TORONTO GARBAGE

Mayor David Miller made a lot of noise about discontinuing the “sick days” provision in the union contract; but ultimately, he managed to alienate both the taxpaying public and the union members. Surprise! He should have consulted with Bob Rae, who could have enlightened him about the disutility of trying to do the right thing for union members. After all of Millers’s posturing, he ended up caving in to almost all union demands –Mayor Miller knows on which side his bread is buttered.

The union movement is a many-sided organization and reflect, to a large extent, its membership and societal makeup. Not to put too fine a point on it, but an union of dustmen is going to have differing interests from a union of, say, university teachers.

I spent my first few working yeas as an union member (CNR), and the rest on the other side, including negotiating labour agreements in the private sector(transportation).I have seen “the good, the bad, and the ugly”. The standard advice given to new employees was to work hard and not get into trouble with management during the probationary period, until they were in the union. Unions provide, in the phraseology of John Kenneth Galbright, a “countervailing force” to the excesses of industrialists and even governments. Unfortunately, because it is legalistic, rule-oriented, and often highly politicized, the union leadership is often in tow to the noisiest and more radical elements within their membership, with the “silent majority” just on for the ride. The power-politics of unions reflects and mimics, to a large extent, the politics of society at large or organizational politics in general. Self-interest is paramount in most human organization and societies.

Finally, there is the issue of entitlements: it is difficult to take away something one has had for a long time and come to assume a permanent arrangement and their “God given rights”, such as “sick days”. It should never have been given in the first place; but it is always easier for politicians to give in than take out ( that’s one argument for not having unions in most public works: political considerations interfere with the practical, economic perspective when negotiating with a large group that also votes ).
And as to a poor example or precedent: it is hard to “kick against the pricks” when you, the negotiators, have just given yourself a pay raise; or when the heads of automobile manufacturers who have just been given public funds (corporate welfare) give themselves huge bonuses! In the wise words of Forrest Gump: “stupid is who stupid does.”