Daily Archives: 12 December 2018

Speedy Trial

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As I write this on Tuesday, the question of bail for Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou remains unsettled.  The problem centers on a couple of things.  One is her husband’s offer to be responsible for Meng, guaranteeing her appearance at all court proceedings.  The presiding judge, Justice William Ehrcke, is having trouble believing that offer, even were it sincere.  Meng’s husband, Liu Xiaozong, is not a Canadian citizen, Meng’s lawyer had no information on any other immigration status for Liu, and Ehrcke expressed doubt over his ability to control Liu’s whereabouts—and so of Meng’s whereabouts.

Another concern is Meng’s health, of which she claims several problems and the impact being incarcerated in a jail cell would have on them.

A third is the People’s Republic of China’s naked threat of “severe consequences” for Canada if it doesn’t release Meng forthwith.

In reverse order: the People’s Republic of China’s threats a should make it impossible for Canada to do anything other than deny bail and promptly extradite Meng to the US.

While the extradition question is being decided, in satisfaction of Meng’s health concerns, hold her in a prison hospital where she can get the care and medications she says she needs rather than a cell.

Finally, speedily extradite Meng, and get her out of Canada’s hair and into US custody—it’s our laws she’s alleged to have violated.  Then let’s have a speedy trial and a prompt acquittal if her behavior turns out to have been legal, or a speedy conviction and sentence execution if not.

Unfortunately, Ehrcke has decided to grant bail to Meng.  It’ll be instructive to see how long Meng remains in Canada.

Union to Management:

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“Nice little company you have here.  Be too bad if something was to happen to it.”

That’s what the railroad union EVG said to Germany’s major railroad company, Deutsche Bahn, last Monday as it took its workers off the line, shutting it down, during the rush hour period—a timing intended to inflict maximum damage to DB.  It’s not just the railroad this union extortion strike affected, either.

The strikes also caused major disruption on the roads. Germany’s most populous state, and one of the worst affected by the strike, North Rhine-Westphalia, saw a combined 450 kilometers (280 miles) of tailbacks [backed up traffic from traffic jams], according to regional broadcaster WDR.

The union’s beef?  It wants higher pay for its workers, which is not, in principle, a bad thing.

However.

DB management had offered the union’s workers a pay raise of 5.1% in two increments and a “signing bonus” of €500 ($569).  The union, though, is demanding a 7.5% pay raise and the option for individual workers to decline that in favor of more time off or shorter hours.  Never mind the labor scheduling mess and associated increased cost that would create.

This comes, too, in the face of the fact that Germany’s inflation rate this year works out to just a skosh over 1.9%; it was roughly 1.65% each of the prior two years, essentially flat in 2014-2015, since 1995 it’s been above 2.5% exactly once (~3.2% in 2007, just before the Panic of 2008); and DB having raised its ticket rates this year by 1.9% just to cover the current year’s inflation.

The workers are being offered a handsome pay increment in real terms.  The union is demanding more just because it can.

Nice little company….