spent a little over $3 million in their 2008 campaign, while the official opposition Liberals spent just under $650,000, less than a third of what big labour spent. To make matters worse in Ontario, not only was the
Working Families Coalition working to defeat the Ernie Eves’ Conservatives in 2003 and the John Tory Conserva- tives of 2007, it was actively supporting the Liberal Party of Dalton McGuinty. Since 2003, the unions associated with the Working Fam- ilies Coalition made donations close to half a million dollars to the Ontario Liberals, either directly to Liberal candidates or to Liberal riding associations including $26,657.04 from the Building Trades Council of Ontario, $20,640.26 from the Pipe Trades Council, $66,389.92 from Internation- al Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, $53,895.74 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, $5,740 from the International Brotherhood of Boilermak- ers Local 128, $170,713.80 from the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and $175,475,40 from the On- tario English Catholic Teachers Association. The Liberals also received $200,000 from the Canadian Auto Workers. None of these campaigns would have been possible, at least not on the scale they have been operating, without the power of unions to force workers to join and pay dues – and in some circumstances to pay dues even when not forced to join – and to then use those dues to fund, not just the collective bargaining mandate of the union, but a myriad of partisan social and political causes as well, with no regard whatsoever for the wishes or convictions of those member footing the bill.
Union bosses and their political apologists claim that the so-called Rand Formula permits them to do this. They also claim that unions are democratic organizations, and that, Rand notwithstanding, the decision to allocate a portion of collected fees for any purpose is the outcome of a demo- cratic process. They are wrong on both counts. To begin with, Mr. Justice Ivan Rand himself explained that his decision to force even non-union workers to pay union dues (part of his arbitration ruling settling a strike at Ford Motor Company in 1947) could only be justified if those dues were used exclusively for collective bargaining purposes. Anything else would be nothing less than legal robbery (my words, not his).
As for the argument that the decision-making process is democratic, that might come as a surprise to all those non- union members from whose pay mandatory union dues are deducted every week. They are not entitled to vote in any union elections or plebiscite and, as a consequence, have no say whatsoever regarding how their dues are being spent. Only bona fide members of the union can participate in the decision making-process. There is another reason why the “democracy argument” does not hold water though. The right to vote for or against a person or political party running for public office, or to assist, financially or otherwise, a social or political cause or
group, is an individual right. It cannot be transferred to anyone else, even if that transfer is accomplished through democratic means.
It is quite astonishing that this simple fact has been so ut-
terly overlooked here in Canada. Even in Europe – where liberal-left public policy is de rigueur – the courts have consistently ruled, not just against unions using dues to
The right to vote for or against a person or political party running for public office, or to assist, financially or otherwise, a social or political cause or group, is an individual right.
support causes unrelated to collective bargaining without the consent of individual members, but against any form of compelled membership altogether. Nor is Europe the only jurisdiction where workers’ rights
are given precedence over union privileges. In America, de- pending on what state they operate in, unions that engage in activities unrelated to collective bargaining must either raise the necessary funds through a voluntary appeal to their members, or if mandatory dues are to be used they (unions) must offer to discount dues commensurately, or they must offer members a refund of that portion of their dues that would otherwise have been used for these purposes. Change may be coming though. The Progressive Con-
servatives under Tim Hudak have announced that if they form the next government in Ontario, they will introduce legislation that would force union bosses to obtain the in- formed consent of individual members to having a portion of their dues spent on such activities. Hudak is also promising to restore some semblance of bal- ance between union bosses and the workers they are sup- posed to be representing by re-introducing secret ballots and undoing other regulatory and legislative changes the Liberals enacted as the price for big labour support. If they are suc- cessful, count on both the provincial government in Alberta and the newly elected federal government of Stephen Harper to do the same, followed soon thereafter by other provinces. The stakes could not be higher. October 6 is shaping up too be high noon in the conflict between the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and the leaders of Ontario’s biggest and most militant labour unions. Ontario voters likely won’t have to wait until then to see some gun-play though. There is sure to be plenty of action in the weeks and months leading up to the historic rendez-vous.
Joseph C. Ben-Ami is president of the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies, an Ottawa-based, independent conservative think- tank. Visit their website
www.policystudies.ca
April 2011 | Campaigns & Elections 41
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