NORTH AMERICAN UNIONS CONTINUE TO TAKE IT ON THE CHIN

Well it may be a football metaphor but it's applicable: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going". Both state legislatures south of the border as well as our federal Tories are doing their darndest to kick unions in the nads. This is occurring, oddly enough when unions memberships are at alltime lows on both sides of the border. Hmm!

Two days ago the Waterloo Region Record published this story "Michigan OK's limits on unions as protesters voice dissent". Yesterday the Record published "Tories pass bill compelling unions to detail finances". Neither of these bills is for the alleged purposes stated and are simply an attack upon organized labour by right wing governments. These battles have been fought literally decades ago but the right never did like how they turned out then so they're having another kick at the can. Some day legitimate tweaking of unions might be a good idea but wholesale removal of their hard fought for, financial backing, and discriminatory backroom scrutiny of their finances is not. Interestingly there were even five Conservatives in Ottawa who voted against the bill. This is a good thing and more power to those honourable individuals who put right ahead of party lines.