has not adequately consulted, as he is required to do, the relevant Canadian wheat and barley farmers on the matter.

- In a plebiscite, 62% of relevant farmers stated that they want the CWB to remain in place.

- This decision could be the beginning of the end for many family farms that form the backbone of Canadian agriculture, and it is unconscionable that a Canadian way of life should be put at risk without the opinions of those families being heard.

Sign this petition and tell the Prime Minister, Cabinet and the House of Commons you are standing up for farmers and the Canadian Wheat Board.

http://www.stopthesteamroller.ca/

28,292 people have signed on and sent messages. Let's add to that.

The controversy over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline has brought energy policy, construction costs and labour relations laws to the forefront of debate in Alberta.

At the heart of the debate is the $7 billion pipeline being proposed by Calgary-based TransCanada Pipeline (TCP) to export up to 900,000 barrels of bitumen, the heaviest form of crude oil, from Alberta to be upgraded and refined in U.S. facilities.

While the U.S. debate sees proponents of energy security pitted against environmentalists, the Alberta debate is focused on whether partially processed oilsands products should be exported or fully refined in Canada.

View from the Board

Bill Stewart

Labour leaders argue that exporting bitumen is akin to sending jobs down the pipeline.

Indeed, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour recently called Keystone XL a job killer and argued that provincial and federal governments should adopt tighter export regulations to require more upgrading to be done in Alberta. He also argued that oil companies and developers have no other place to invest in but Alberta.

It goes without saying that extracting and refining oilsands products in Alberta or elsewhere in Canada is a laudable objective. But, is it realistic to think investors will or can be forced to invest billions in upgraders and refineries when construction costs and worldwide economic conditions are so uncertain?

The reality is that a decade ago when the Canadian dollar was worth 62 cents U.S., building upgraders and refineries in Alberta made good economic sense.

However, escalating construction costs, coupled with the strengthening of the Canadian dollar, has made capital investments, particularly the multi-billion investments required to construct new upgraders and refineries in Alberta, less attractive to potential investors and refinery operators.

As a TCP spokesperson noted in response to McGowan, XL is not contributing to job losses because no new refineries are being built in Alberta. He added, "Good luck trying to get a refinery built. It's very difficult; it's very expensive."

While other factors are clearly at play, labour costs are a key component. The Canadian Heavy Oil Association, for example, noted in 2009 that all Alberta upgrading projects have been afflicted by skyrocketing costs, which in some cases doubled or even tripled partly due to the skills shortage.

Construction cost escalations in tandem with economic uncertainty has in turn led to reduced investment intentions.

In September 2008, the Alberta government's major projects inventory included more than $283 billion in potential investment. Today, planned investment in major projects stands at $191 billion with almost $22 billion on hold.

Recognizing that labour costs and productivity significantly impact construction costs, the Construction Competitiveness Coalition formed in 2010 to advocate for reforming Alberta's outdated rules and regulations to improve construction competitiveness.

The coalition's 11 recommendations fall in three categories: • Creating economic advantages through cost and schedule certainty; • Creating bargaining structures for today's workplaces and • Improving fairness for employees and employers.

Specific recommendations include reducing uncertainties related to potential conflict between Alberta's labour legislation and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Similar to other provinces, the coalition believes that being able to complete work under the collective agreement or terms that the work was bid under would help create more certainty for investors and contractors.

It's also time that Alberta allowed all-employee bargaining units in the construction industry. The continued practice by some construction unions to up-charge some projects in order to subsidize the labour costs at other projects through cross-sectoral bid subsidy programs is also needlessly adding to costs.

Rather than attack pipeline projects, it's time to take a hard look at how construction costs can be lowered to ensure investors know that their major projects will be built on time and on budget. Improving competitiveness is the best way to ensure jobs stay in Canada.

Burying our heads in the sand. and arguing that labour laws have no impact on investment, will not get anymore upgraders and refineries built.

