Unions restrict worker choice, prevent job formation, discourage work effort and cut economic productivity.
unions
July 4, 2018
11:25AM
A recent Supreme Court decision in the United States will allow workers in the government sector to decide whether they pay union dues or not.
July 27, 2017
6:30AM
Less business investment means lower productivity for workers, which means lower wages.
July 14, 2017
7:00AM
Government workers in Alberta are away from their jobs for personal reasons 73 per cent more days per year than private sector workers.
May 31, 2017
9:10AM
Without a secret ballot, union organizers may pressure workers into supporting union certification.
April 19, 2014
2:00AM
Now that the province has reaffirmed its intent to lightly modify government employee pension plans, government unions will again try to divert the public from the facts.
For example, after my recent column on the ever-increasing cost to taxpayers of public sector pension plans, Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and Marle Roberts, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (Alberta), cried foul.
April 5, 2014
2:00AM
If Canadians ever wonder why it is so difficult to reform government spending, there's a simple reason: government employee unions.
A good example (if one can call it that) is the issue of growing government sector pension costs and the outright resistance from the unions to address the problem.
Some specifics. In January, Newfoundland and Labrador's auditor general Terry Paddon noted how unfunded employee pension benefits make up more than 60 per cent of that province's net debt and amounted to a $5.6 billion liability.
September 3, 2013
2:00AM
Prior to 2012, the momentum and even interest in so-called Right-to-Work (RTW) laws, or what are more accurately referred to as Worker Choice laws was non-existent. Very little reform had happened for over a decade despite the positive economic effects of such laws. Things changed in 2012 when Indiana and more shockingly the bedrock of unionism in the U.S., Michigan, decided to implement RTW laws. These tectonic shifts in labour laws south of the border have reinvigorated interest in labour law reform in Canada.
September 1, 2012
2:00AM
Around Labour Day, a plethora of news stories focus on the state of unions, and often, their interaction with business. Given the name of the holiday, the attention is understandable.
However, the focus on unions and corporations, especially where governments are involved to set policy and create legislation, often misses two other critical groups: consumers and taxpayers.
It is those two cohorts that are often overlooked and whose interests are damaged when governments assume, on purpose or by accident, that only the interests of organized labour and business matter.