The Regina Leader Post has run an anti-union diatribe barely a week after Labour Day. Remember Labour Day. The day brought to us by unions. The author issues the usual unions are no longer necassary. Outmoded. etc. etc. ad nauseum. He goes on to say this;
Unions also have a negative effect on the individual. While workers get paid more, they also have to pay more for consumption which leads to no gain in real terms. Unions can also force a particular wage/benefit structure upon all the workers and eliminate the ability of the worker to negotiate individually for something that fits their needs. This is disadvantageous for the best workers who have to take a lower wage than their skills may warrant AND for the least-skilled workers, as they aren't able to negotiate a lower wage to be worth hiring.
Now thats a nice bit of fantasy but nowhere in a normal capitalist economy do workers negotiate their wages. Bosses set the wages and working conditions and benefits and workers have to accept them. In good times as well as bad.
Negotiations are non existant for ordinary workers without collective bargaining power. Perhaps if one is a professional or managment type then one may be able to negotiate but the average worker skilled or unskilled is at the mercy of the market and the boss. Which is exactly why we need unions.
Berry pickers appealing EI fraud penalty
Elderly Indo-Canadian berry pickers have been routinely underpaid and pressured to go along with employers who cheat the employment standards system, an appeal has heard.
Even in overheated labour markets like Alberta where businesses are closing because they can't find workers, its not a matter of the worker setting the demands but what the boss is willing to offer.
Ironically as more businesses in Alberta discover they have set their wage and benefits too low they can't find help. Or if they do the workers leave. It's called the labour theory of value, that is business contrary to its own ideology, does not create wealth, workers do. Without workers there is no wealth. Labour Produces All Wealth
Which is why the average boss likes to keep wages and benefits low. To make more profit. And in order to do this they also need a high unemployment rate; Alcan Proves Marx Right
Which is another reason to have a union.
Oh yes and this is another example of how right wing ideology now dominates our media.
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