Labour unions are likely to be a major election issue whenever Ontario voters next go to the polls. Last week, Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak unveiled a 20-page “white paper” that recommends a major revamping of labour laws to reduce the powers of construction, public sector and other unions.
Hudak says that unions are costing too many jobs in Ontario. “It’s a debate we need to have in this country because I’m worried about the jobs we’re losing and I’m worried about a decline into Rust Belt status… We need to actually modernize our labour laws to get them out of the 1940s and 1950s and to 2012 and beyond,” he said.
Hudak claims that many Ontario employees have “two bosses”: their actual employer and the people who run their union. His white paper foresees an end to compulsory union membership and, in addition, forced political contributions through those same unions.
The Ontario PCs also want an end to “the artificial restriction on the number of our youth able to enter the skilled trades.” He says he would do this by major changes to apprenticeship system.
Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan said in a prepared statment that Hudak’s scheme is “nothing but sour grapes” over the election result of last Oct. 6. Hudak’s party failed to make the major gains it had expected and Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals squeaked out a narrow minority government.
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The union literally comes into your company so they can make money. It is not about workers rights at all. They literally come in when no employees want them and force certification which in order to fight, costs the actual owner of the company tens of thousands of dollars. The union rep who came in and completely lied to us flat out said that they could care less about us. They are a multi billion dollar company and if they can’t get their piece of the pie, they will drown us in legal fees until we declare bankruptcy. The worst part is, they flat out lie to us and actually offer to pay employees to testify against their employer. Yet if that employer simply says the employee would advance much quicker then in the union, which is true in almost every case, that employer is in violation of the labor relations act. So the union can pay the employee to lie but the employer cannot even talk with their employees about it at all. The labor relations board would not exist if unions did not exist and their rulings are completely bias and always for the union. How is it a court within our government can completely violate the human rights of employees? It is absolutely sick that legislation would not only empower the bullies of our economy but also allow them to totally crush our economy as they have been doing. Absolutely ridiculous!