Time for Right to Work legislation?

[Rue]

2 hours ago, cannuck said:

I don't hate unions (uh...OK, maybe a little) but what I DO object to is the removal of freedoms for companies and/or individuals to work as they see fit.  Once a company has been organized, it is no longer free to seek other arrangements for workers and some times contractors.   Success laws can even be attached to the BUILDING - and thus directly affects the value.  Unions DID once serve a really important purpose: they provided trades training and certification to protect the world from incompetent work - but today they CAN and often ARE a haven for poor quality workers to hide from the repercussions of their ineptitude.   The collective bargaining thing came in after the trade unions were already established as training and certification organizations.   The money part for the trades and non-trade workers started from INDUSTRY, not the unions.   It was Henry Ford - admitedly to serve his personal vision of what the overall marketplace should be - that got the ball rolling at $5 a day.   When the US unions were invaded by the Mafia and Canadian ones by socialists, the role shifted to one of money ruling over professionalism and the political element becoming EXTREMELY partisan.   Again, all things I can live with...ONLY IF there is no special privilege granted to organized labour that workers and companies should be free to seek alternatives if they so choose.

There is NO REASON that organized labour can not co-exist within a right-to-work environment.  They just have to be competitive in both cost AND responsibility.

I should add: we work regularly with some VERY reasonable unions in Canada and the US, even as non-union contractors.  Those reasonable unions realize that we are there to give them our particular skill and experience that allows them to keep their jobs and do them in a safer and more sustainable manner.   We also supplement our engineering, CET and trades staff with calls to the hall for trades on many, many projects.

Great post, Like it a lot. Except being a Jew you understand if I don't think much of the pro Hitler anti semite Ford as a person but yer pts are well made. Got it. 

[jacee]

On 2/27/2020 at 2:57 AM, cannuck said:

That is nothing but a union scare tactic.   There are a lot of non-union companies that treat their workers easily as well as union shops.  I am sitting in one of them right now (have been my clients for decades), co-incidentally, within a 1/4 mile of the blockade at the Regina refinery.   They will be on that site doing work next week.  While I have been here, of course there is a lot of discussion about the strike.   The deal the unifor has been offered is FAR, FAR better than any government agency or any other union around here has been offered.  The one they have now is in no way sustainable.

Sadly, I will finish my project on Friday and will not have the privilege of crossing the picket line next week with my friends.

It's a simple truth that nonunion shops will imitate the union contracts to keep their workers. 

If there's no union shop to compete with for workers, it's a race to the bottom, low wages for all.

"Right to work" is a bosses' movement, not a workers' movement. Workers don't want lower wages.  Lol 

ETA

Re: "There is NO REASON that organized labour can not co-exist within a right-to-work environment.  They just have to be competitive in both cost AND responsibility."

The race to the bottom of the wage pond.

There is good reason for all workers in a union shop to have to belong and pay dues: They all benefit from the contracts negotiated, so they all share the cost, and the duty to participate when strikes are necessary to achieve those contracts. 

Again, "right to work" is a boss's dream, not a worker's.

Edited February 28, 2020 by jacee
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[cannuck]

46 minutes ago, jacee said:

It's a simple truth that nonunion shops will imitate the union contracts to keep their workers. 

If there's no union shop to compete with for workers, it's a race to the bottom, low wages for all.

"Right to work" is a bosses' movement, not a workers' movement. Workers don't want lower wages.  Lol 

ETA

Re: "There is NO REASON that organized labour can not co-exist within a right-to-work environment.  They just have to be competitive in both cost AND responsibility."

The race to the bottom of the wage pond.

There is good reason for all workers in a union shop to have to belong and pay dues: They all benefit from the contracts negotiated, so they all share the cost, and the duty to participate when strikes are necessary to achieve those contracts. 

Again, "right to work" is a boss's dream, not a worker's.

I can guarantee you that there is NO union worker getting paid more than the 2,000 people I work with at largest client.   That includes a lot of trades.  Some non-union shops might well do as you say, but by no means do all.

The workplace is not all about wages.   Quality of work and accountability are a considerable portion of what matters, and that is what unions no longer represent - quite the opposite.   It is often a race to the bottom for accountability and responsibility.   The Co-op refinery is a perfect example of that.  The money they want for the work they do is simply not sustainable.  You call it a race to the bottom, anyone else calls it a need to get some balance back into work vs. pay vs. responsibility vs. sustainability.

I remember having this same conversation with a shop steward of one of the unions (electical) when the regional union movement in Indiana was going to "show the paper companies" who is in control.   They did just that, now there are no more paper or printing jobs left in IN.  Would like to be able to speak with him today.

[taxme]

On 1/23/2020 at 4:45 AM, cannuck said:

I doubt this strike has made national news, but obviously, as the Co-op refinery in Regina provides most of the fuel for SK and the MT/ND areas to the South, the severe interference with access to the site for fuel haulers has become a serious disruption to the economy.

First, that has been a LOT of intimidation, harassment and even assault on people trying to enter either to operate the plant or to ship product:  https://globalnews.ca/news/6441876/14-co-op-picketers-charged-with-mischief-unifor-escalates-boycott/

The courts felt that the insolence of Unifor was intolerable, so a hundred grand fine yesterday:  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-union-fined-for-violating-court-order-in-regina-refinery-labour-2/

I won't debate the merits of the union's demand, but I will offer both sides to those who might be interested:

https://www.fcl.crs/our-business/refinery-facts/?utm_source=loknow&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=crc&gclid=Cj0KCQiApaXxBRDNARIsAGFdaB-8SqVIw5SFQtH2GGTpgjERu7ugmPsdQ47RNQCwMDsy4gw8yGNOonwaAvliEALw_wcB

http://www.unifor594.com/bargaining-2019/

It is ironic that here in the wellspring of socialism it is of all companies the Co-op (Federated Co-operatives Limited) that has been forced to stand up against unreasonable demands of trade unions.  They had to endure a totally ridiculous job action over the last couple years where the union insisted that new hires be given full wage of established employees (in their retail gas station/C stores).  The Co-op stood their ground, but it was clear that the unions were looking to draw a line in the sand and had mistakenly targeted the Co-op thinking very wrongly that they would find some sympathy from either the organization or its members.  Hitting the refinery (that is famous for paying far too much money for not very much work of its employees) was a bold move that once again, it seems they thought would be so critical to the economy that someone along the line would give in once more putting the CLC back into the driver's seat.  Awkward for the NDP (which, if you don't remember was formed as a formal amalgamation of the CCF - the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the CLC - Canadian Labour Congress) that has removed the Regina Manifesto from its website to try to appear distant from their Marxist roots.  

The solution is simple, and it needs to be implemented in MB, SK and AB before the opportunity is lost:  we need right to work legislation.   The idea that Pallister, Moe and Kenny are somehow "conservatives" is now on the line.   If you guys want to keep claiming that ground, time to grow a pair and step up to the plate.  Recognize individual rights and freedoms for what they should be and place collectivism back on the shelf where it belongs.

Not sure as to whether it is time for right to work legislation or not but I do believe that it is time for we the people to have written in the Canadian constitution the right to own private property which old man Pierre Elliot(idiot )Trudeau purposely left out of the constitution that right in his Trudeau constitution. Communists do not believe in private property. 

[PIK]

Well this latest move by ford is awesome. Now lets see if the teachers get back to work. If they still strike for the money ,then we know that it has nothing to do with the kids.