Here's a column I wrote which recently appeared in the Windsor Star
It's my take on what's wrong with mixing union bosses, forced dues and politics.
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About Me
- Gerry Nicholls
- Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant and writer who has been called a “political warrior” a “brilliant strategist” and one of the “canniest political observers in Canada.” He has worked as a consultant in both the United States and Canada and was formerly a senior officer in the National Citizens Coalition. A regular columnist with the Ottawa Hill Times, his work has also appeared in the Globe and Mail, the National Post and in the Sun Media chain; and he has appeared on countless TV and radio public affairs programs. He is the author of the book, Loyal to the Core, Harper, Me and the NCC.
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4 comments:
Excellent article, Gerry.
... Actually, the true Conservative position is to work to restore the principles of liberty to our nation. In the case of the public service, restoring accountability to elected representatives to freely set conditions of employment, and the right of the individual employee to freely accept offered conditions- completely eliminating the forced intervention of a third party (unions).
Generally agree. Although in the case of union dues, I think they should be split between funding the costs of collective bargaining which should be mandatory and all other activities that should be optional. This would prevent the free rider problem whereby one benefits from the union without paying into, but at the same time those who don't want their money going to political parties they oppose wouldn't have to.
That being said I would rather workers at unions demand these changes than have them enforced by law. The bosses only have the power they do because so many are quite apathetic.
If only a party had ever put forward some sort of plan to give workers paying forced union dues a way to have a say in how their money was spent. If only that party had been the Ontario PC Party, then maybe they could just refer to their previous policy proposals and explain why this makes sense! If only it had been the best part of anything the PCs had anything to do with in the 2003 election!
Sigh.
Of course, the real problem is that the government mandates that workers in union shops must pay union dues... but no one, not even parties being attacked with these forced dues, is courageous enough to stand up for Ontario workers that much.
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