Impractical Imbalance

There are a lot of unionized, publically funded workers in Ontario who are working without a collective agreement in place. Unfortunately there is little motivation for the various government bodies to get a new agreement in place. This leaves a lot of ambiguity.

I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of unionized workforces. I feel I can be more successful in a non-union environment. However, I have never paid union dues.

Collective bargaining can work quite well for workers in a for profit business. If you provide an essential service or are pubically funded, it doesn't work as well.

If a company makes something or provides a service for a profit the shareholders always have the option to stop withdraw thier investment and fund a different venture. If the wages move out of line and cripple the company, they can close the company and the workers become unemployed. The union knows this and must negotiate within what is possible. You don't want to be seen by the membership as bringing down the company and losing your members jobs. Management has the ability to break the union if necessasary. Long drawn out labour disputes don't serve either side and we don't see too many labour stoppages for companies that make money.

The militant unions provide government services and are trying to get more public funds.

Here's the rub. There is no way for management to stop doing what they do. They are required to provide the service so eventually, everyone will go back to work. The only relief that management has is to let the union go and stay on strike. That way they save wages until they have enough in the kitty to pay for the eventual increases. Let's be honest, the union knows that they will have to come back to work and management knows the union won't budge because they can wait it out and get what they want. So, they theaten to strike, go on strike and save the organization enough money to pay for the eventual increases.

In isn't balanced. It's not a very good way to get things done. However, it's the only way to give everyone what they want.

I don't feel I need protection from orgainized labour. I'm a smart guy. I can naviagte the world just fine. I don't need to pay an organization to look out for me. I don't want to contribute to the imbalance. So I won't.

There has to be a better way, so go out and find it.