Commentary

Motor Coach Ups the Ante

A week ago, Motor Coach Industries (MCI) had high praise for Manitoba Premier Gary Doer and the assistance he rendered the company in pressuring MCI workers to accept major concessions as a condition for keeping the company's Winnipeg operations open. Now Doer is on the receiving end of pressure from the company to substantially increase government handouts as a further condition for keeping the plants open.

Last fall, when Motor Coach announced that it would be closing its Winnipeg plants and moving its operations to a southern "right to work state" unless its Winnipeg workers accepted concessions, the premier was quick to respond with offers of government money as an incentive for the company to remain. Those incentives eventually totalled over $24 million in grants and loans from the provincial, federal and municipal governments. Officials of MCI repeatedly stated that government handouts were not the issue and that its main requirement was for concessions on wages and working conditions from its employees. If those concessions were made, the MCI officials pledged, then the bus manufacturing company would not only keep its Winnipeg plants open, but also transfer work to Winnipeg from its American plants.

Now the owners of MCI have changed their tone. Realizing that Premier Doer has not only proclaimed publicly just how desperate he is to keep the bus manufacturer in Winnipeg, but has also made a major political investment in that goal with his unprecedented intervention in the collective bargaining process, they are raising the ante and demanding ever greater government handouts. They are no doubt determined to find out just how desperate Doer really is.

Blackmail and extortion are generally considered criminal acts carrying relatively stiff penalties under the law. But when corporations engage is such activities it is considered a shrewd business practice and they are rewarded with government handouts. Motor Coach Industries is a case in point.