By Mario deSantis, November 3, 1999

This coalition government has been formed by giving the finger(1) to the Saskatchewan electorate and it is now looking for any assistance to stay in power and further shrink this province to greatness. The last convention of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL) was attended by Joanne Crofford, Minister of Labour, and her entourage of more than 10 cabinet ministers and MLAs. At this convention, the president of the SFL, Barb Byers, has been urging Labour to mend fences with the government and beat back the Saskatchewan Party(2). She told SFL members that the Saskatchewan Party is anti-labour and compared it to the Nazis by saying "...In my darkest moments I half expect to wake up some morning, be listening to the radio, and hear the Saskatchewan Party has decided to invade Poland...(3)" Asked to apologise for such insulting remark Byers responded "...my only regret is that I can't tell a joke better..."

Barb Byers is another hypocritical Tin Pot dictator getting to the side of our socialist Premier Roy Romanow. Instead to distance the SFL from any political affiliation, she urges the members to support a Premier with a dictatorial track record against union members and against the people of Saskatchewan. Byers has forgotten that the NDP locked out SaskPower employees and then ordered them back to work, and that the NDP passed the alleged unconstitutional back-to-work legislation against the nurses(4). This government has done nothing to create wealth and allow a sense of freedom for its people. Every sector of the economy is stagnant, agriculture is in desperate conditions, health care is in a shamble, the WCB is defrauding the people(5), SGI is asking insurance claimants to take polygraphs tests, and the list goes on. Our future is in our children and their education and yet we have a vision built on a mausoleum: the Synchrotron(6).

I have this simple message for Barb Byers: times have changed and solidarity is not for ever!

Endnotes

1. Governmental coalition in Saskatchewan: a private contractual deal at the expense of the electorate? by Mario deSantis, October 4, 1999

2. Labour urges gov't to mend fences:NDP will need SFL on its side to beat back Sask. Party, says Byers, by Jillian MacPherson, The StarPhoenix, October 28, 1999

3. Byers stands by "Nazi" comment, Jillian MacPherson, The StarPhoeneix, October 29, 1999

4. The Saskatchewan Government and SAHO: Mismanaging Health Care and Blackmailing SUN Nurses, by Mario deSantis, May 9, 1999

5. The WCB is defrauding the Saskatchewan People, by Mario deSantis, June 22, 1999

6. University of Saskatchewan: A Vision Built on Privileged Education and on the Synchrotron, by Mario deSantis, October 26, 1999