Journal of Commerce, Wed Nov 16 2011

Our prime minister says he's signing us up for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks, and it comes as no surprise — given Stephen Harper's Alberta roots — that our ability "to access Asian markets for our energy products" is at the top of his list of priorities.

For Canadians, any move toward better trade with Asia and the Pacific Rim has a secondary goal: to reduce our dependence on our single biggest trading partner, the United States, a country that recently turned up its nose at a plan to build a pipeline that would pump raw bitumen from the Alberta oilsands deep into America's industrial heartland, where it would be processed into high-value products.

We can hardly accuse Mr. Harper of rushing into the Asia-Pacific trade talks, which to date have included Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the U.S. Negotiating a pan-Pacific free trade deal will be a long and painful process — even if the nine countries did reach consensus on the broad outlines of a deal Nov. 12. But before we go too far, Canadians must think about what they would be giving up in such a deal — and what they might be getting in return.

Resource exporters

It was former U.S. president Andrew Jackson who gave us the expression "hewers of wood and drawers of water," rich irony from a slave owner, unlikely to do either himself.

In fact, that was Jackson's point. He feared that unless they were careful to preserve their republic, Americans would become mere slaves to the forces of international moneyed classes, doing the work but not getting the profit.

We Canadians have picked up the phrase as our own, loaded with its smell of sweat and mindless toil. But we have taken that negative image and applied it generally to resource exports.

Stephen Harper stands with leaders of some of the countires that make up the Trans-Pacific Partnership at the APEC summit in Honolulu on Nov. 13. Clockwise from front far left: Chinese President Hu Jintao, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Harper. Aside from China, all are part of the TPP. Chris Wattie/ ReutersEmbodied in the term is the 19th-century image of rough Canadian lumberjacks hacking down trees to be shipped overseas, only to be returned a year or two later as expensive English furniture.

And if there is anything to fear from a free trade deal with parts of Asia, it is that. We export our crude oil, our iron ore, our canola oil, our potash, our molybdenum. We import high-value manufactured goods, packed with technology and innovation and made with cheap Asian labour.

Some Canadian union groups were against the Keystone XL pipeline for that very reason.

"We would like the MPs to start putting pressure on the government to do what they should have and stop this pipeline before more jobs are lost to the United States," said Alberta labour leader Gil McGowan.

Can't compete on jobs

"When you compare Canada and Asia, it's a matter of complementarity," says Tony Fang, a specialist in labour markets and immigration at York University. "We have oil, gas and raw materials while they have a huge population."

But when it comes to creating jobs, we can't compete directly with Asian countries.

'We can't pay people $2 an hour to work in factories; we need to produce high-value goods.'

— Tony Fang, labour markets specialist"We can't pay people $2 an hour to work in factories," says Fang. "We need to produce high-value goods."

Our textiles industry has already collapsed, and the Canadian furniture industry is going the same way, says Michael Burt, economist with the Conference Board of Canada. Not only are we exporting resources; we are exporting jobs.

On the bright side, says Burt, our goal of expanding trade outside the United States really is succeeding. On a percentage basis, trade with our southern neighbor is shrinking. Trade with Asia is growing.

But Burt says the types of goods we are selling remain the same. The huge majority of our exports to Asian markets are still raw materials. Burt insists we better get used to it.

"Rather than trying to change our stripes, we should capitalize on our strengths," Burt said.

We are good at finding, extracting and shipping raw materials, he says. We are good at financing mines. We are masters at horizontal drilling. This is a place where we have a special advantage.

Burt has a point. The gold industry is a good example. Just as the number of Canadian gold mines was shrinking, Canadian gold financing grew, so that even now, much of the world gold industry is run from Canada with Canadian expertise.

'A foot in the door'

P.O.V.:

Should Canada export crude oil to Asia? Take our survey.

The other advantage of increasing resource exports to countries bordering the Pacific ocean is that it expands our contacts and expertise within those places. Further opening trade with the more developed countries of the Pacific Rim, such as Singapore, Australia and New Zealand — and with Japan, which has now elected to join the talks — will help Canadian business learn techniques for penetrating the large number of Asian countries not part of the trade group.

