Unions!

[mikeb]

What about regular York?

The old city of York was not affected by the previous strike because its garbage collection had been contracted out. Actually, somehow part of old Toronto was traded for the York parts of Joe Mihevc's riding and thus was not affected by the strike. This meant that those north of St Clair in the Corso Italia/Earlscourt had garbage pickup during the last strike even though it was part of Toronto pre-amalgamation.

Not this time. The old city of York will all be affected by any future strikes. That's thanks to the 27 councillors who voted in 2007 to "contract in" garbage collection in York. That means giving the work back to city workers.

I have been told that the private garbage collection was also unionised, but haven't been able to confirm it.

In any case, thanks a lot, Toronto City Council.

 

[Brian69]

I belong to a union and I enjoy the benefits of it but.....

I do believe they serve a purpose but like any institution with typical human behaviour, they can become too power hungry and corrupt.
So...... banking sick days? No.....

You either take your sick days as you need them or you lose them and I only have 10 per year so I certainly don't have these lavish amounts of perks these people enjoy. In the end, some perks need to be cut back while perserving basic hourly rates.

Agreed. Our union used to allow the banking and cashing of sick days on retirement but it was removed quite awhile ago. Although it's a nice idea in theory (especially for those of us who don't get sick often) I fully understand having it taken out. It's a perk that others might find offensive, similar to the Molson retirees getting cases of beer each month or TTC employees being dicks to the public (did I say that? Well, it's a luxury I definitely don't have).

 

[kEiThZ]

Man, I really need to change careers and work as a unionized employee.

I was in an car accident many years ago and it resulted in chronic back pain and headaches. I sporatically took no more than 1 sick day per month off because of days when the pain was so unbearable I would have to doped up on Tylenol 3; I was told by my employer anything more than 5 days / YEAR was 'unacceptable'.

That right there is the problem. The people who need unions don't get them.

Unions target public sector workplaces because they are easy to target. In fact, the public service makes it mandatory to belong to a union. Then they go on strike and demand whatever they want because they can hold the public hostage. Meanwhile, private sector employees suffer at the hands of ruthless employers simply because unions are too lazy to unionize workplaces where they could make a difference.

This article kinda lays it out:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/...s-civil-servants-living-in-another-world.aspx

 

[unimaginative2]

It's not really laziness on the part of the unions, though that may be a factor. A lot of private sector employers have very elaborate union-busting strategies and make sure that employees are generally concerned about losing their jobs if a union is formed. Look at the unionized WalMarts in Quebec that were immediately shut down.

 

[afransen]

Unions are big business. They are only interested in organizing groups whose dues will be worth the trouble and expense of organizing.

 

[lordmandeep]

I was in an car accident many years ago and it resulted in chronic back pain and headaches. I sporatically took no more than 1 sick day per month off because of days when the pain was so unbearable I would have to doped up on Tylenol 3; I was told by my employer anything more than 5 days / YEAR was 'unacceptable'.

when it comes to the private sector, it all depends on how much management likes you or how intensive your work is.


If your company is running slow, I have found they allow a lot of sick days.

 

[Whoaccio]

Canada has pretty high rates of unionization thanks to our abnormal economic structure. I think about a quarter of the working pop. is unionized. So, clearly, it can be somewhat misleading to paint all unions as one thing or another. My main beef is simply these public sector unions, and to a lesser extent pseudo public unions like the CAW or UAW that survive off of lobbying governments. They almost always run counter to their nominal goals of 'helping those in need' and just focus on benefiting relatively few well connected, and well paid, union members. So, the classic example would be the TTC. Top of my head, about 70% of the TTC's operating costs are labor related. If the average TTC driver works at a 30% premium to the average Greyhound driver (or even more than regional pilots for Air Canada) while the average ticket booth monkey is paid a 50% premium to a comparable service sector job, who benefits? All of those higher wages are just coming, one way or another, from the residents in Toronto most dependent on transit and into the hands of grossly overpaid middle class operators. Now, we are told, that low income day care centers will be shut down during their busiest period so that CUPE can keep a benefit structure which is unprecedented in the union-sphere itself, let alone normal society. I wonder how many users of City run day care services get to 'bank' their sick days and have seniority clauses. I'm almost surprised these people can sleep at night. At least with the Walmart in Quebec case, union organizers could paint it as a campaign against an anglo capitalistic exploiter. CUPE is more or less directly working against the public, though.

