A MESSAGE TO THE LABOR-MOVEMENT - STOP AND THINK

Trade unions and workers in North America have been objectified and in strumentalized by all political regimes, including the social-democrat ic New Democratic Party in Canada. And it is means-end non-thinking th at characterizes government policies. Liberal elites and policy-making have marginalized ordinary workers making them ''superfluous'' withou t any vision of an ''ethical community'' and demonstrating contempt fo r democratic initiatives. There are oppositionary voices to the domina nt social structures that oppress and undermine community and solidari ty. However, trade unions and occupational health and safety ''activis ts'' have yet to reassess their strategies on workplace health and saf ety reforms, but are on the defensive in North America. Further, they are complicit with the dominant ideology and the occupational. health and safety establishment, including the various and diverse profession als, who shape how we think about work environment matters; and they a ccommodate government regulators in mediating worker experiences and e xpectations with employer interests. The author suggests the beginning of a strategy that does not succumb to present-day liberal public pol icy-making and the atrophy of alternative options. In part, this strat egy calls for a rudimentary phenomenology of moral judgment and a reco nstruction of labor ''tradition''.