"It gives us a foot in the door," says Burt.

And according to Fang, who is also incoming president of the Chinese Economic Society, this is a place where Canada's immigrants give us an advantage.

"Our research found a close correlation between immigrants and trade relations with their countries of origin," he said. "They know the trade law, the languages."

Neither of them had the data to prove it, but both Fang and Burt suspect that something, perhaps our resource wealth itself, has made Canadian businesses less adventurous when it comes to investing and selling abroad.

"We also know —we have data from Canada — that immigrants are risk takers," Fang said. "Fifty per cent of business startups are by immigrants."

But both agree that depending on resource exports is not enough. For his part, Fang insists we must pour money into education and technology.

"If we don't invest in those high-value areas now, how can we compete with those countries?" he said.

Textiles growing

And there are signs of life in the industrial economy. For the first time in 10 years, says Burt, we are seeing growth in the Canadian textiles industry, where the focus is on high-tech and high-value textile products like seatbelts and fireproof clothing.

"We're not making T-shirts anymore; we are designing T-shirts," Burt said.

When it comes right down to it, so long as their economies continue to prosper, we don't really need free trade to sell our natural resources to Asia. We have them; they need them.

Maybe the biggest value of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks will be to further open Canadian eyes to a huge and growing market and, while we are looking for other opportunities, push us to spend and innovate to become the world's best high-tech hewers.

cbcnews, Tues Nov 15 2011

Issue: In an attempt at union-busting, Sobeys has tabled an offer to members of UFCW 401 at the store in Forest Lawn in Calgary that does not include a return-to-work agreement for striking workers. The workers have declined to vote on the offer, so the strike continues.

Action Requested: Join the rally to support the workers at the store at 5105 – 17 Avenue SE, Calgary.

When: 4:00 p.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday, November 16th.

Issue:

On Saturday November 12, 2011, UFCW local 401 members at Forest Lawn Sobeys declined to vote on the company's latest offer because it did not include a return-to-work agreement for striking members. This is a radical step in collective bargaining. The absence of such an agreement sends a strong message that the company is not interested in bargaining, it is only interested in union busting. Not having a return-to-work agreement leaves the door open for the employer to try to punish workers for exercising their right to strike. The Sobeys family is one of Canada's richest, with skyrocketing net worth into the billions of dollars. Canadian Business magazine ranked them in 25th spot on its Rich 100 list in Canada, with a net worth of $2.26 billion, with their wealth growing rapidly in the last two years. Meanwhile, they have been pushing for concessions from employees at a Sobeys store in Calgary.

AFL's Position: The AFL is asking union members to support the striking workers by joining them on the picket line whenever possible (the picket line runs every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and by attending the rally on November 16th. We are asking retail customers to avoid shopping at all Sobeys outlets until they sign a new collective agreement that respects workers.

Action: Join the rally from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 16th, at the Sobeys outlet store at 5105 17th Avenue. S.E., Calgary.

From a midnight pajama party in a Madison bar to a rally in front of Gov. Scott Walker's (R) Wauwatosa home, thousands of Wisconsin volunteers kicked off the official signature gathering period to put Walker's recall before the voters next year. Recall forces now have 60 days to gather some 540,000 signatures.

At the pajama party, where participants were set for action at this morning's official 12:01 a.m. start of the signature gathering clock, Erik Kirkstein, a spokesman for United Wisconsin, told The Badger Herald:

The people of Wisconsin have been waiting for this for months. This is the culmination of citizens all across the state, and we can't wait to recognize them and start [the recall] off on the right track.