 

[toraerach]

It's not really laziness on the part of the unions, though that may be a factor. A lot of private sector employers have very elaborate union-busting strategies and make sure that employees are generally concerned about losing their jobs if a union is formed. Look at the unionized WalMarts in Quebec that were immediately shut down.

My experience has been that a lot of people working these jobs in the private service sector is that not many of them want to think of it as their permanent job. When you work part time for crappy pay with no benefits, most people I think are just hoping to find something else. For a lot of people working at Wal-Mart, for example, it is a temporary job until something better comes along even if they end up working there for 10+ years. Companies do exploit this feeling. Once you have a large part-time staff made up of younger people (teens, students), it becomes harder for full-time/permanent workers to get the store to unionize.

That's not to say there hasn't been major efforts on the parts of some unions to break into retail. Believe it or not, there are some people in the labour movement who do it because they believe in the labour movement. Do you really think those union organizers were thinking of all the money they could make off of seasonal farm workers? I doubt it.

(EDIT: that's not even getting into the increasing amount of people working temp. jobs and working from home who can't unionize and can get royally screwed over)

Every union and every local is different though. Public employees and autoworkers can be extremely selfish and sometimes give unions a bad name that not all of them deserve. Generally, I would say the unions representing more middle-class workers (autoworkers, public sector employees) become more de-politicized and more selfish. There's definitely a difference between fighting for higher pay and better benefits in the middle of a recession and fighting against the loss of full time positions to be replaced by part time positions (what's going on at the LCBO amongst many other cases) or tenured positions being replaced with contract positions (what's going on at many of our universities and colleges).

 

[afransen]

I'd feel for the LCBO employees if they weren't grossly overpaid.

 

[mangasparky]

Yee-haw for unions, every single one of them. Mostly, yee-haw for my union. The others are serving a strong purpose to the benefit of their workers, which is a positive.

However, I disagree with using the public as leverage in a contract negotiation.

 

[highlife]

Unions are living in a dreamland. I will never support this upcoming strike.

Man, I really need to change careers and work as a unionized employee.

Consider your change to be permanent. I haven't met a manager in the private sector willing to hire anyone coming from a union or public sector.

 

[nfitz]

Can anyone leak a list of union members who work for the solid waste department? That way I'll know whose lawn to leave my garbage bags on.

 

[Dilla]

Yee-haw for unions, every single one of them.
...
However, I disagree with using the public as leverage in a contract negotiation.

A bit contradictory, no?

 

[mangasparky]

A bit contradictory, no?

What do you find contradictory? or.. How do you find what I said contradictory?

 

[tkip]

What?

I find that a previous post stating that LCBO workers being grossly overpaid to be somewhat mysterious since it was never stated why they're overpaid.

LCBO workers don't make that much. I don't know why some people think they're rich. They're not. A lot of them don't get guaranteed hours on a set schedule to live by. More than a few work elsewhere.

How does one demonstrate what a job is worth in wages and what's the invisible measuring stick that makes this happen anyway? When it is too much for what a wage pays out? And why don't we force this unto other highly paid jobs out there.

We have examples everywhere from doctors to bank managers to CEOs and so forth and yet, its always the worker pion that we focus our contempt on.

Is this an accident? I don't think so. I think it's a little too convenient that the public is always encouraged to direct their rage at unions and not take a closer look at what others make further up the ladder.

Do lawyers really deserve to make 100-400/hr? Is a contractor really worth 40k for a renovation project? Does a plumber really need that 30+ dollars/hr and so forth? I never hear people screaming enough is enough and confronting this and demanding something lower.

Once again, I think that much of the anger which is directed at unions stems mainly from envy and jealously and that someone is benefitting from the sidelines and it's not in your best interests. I don't think it really has anything to do with ideology at all.

If unions and their workers are grossly overpaid might I suggest that a ton of non-unionized jobs are certainly guilty of this as well.