Monday, September 08, 2003
Re: Union Members Don't Want Dues Going to Politics, Sept. 4.
I had a good laugh when I read the quotes attributed to Canadian Labour Congress boss Ken Georgetti and the labour party's apologist, federal NDP leader Jack Layton.
Georgetti is quoted as saying the donations of union dues to political parties is not done on "the whim of the individual."
The misuse of union dues is done on the whims of the union bosses and their supporters. Georgetti of all people knows this. He is the guy who sent out a letter when he was president of the B.C. Federation of Labour soliciting funds for an abortion clinic. Of course, the individual union member was not consulted on this "whim" of the union politburo.
Mr. Layton is quoted as saying: "The thing about joining a union is ... that you're becoming part of a democratic structure." Oh really, surely Mr. Layton knows union dues are compulsory. So how can you have compulsory democracy?
Perhaps this socialist comedy act of Georgetti and Layton should talk to their socialist brother, Buzz Hargrove, who said: "There is not a single union in Canada that can claim a mandate from its rank-and-file members for continued financial and political support for the NDP. The labour movement and the party will both be better off if we call an end to this fiction." (He was quoted in Vancouver's The Province, June 13, 2002, page A20.)
One wonders when our so-called elected politicians will have the courage to bring in legislation to control these labour bosses, for right now they are a law unto themselves, as witness the above quote by Buzz Hargrove, who freely admits they don't have a "mandate."
Stephen Gray, Chilliwack, B.C.