The broad recall coalition, which includes the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, brings together the same citizen energy that fueled working families' win in Ohio last week. By an overwhelming 61 percent margin, voters overturned Gov. John Kasich's S.B. 5, which eliminated the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

Anger over Walker's elimination of the rights of nurses, teachers and other public workers to bargain for a middle-class life was the driving force behind this summer's successful recalls of two of Walker's key backers in the state Senate. Now, says Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt:

Working families in Ohio went to the polls and voted to support Ohio's public employees and their right to collectively bargain. Unlike Ohio, Wisconsin workers do not have the opportunity to put a referendum on the ballot. Thankfully, we have the right to recall. [The] win in Ohio has energized and excited Wisconsin workers to recall Gov. Walker and put a stop to his attack on working families.

Along with Walker's attack on workers, Wisconsin voters also are upset at Walker's drastic budget cuts and lack of job creation, says Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Stephanie Bloomingdale.

In order for Wisconsin to have a strong middle class, we need to change direction. Over 65,000 Wisconsinites, half of them children, are being kicked off Medicaid; 40 percent of our children's classrooms are increasing in size; working families are being made scapegoats for budget situations they didn't create and family-supporting jobs are not being created at the rate Wisconsinites expect. This is not the Wisconsin way and the citizens of the state have taken it upon themselves to change course.

AFL-CIO Now Blog, Tues Nov 15 2011

Elevated oil prices are motivating oil giants to exploit the tar sands of western Canada, creating a jobs boom in the region and leveling hundreds of square miles of forest.

The pipeline company TransCanada is seeking U.S. permission to construct a 2,000-mile pipeline from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, where the sludgy goo would be processed at existing refineries.

The "Keystone XL" pipeline could double the capacity of already existing pipes that ferry the tar sands south. Proponents, like the Laborers union, say the Keystone project would create desperately needed construction jobs and guarantee a stable energy source for the country.

But climate activists see the tar sands as a time bomb and Keystone XL as the fuse. More than 1,200 people were arrested protesting the pipeline at the White House in recent weeks. "This is our Wisconsin," said protest leader Bill McKibben. On Saturday 8,000 returned to protest the pipeline, surrounding the White House.

President Obama is expected to decide on issuing a permit for the pipeline by the end of the year. [EDITOR'S NOTE: This week the State Department announced it would explore a new route, delaying the permit decision until after next year's election.]

Union split

U.S. unions are bitterly split on whether Keystone XL should be built. The conflict has hamstrung the Blue-Green Alliance, the main group unifying union and environmental efforts. Because it contains unions on both sides of the question, the alliance has been silent and a spokesperson said the group did not have a position.

Two transit unions have opposed the deal, arguing that the climate impact of extracting and burning an additional 900,000 barrels per day of tar-sands oil outweighs the benefits of short-term job creation. But high unemployment among members has motivated four U.S. construction unions to push for the project.

Calling the pipeline a huge step in the wrong direction, Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union said, "The scientific evidence is that it will contribute to more climate change and create a hostile environment on our planet."

Tar sands mining produces a mixture of hydrocarbons and sand, the consistency of peanut butter. It must be heated to mine it and diluted with other fuel to pipe it. Processing it into oil requires yet more energy, meaning that carbon emissions to create a barrel of tar sands oil are much greater than for conventional oil.

Expanding tar sands production will "impede our country's and the world's efforts to transition to a green and more sustainable economy," said the ATU and the Transport Workers (TWU) in a joint statement, urging Obama to reject the pipeline permit. ATU represents 190,000 bus and train workers in the U.S. and Canada; TWU represents 130,000.

The transit workers' stand is "huge," said Joe Uehlein of the Labor Network for Sustainability, an independent network of labor activists involved in environmental efforts.

"A lot of unions have policy positions on climate," said Uehlein, a former secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Department. "This is different. Unions are taking a stand in a very direct way on something that isn't theoretical."

The transit unions were immediately attacked by the Laborers (LIUNA).

"It's time for ATU and TWU to come out from under the skirts of delusional environmental groups which stand in the way of creating good, much needed American jobs," said President Terry O'Sullivan. LIUNA threatened to no longer support legislation that benefits transit workers.

Union activists said the Laborers' harsh outburst may have been effective in deterring other unions from opposing the pipeline publicly.

