Unions bother me. There is no doubt in my mind that over the years, unions have done much to improve the lot of the average worker. Safety standards are higher, likely because of unions. Pay rates are also much better and workers are not exploited the way they once were. But I truly think their usefulness has passed.
It is my opinion that unions have introduced a mindset among the general population that you don’t need any education or skills and you can get a good paying job – it’s your right. High school dropouts go to work for a manufacturing plant, learn on the job, and get paid absolutely obscene amounts of money. Now, don’t get me wrong. There are some people who just can’t go make it through high school. I have my issues with our current education system too, if you’d like to hear me expound on that subject sometime. I’m not being an education snob by any means. There are those who think the higher your education, the better off you are – university education is the only way. I’m certainly not in that camp either.
One of the reasons for the extremely high union pay scale is to help offset the cost of union dues. Time after time during strikes, reports have been published that show after about three weeks, the workers would have been better off to continue working at the rate they were making before the strike. Whatever the increase in pay or benefits they demanded does not outweigh the pay losses from the strike. Is this intelligent? Why do they just never understand this? And those of us who aren’t members of unions get along just fine, working at a lower rate of pay, with no increases for years in some cases, but the consistency allows us to know how much we will have at the end of the year.
And then there is the killing of the work ethic that unions often foster. When I worked in the music industry, as a new hire, I was paid a pittance. I knew eventually my pay rate would improve, but I started to get impatient for that day. So, I applied at the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) for an editing job there. I knew some CBC editing engineers and they weren’t all that good. When I had my interview, the manager was extremely keen to have me work there. The pay increase would have been significant – almost double my current pay rate.
However, in discussions, they said I would be a new hire, and as such, would learn first one job and then the next, working my way up the seniority levels. They didn’t have in-house editing at this point, but were planning for that eventuality. When I asked how the decision would be made for the hiring of the editing engineer, they said they would post it internally and whichever applicant had the most seniority would be hired to that position. Just to clarify, I used the name of the bad CBC editor I knew and said if he and I both applied, he would get the job because he had worked there longer, even though I was the better editor. The manager said, “yes.” I withdrew my application.
Earlier this summer, Canada Post went on strike for three weeks. I don’t remember what they wanted but the government legislated them back to work. Air Canada went on strike, and neither do I remember why. However, the Canadian Government legislated them back to work after a few days. These are considered essential services even though the unions cried about the injustice of taking away the workers’ right to strike. And now the GO bus drivers and Air Canada steward staff are also threatening strikes in the coming days.
When the first strikes occurred, I heard a statistic that truly shocked me and confirmed to me the complete uselessness of unions – and their overwhelming cost to the overwrought Canadian taxpayer. If all unionized government workers were paid a private-sector-equivalent salary, the savings to the government would be $19 billion annually! Nineteen billion dollars! Not just a one-time saving. This means every single year, the Canadian people would save $19 billion! With approximately 22 million tax payers in Canada, that is a yearly saving of $863 on everyone’s tax bill. I could find so many more things to do with that money than to pay someone else’s union dues.
OK, rant over.
Until next time, work hard, and thank God for the blessings He bestows…
0 comments:
Post a Comment