As we enter the season to be jolly, you know, the “most wonderful time of the year”, it’s a bit disheartening to see that, when it comes to labour strife, nothing changes with the seasons, the years or the decades. Here we are in 2018 and we have rotating walkouts across the land at Canada Post, we have Co-op workers on strike walking the picket lines, we have a delay in the start of the National Lacrosse League season with the league and the players at an impasse over salaries. Decades change, centuries change, but some things never change. In our society there always seems to be an undercurrent of mistrust between labour and management. Maybe it’s just human nature. There always seems to be a problem somewhere, or if not at the moment, there’s a problem simmering out of sight that could burst into the public eye at any time. We private radio broadcasters, unlike the CBC, don’t work in a union environment with written contracts so I’m not fluent in the dynamics of relationships between unions and player’s associations with corporations and sports leagues. We sort of sit in the stands watching without taking sides hoping at the end of the game both sides win. Hopefully things settle down before Christmas so it can be the season to be jolly.

That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.