Koch connection

The Laborers have lobbied Congress, bused workers to hearings, and paid for robo-calls to support the pipeline. Also in support are the Teamsters, Operating Engineers, and Pipefitters (UA). The four unions say they've signed project labor agreements with TransCanada, guaranteeing that the U.S. construction jobs will be union.

The Laborers have even found themselves in common cause with Charles and David Koch, the famously anti-union billionaire brothers, and their Astroturf group, Americans for Prosperity. Koch Industries is responsible for a quarter of the tar sands crude imported to the U.S., according to InsideClimate News, and owns refineries in the U.S. and Canada.

What will these unions get for their efforts? Job creation claims vary wildly. The U.S. State Department, which decides whether the permit would be in the national interest, estimated that 6,000 construction and manufacturing jobs would be created in the U.S. TransCanada has estimated it would create 20,000 jobs directly and 119,000 indirectly.

"The company is totally lying," said Lara Skinner, a professor at Cornell University who studied the jobs impact of Keystone XL.

TransCanada claims it will spend $7 billion, but that includes money already spent on previous pipelines and money spent in Canada, Skinner said. Spending in the U.S. would be closer to $3.3 billion.

The manufacturing jobs figure is also inflated, she said, because the company has already obtained half the steel it needs for the pipeline, with 80 percent of it from Canada and 20 percent from India.

In 2009 Indian pipe imports provoked an outcry from the Steelworkers, during construction of a shorter pipeline. The Steelworkers union is having a wrenching internal debate about Keystone XL and has announced no position yet.

Skinner estimated direct job creation from the pipeline at 2,500 to 4,650 jobs, mostly in construction. After construction, the pipeline can be run by a few dozen people, according to the Canadian union representing tar sands workers.

"There is a group of people who are committed to gaining employment any way you can have it," said ATU's Hanley. "That's unfortunate. We have to be more thoughtful about the impact, and whether or not we're being told the truth."

Dirtiest fuel

Tar sands processing is notoriously dirty, creating air and water pollution during extraction, processing, and refining. Indigenous people who live downstream, known as First Nations people in Canada, have denounced the massive habitat destruction caused by mining operations; they charge that a spike in cancer rates in their communities is due to tar sands pollution.

Pipeline spills are also a danger. In requesting permits for a pipeline running from Alberta to Illinois and Oklahoma, TransCanada predicted 11 spills in the next half-century. But in the first year of operation, that pipeline experienced 30 spills. (The fuel is very corrosive.)

The new pipeline would cross the giant Ogallala aquifer in Nebraska. Critics say a spill there would put at risk water used by eight states. They've dubbed it "BP on the prairie."

But local pollution issues are overshadowed for many by the climate impact of tapping a huge new source of intensive carbon emissions.

NASA climate scientist James Hansen wrote colleagues in June that "exploitation of tar sands would make it implausible to stabilize climate and avoid disastrous global climate impacts.

"If the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over," he said.

Hansen, along with Uehlein, was among the 1,200 pipeline protesters arrested at the White House.

CEP nixes XL

The Canadian union representing oil sands workers, CEP, has been fighting Keystone XL for five years, according to President David Coles. All 1,500 delegates at the last CEP convention voted against it.

The union primarily opposes the pipeline because it wants refining jobs to stay in Canada. Montreal energy workers saw 500 layoffs last year when a Shell-owned refinery there shut down.

CEP leaders see Keystone XL as further solidification of a "colonial" relationship with the U.S., in which Canada exports raw materials and the jobs that add value go to the U.S. "Americans get the jobs, and we get the environmental disaster," Coles said.

But CEP leaders are also concerned about the lack of a comprehensive energy plan for Canada. The Canadian Labour Council and the Alberta Federation of Labour also oppose Keystone XL.

"No one with any brains would say there should be unfettered expansion in Alberta or Saskatchewan. That's crazy," said Coles. "Our members live and work there. They gotta breathe the air. They gotta be there after the stuff is pumped out of the ground."

