CONSERVATIVES ATTACK UNIONS

With all the neverending blather about our provincial government's nasty fall out of bed with the Teachers' unions here in Ontario, it's easy to overlook what our federal brethren are up to. If you think the provincial Liberals are shifting rightwards in nipping the bargaining and strike rights of teachers you are correct. But make no mistake they can't begin to hold a candle to the efforts of Harper's Conservatives.

Last Thursday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story by Thomas Walkom "The right's stealth attack on union funding". Mr. Walkom sees the decades old and long accepted practice known as the Rand formula under attack by the Tories. I actually studied the Rand formula back in my university days. It was seen as a comprimise that permitted the financial stability of a union in a workplace once they had been democratically voted in by a majority of the employees and then certified by the provincial Ministry of Labour. The Rand formula named after a Supreme Court Judge states that all employees in a bargaining unit must pay union dues to their certified union whether or not they supported it in the first palce and whether or not they support it now.

Mr. Walkom believes that Bill C-377 is a veiled attack on the Rand formula. All the huffing and puffing about public accountability and exposing union financial support for various "left wing causes" is a smokescreen. The federal Tories would just love to set the stage for their provincial counterparts to introduce so called "right to work" legislation. What a joke. As if there is any such thing as a right to work in Canada. What the Conservatives/Tories really want is fewer unions and lower wages. Politicians are by nature sneaky. This is just one more example of it.