Should trade unions be allowed to interfere in the personal, social, moral, political and religious lives of their members, considering membership and union dues are compulsory? Any free society should say no.
Today in Canada, trade unions are allowed to impose their values on their forced membership. Unions receive their certification for collective bargaining and this has progressed into collective coercion. Trade unions have a money machine to pursue and finance their non-work related agendas.
The B.C. Coalition for Abortion Clinics has stated in its brochure that “the B.C. Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress, along with other labour organizations have long supported women’s right to choice on abortion, free-standing abortion clinics and medicare coverage for abortion.” The BC Federation of Labour is also on record as soliciting funds for abortion clinics. And Ken Georgetti, former president of the BCFL, and now President of the Canadian Labour Congress, had this to say in a letter to union members on raising funds for an abortion clinic: “In a short time, funds have been raised to pay the down payment on the $237,000 medical clinic.” He went on to urge “all affiliates to send donations, consider loans or monthly pledges.”
The Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics has also infiltrated the labour movement. As is noted in Social Movements, Social Change, The Politics and Practice of Organizing (a taxpayer-funded book), “at various labour conventions in 1982 and 1983, OCAC activists were involved in garnering support for choice.” The book also states that “many unions have contributed financial and material support to OCAC.” As Michael Mandel notes in his book The Charter of Rights and the Legalization of Politics in Canada, the Ontario Federation of Labour has donated “thousands of dollars” to Morgentaler’s defence fund.
Might union members ask the question: What does abortion have to do with collective bargaining?
“Healthcare” unions are some of the biggest supporters of the “gay rights” lifestyle. For example, the Hospital Employees Union has already been to court on behalf of “same sex spouses.” The B.C. Nurses Union has set up a “gay and lesbian rights ad hoc committee” and has been active in area Gay Pride Parades.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees launched a court action on behalf of “same-sex pensions.” An article in CUPE Quarterly (October 1992) stated that “the Canadian Union of Public Employees leads the labour movement in it’s support of lesbian and gay issues.”
The Canadian Labour Congress, has twice held a “Solidarity and Pride” conference. The communist newspaper the People’s Voice said, “A letter from the CLC points out that since the first such meeting in 1997, ‘there have been many legal victories and gains for lesbian and gay workers at the bargaining table, an increased recognition of our issues in our unions, and ongoing, growing support from union leaders and members at all levels’.”
Parents send their children to independent schools because they want their children taught certain values. In 1999, a Catholic school in Fort St. John, B.C. was closed by the local bishop because the trade union which represents the teachers – the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union – had problems with a “Catholicity Clause.” The Vancouver Sun reported “Talks stalled over a ‘Catholicity clause’ requiring staff to act according to Catholic teachings both inside and outside the school.” The Globe and Mail said “the union also wanted an independent adjudicator, not the bishop, to resolve disputes over Catholic lifestyle issues such as divorce, sex outside marriage, and abortion.”
The bishops are the teachers of faith and morals in the Catholic Church. And here we have the union saying “an independent adjudicator” should decide these moral issues.
The BCGSEU is affiliated with the B.C. Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress; both of these organizations support abortion, homosexuality, radical feminism, etc. It is hypocrisy of the union to suggest an “independent adjudicator” when the unions have already taken positions (which contradict those of the Catholic Church) on these moral issues.
More recently, the Canadian Auto Workers has supported a homosexual teen’s attempt to force his Oshawa, Ont., Catholic high school to approve his same-sex date.
One wonders if there is a union agenda regarding Catholic schools (and other religious institutions). First you get the union organized in the school. Then the union refuses to sign a “Catholicity clause.” The union knows the bishop will close the school without the clause. Thus, the children will have to go into the public school system, which in turn will need more teachers. This will result in more union dues to help finance all the politically correct causes of the unions.
In 1999, BCTV News reported a dispute between the BCGSEU and the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army wants its employees to demonstrate a “Christian Lifestyle,” which the union objects to. BCTV reported that the Salvation Army might close down this operation rather than give in to the union. A union official was quoted in the National Post saying, “This attitude (of the Salvation Army) is not only outrageous, it’s unconscionable.”
The question must be asked: Why should a Catholic school, the Salvation Army, or any other institution have to agree to a trade union’s version of morality?
The slogan of abortion supporters is “freedom of choice,” yet union members in this country have no “freedom of choice” – they are compelled into supporting abortion and homosexuality and a myriad of other causes. Democracy is a dirty word in the union movement and freedom is a farce. Big Brother and Big Sister in the Labour Movement dictate to union members, and compulsion is their instrument of power. If you don’t pay union dues you do not work.
Union members’ social, moral, and religious life has become the domain of union bosses and their supporters. Many years ago, unions were oppressed and many people suffered and died to get decent wages and working conditions. But now the wheel has turned full circle and the oppressed have become the oppressors.