Coles and other union officials joined a Greenpeace demonstration on Parliament Hill, and he was among 100 arrested for trespassing. "How the hell do you delink jobs, environment, First Nations rights? You can't," he told the rally before being arrested.

"You have to look at the whole thing."

Green jobs?

Despite attacks, the transit unions have held firm in their opposition.

"We need jobs, but not ones based on increasing our reliance on tar sands oil," the unions wrote, advocating instead a green New Deal with jobs in renewable energy and conservation.

"There is no shortage of water and sewage pipelines that need to be fixed or replaced, bridges and tunnels that are in need of emergency repair," the transit unions stated, highlighting some of the construction unions' bread and butter.

Why are transit unions taking this stand? "Transit in many ways is the solution to a lot of the big issues we're confronted with, including the fact that we have global warming," said Hanley.

He said labor has to look beyond its own interests to support its allies' issues as well.

"We don't think we would be true to ourselves if we only tried to build alliances that would help us," Hanley said, "although this is one where there is common interest."

"The transit workers did it for the right reasons," Uehlein said. "Solidarity has to be thought of in the context of broader human solidarity."

southernstudies.org, Mon Nov 14 2011

Anyone who has been monitoring the events in Wisconsin since Gov. Scott Walker and his cronies took over knows that corruption with this crew runs far and deep. Now that the official recall campaign launches Tuesday, the potential for more misdeeds is greater then ever.

The latest scheme is apparently to burn and shred recall petitions and to mislead Wisconsinites about the recall process.

The blog PolitiScoop first reported about the plans, linking back to Facebook posts that detailed them. They include having conservatives pose as recall supporters and gather signatures, only to later destroy the petition. They also include telling Wisconsinites that they may only sign one recall petition, despite the fact that Wisconsin law allows otherwise.

Destroying or defacing an official recall petitions would violate state law. It's a class I felony, punishable by a fine of $10,000 and up to three-and-a-half years in jail. But Walker's supporters are apparently not only totally ignorant of the consequences, they are brazen in their plan to break the law. Just take a look at these screenshots bragging about their plans.

Gov. Scott Walker and his supporters continue playing dirty politics at the expense of constituents. With stakes only getting higher, we can expect the tricks and all-out lawbreaking to escalate. But if there is one thing that can keep the faith for those of us who believe in democracy and the rule of law it is that the movement that started in Madison has not stopped, and it will not stop until these clowns are gone.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/walker-supporters-plan-to-destroy-recall-petitions.html#ixzz1dt6D4zqz

care2.com, Mon Nov 14 2011

Premier Alison Redford will be searching for answers when she arrives in Washington on Monday.

The trip comes just days after the Obama administration announced it would be delaying a decision on the pipeline until after the November 2012 presidential election.

On the PC Association website Redford said she understood it was a domestic issue for the U.S. but would be looking for answers on why they came to the decision.

She also said the trip was bigger than the Keystone XL project.

"This is not, per se, a trip about Keystone.

"This mission is about Alberta; about the fact we are good stewards of the environment, and that we are ideally positioned to be a safe, secure and responsible supplier of energy to the US, which is our good friend and largest trading partner."

Redford added that the Keystone pipeline was, "an important piece of infrastructure for our province. It will provide jobs and an important means to ship our product to market."

However, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour told CTV News the U.S. decision may be for the best.

"We actually think we should see this delay as an opportunity rather than a disappointment," Gil McGowan said.

McGowan said that thousands of jobs would be lost if the bitumen was sent from Alberta to Texas. He advocates having it turned into sellable product in Alberta.

"What we have been saying for years is we should find some way for Alberta and Canada to move up the value ladder and that means more upgrading and more refineries."

The Wildrose Party issued a statement on Saturday in support of Redford's trip.

"Ms. Redford is doing the right thing by continuing to advance Alberta's interests on the international stage," Party leader Danielle Smith wrote.

"Alberta must now advocate more strongly than ever to see this critical project become a reality and make the case that its construction will drive jobs and economic growth south of the border."

CTV.ca, Sun Nov 13 2011