by Barry Stagg
January 1996
UNION SODS
The town of Conception Bay South is giving unionized municipal workers first dibs on tax payers' money rather than let volunteers from the local soccer association fix up the town's badly rundown soccer pitch.
At a hot and heavy council meeting in November, the town's brain trust came firmly down on the side of paying out a maximum of tax payers' hard earned money to its unionized workers instead of allowing the able bodied volunteers to lay a few sods on the pitch.
This decision means that in Conception Bay South even if volunteers, who no doubt are tax payers, wish to donate their time and work, the town council will turn down their request and go to the barricades to support the right of their unionized workers to be paid to do work that otherwise could be performed for nothing.
All of this is a perfect microcosm of the tragic dilemma that has overtaken government all through Canada. We have a downright stupid situation where a government body charged with the stewardship of tax payers' money has decided that it would rather spend a maximum amount of that money rather than accept volunteer help. I hope every tax payer in Conception Bay South feels better knowing that its municipal government is protecting the town's collective agreement and not letting good old fashioned community volunteers get in the way of making sure that the unionized hired help get every last copper that they can bleed out of the municipal budget.
My first thought when I read about this ridiculous exercise in pandering to organized labour was that every member of the existing counsel should be red flagged at the next election and voted so far out of office that Bob Rae will be reelected in Ontario before any of them gets a chance at governing again.
My second thought was that the incoming town council, hopefully filled to the brim with common sense, a scarce commodity on the present council apparently, will immediately set about the business of contracting out every single municipal duty that is now performed by the worthies labouring mightily under the town's collective agreement. However, given the state of labour law in Newfoundland, I suspect that a wonderfully righteous grievance would be before the Labour Board in jig time asking for successor rights. So my third thought is that the next premier of the province should amend every single item of labour legislation in Newfoundland so that organized labour no longer has the right to inflict itself on any small business lucky enough to take over the duties that were formerly carried out by unionized municipal workers.
It is simply not good enough that organized labour can force up the costs of government services to the point where the tax payer has to live in perpetual poverty so that union executives can elevate themselves to gentry status. It is outrageous, irrational and totally unacceptable that ordinary municipal services such as ditch digging, road patching and garbage handling have to be carried out by unskilled workers being paid twenty dollars an hour to work a minimum of time at maximum wages.
The pathetic little debacle in Conception Bay South is an indication of the symbiotic relationship between small time government and big time unionism. Small time government quite often gets to spend other people's tax money and often feels quite self important when it can award large gobs of that tax money to its unionized workers. When the self-same small time governors can also deny dedicated volunteers the right to fix up their own sports facility as a sacrifice to the appetites of the local union, then it is time to change the rules of the ball game. The players in this sickening little fable should be changed. All too often we argue about the merits of the local council's dispute with its local union while accepting that both players have a legitimate place in the government game. My suggestion is that organized labour has no role to play at that level of municipal government. Thus if organized labour insists on inflicting itself at that level of government then the provincial government has no other choice but to give local government the absolute right to contract out the services free and clear of union contracts. That little bit of legislative amendment ought to put quite a crimp in the soccer field antics at the next meeting of the local Brothers and Sisters.
Unionized municipal services cost all of us an arm and a leg whether it is garbage collection in Harbour Grace or garbage collection in Toronto. Strikes, outrageously high wages, ridiculously limited hours of work and benefit packages with absurdly low thresholds contribute to the poverty of tax payers, the wealth of union executives and the perpetuation of unproductive municipal services. Mike Harris is facing down the unions in Ontario. There is no need to restrict this sort of necessary confrontation to Ontario. If you value your community and you value your own tax dollars, take no collective agreement for granted and let every unionized worker be it teacher or garbage collector show cause why his continued to access to government money should continue. Not one privately employed tax payer should live in poverty merely to ensure that a government worker lives in comfort.
Until next month be proud, be prosperous.