Posted: Friday, 13 August 2010

As published in the Ottawa Citizen, Friday, August 13, 2010

Re: Defend workers from unions, Aug. 9.

The attack on unions by Joseph Ben-Ami and Garnett Genuis in this Citizen opinion article is dogma thinly disguised as research.

The writers oppose the automatic checkoff of dues in workplaces where workers are represented by unions. There are decades of legal jurisprudence and government legislation to support the checkoff.

Our courts have accepted the fact that all employees in a workplace represented by a union gain from it and there is no place for free riders who receive the benefits but do not want to pay dues. This was the essence of a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 1946.

When the checkoff was challenged by an Ontario teacher named Francis Lavigne in 1991, the Supreme Court again ruled that the practice is valid and constitutional.

Ben-Ami, who has worked for both Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day, grudgingly admits that unions have provided benefits to workers and protected their rights. I would suggest that we have also worked on behalf of all Canadians by advocating for measures such as public health care in the 1960s and improvements to the Canada Pension Plan today.

Ben-Ami's proposals would weaken our ability to organize workplaces and ultimately to promote policies that serve the public good.

Kenneth V. Georgetti,
President,
Canadian Labour Congress