Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Slavery is not dead. It's alive and healthy in Quebec

It's interesting that at the same time as the United States of America elects a black president, the Quebec government calmly announces that "mandatory overtime" will be required from nurses.

Quebec nurses are now slaves. It's true that they are still being paid, and are probably getting overtime rates, but forced work is still coercion.
If a private company were to demand mandatory overtime, there would be a huge outcry. Amnesty International would be writing about their terrible working conditions. Janet Bagnal would be writing reams about the poor women being forced to work long hours or risk losing their jobs. Instead, it's business--sorry, government--as usual.

I'll remember this, the next time someone claims that capitalism turns workers into slaves. It's clear that the guilty party is the government, and the nurses' slavery an inevitable result of its incompetence and mismanagement. You want government-controlled healthcare? This is the outcome: "mandatory overtime" aka servitude aka slavery.

1 comment:

Bettina K. said...

What a beautifully written post! You must have a wonderful editor :)