During my teen years I worked in
the lumber mills of Port Alberni in the centre of Vancouver Island. So did my
Dad after our immigration in 1951 and, for a few years, so did two of my
sisters in the plywood plant which was co-ed. We were all members of the IWA,
the International Woodworkers of America.
We made good money. The Alberni Valley had the highest per capita income
in all of Canada, thanks to both MacMillan & Bloedel and the IWA. I’ve written about this already in earlier
posts. I was aware that, as good as we had it, it could not last. I suspect the
CEO and his cohorts made the usual outrageously high salaries as they are wont
to do these days, but I was not aware of that issue at the time. I was aware of the fact that if our wages
would continue to rise almost annually, the IWA would sooner or later price us
out of the world lumber market. They did
rise and we did lose out eventually. The town shrunk with the reduction of jobs
as did other BC towns with the same industry and the same IWA. In fact, the IWA
no longer exists; it merged with another union.
It turned out to be its own enemy, more so than the company.
Labour unions have been a great
force for good at one time. They lifted up the working class, a fact we should
never forget and always appreciate. This, however, does not mean we should
grant them license to force themselves on the society at the latter’s expense—and,
ultimately, at their own expense. There is a movement afoot in Quebec province,
for example, to reign them in because of their excesses. Those excesses are not
only about wages and accompanying perks, but also in that they inhibit the
healthy social instinct for volunteering. I’ve seen it in Vancouver, but for
today the issue is in Quebec.
Giuseppe Valiante, a Canadian Press
journalist, has an article in the Vancouver
Sun of April 24, 2017, under the title “Paint
a school for free? In Quebec, that’s illegal,” with the byline “Union rules
blamed for hurting social fabric of society.”
Due to copyright issues, I cannot copy the full article here, but it is
about authorities, under the pressure of a union, stopping the mayor of Saint –Sebastien
from painting the town’s public school with the help of local volunteers. It
had not been painted for 33 years and there was no money from the school board.
So, the mayor took the bull by the horns and recruited members from the
community. An inspector came along and that was the end of this communal
effort. The volunteer job would have
cost roughly $3,500. The union came in and the price rose to $120,000! The union members did not even want to charge
them, but the union forced them to take full wages at around $94 per hour!
“Left-leaning media columnists and
provincial politicians argued parents shouldn’t have to paint their kids’
schools, because government has the responsibility to maintain public education
infrastructure,” writes Valiante. From my point of view, this is about as
absurd, convoluted and corrupt as things
can go! Where does this kind of “reasoning”
come from? My Christian reasoning
encourages communal efforts and holds parents responsible for their children’s
upbringing, including their education. Preventing parents and the community
from taking on their responsibility by powers with vested interests! I have no words for that kind of mentality
within my Christian vocabulary and the others I surely would not wish to utter!
I am so annoyed, I have difficulty
reining in my emotions at this point and restrain my language. So, I am inviting you to read this fine
article but terrible story for yourself.
Please go to: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/04/23/quebec-painting-incident-exposes-unions-hold-on-volunteering-rules.html.
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