Bill C – 257

51 Replies to “Bill C – 257”

1. Another case of Unions shooting themselves in the foot.

2. And unions still expect me to have respect for them and support them…..

3. Unions and the CWB will eventually rot from within and die.

4. Eventually?

5. Workers doing their own jobs would be considered ‘replacement workers’? – ummm, okay. That’s nuts.

6. Wouldn’t preventing someone from earning a living be against the Charter?

7. Taliban Jack, the NON Democratic Party and a bunch of treasonous seperatists. Just shows who is on whos side, and it isn’t Canada and Canadians.

8. More sophistry from that corporate shill, Gerry Nichols. Made up statistics, comments culled from right-wing organizations and slurs against working people who have only one way of exerting pressure to get respect from employers.
   Whenever I see the name of the NCC website “morefreedom.org” I’m reminded of the paradoxical naming of organizations in George Orwell’s 1984. Likewise, Nichols and the NCC argue that unionized workers will have more freedom when their rights are taken away. Next, I suppose the NCC will argue that work means freedom… “Arbeit macht frei”.

9. There is more bad news included in the bill as well as it will ban management and owners from filling in on a union job, even if they OWN the company.
   It is a union dream bill, and we will all be sorry if it passes.

10. its getting to the point where typical union membership is holed up somewhere, counting the days and weeks until retirement when they breathe a sigh of relief, well not quite ’cause now they gotta wonder if union mgmt siphoned off pension money to fund some mob activity. exaggeration? jimmy hoffa. and his replacement frank fitzsimmons. both union to the core and rotten to the core.

11. Good one bollocks, you have to go back 30 years and to another country to provide examples.
    What about corporate theft? Ever heard of Nortel? The amount of money stolen from the stock holdings of regular people through creative accounting staggers the mind. This was promoted by the directors of Nortel. Oh, yeah, “buy more, it’ll be $200 a share soon”.
    How about Enron? WorldCom? Bre-X? Want more examples or do you get the point?

12. Who is the boss – the union or the person that signs the paychecks? The union has no vested interest in any co-operation, if the Co. goes broke, the workers lose their jobs and the Company owners lose their business , the union head honchos score a point for universal poverty and walk away with their paychecks secure.
    I have watched the Bloc and the Dippers and some Liberals and some Conservatives considering this bill in the House of Commons. Why would the Federal government be considering dictating to their own patrons (the taxpayers) the conditions for them to make a living? Further, why should a group of people whose goal it is to break up the country be allowed to vote in the House of Commons? What is the matter with the people of Canada? Why do we allow the Bloc to have the paper to print the bill? Whatever the Bloc is for – the ROC should understand it is to aid and abet the separation of Quebec from Canada – whatever the cost. What the Bloc are for -the other M.P.s should be against; automatically, IMO.

13. Who is the boss – the union or the person that signs the paychecks? The union has no vested interest in any co-operation, if the Co. goes broke, the workers lose their jobs and the Company owners lose their business , the union head honchos score a point for universal poverty and walk away with their paychecks secure.
    I have watched the Bloc and the Dippers and some Liberals and some Conservatives considering this bill in the House of Commons. Why would the Federal government be considering dictating to their own patrons (the taxpayers) the conditions for them to make a living? Further, why should a group of people whose goal it is to break up the country be allowed to vote in the House of Commons? What is the matter with the people of Canada? Why do we allow the Bloc to have the paper to print the bill? Whatever the Bloc is for – the ROC should understand it is to aid and abet the separation of Quebec from Canada – whatever the cost. What the Bloc are for -the other M.P.s should be against; automatically, IMO.

14. Lberia said:
    More sophistry from that corporate shill, Gerry Nichols. Made up statistics, comments culled from right-wing organizations and slurs against working people who have only one way of exerting pressure to get respect from employers.
    Yes, and while we’re at it, lets send those bloody scabs off for re-education at the camps, that’ll show those greedy capitalists! How dare they THINK such greedy thoughts, the motherland does not allow for this, let alone have them THINK that they should be able to support themselves and their families ON THEIR OWN instead of relying on our magnificent central distribution systems! They must learn to stick together through thick and thin with their patriotic comrades and, if the need be starve so long as they stick it to those capitalist pigs!
    Lavrentiy Beria, my comrade you have done the party well during the purges, let us do it right this time as well.
    Whenever I see the name of the NCC website “morefreedom.org” I’m reminded of the paradoxical naming of organizations in George Orwell’s 1984. Likewise, Nichols and the NCC argue that unionized workers will have more freedom when their rights are taken away. Next, I suppose the NCC will argue that work means freedom… “Arbeit macht frei”.
    You are right comrade, they are so arrogant they will never live up to the standards of truly free peoples like our comrades in the various Democratic People’s Republics worldwide!

15. Lavrenity Beria said:
    Likewise, Nichols and the NCC argue that unionized workers will have more freedom when their rights are taken away.
    Please correct me if I’m wrong, but if workers are not allowed to cross the picket line, isn’t that taking away their freedom to earn a living? Sure they could find another job, but then again if workers dislike their working terms/conditions don’t they always have the option of finding a new job as well?
    Likewise, would you oppose legislation allowing workers to opt-out of union membership in unionized companies, on the grounds of denying people their freedom? What kind of weird logic would that be? And you accuse the NCC of 1984esque things?
    “WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”
    Being locked out of your job to strike is freedom! Freedom to keep working to support yourself and your family is slavery!
    Next, I suppose the NCC will argue that work means freedom… “Arbeit macht frei”.
    Perhaps they are arguing for the freedom to work as opposed to being locked out and forced by the union to picket?
    As well, surely you’re not trying to compare the NCC to the Nazi party with that last little bit are you?

16. If I get my way, as new mayor of this city, I will change the way we do things for the better. One way to do that is to curb the power of the civic unions, through sub-contracting and purchasing services from independent contractors.

17. If I get my way, as new mayor of this city, I will change the way we do things for the better. One way to do that is to curb the power of the civic unions, through sub-contracting and purchasing services from independent contractors.

18. Now now people.This is no different then what our own Feds did when they said I could not hold a senior management Fed government job in Alberta(or anywhere else in Canuckistan) because I am not fluent in French. Don’t you know that by doing this, they are only helping to strengthen the unity of Canada by appeasing Queerbec? How dare you try to bring down my country which allows people whose sole ambition is to destroy it, to actively have a governing party in it! Where is your sense of freedom and equality? It is my given right to be denied the right to feed my family if it means advancing the socialist cause!
    Just one small question…where is all the tax revenue to finance this Utopian Paradise going to come from if no one is working and all business has fled?

19. jstalin:
    So nice to hear from you again. ;>)
    Canforce 101:
    I don’t mean to come across as insulting, but you obviously know very little about organized labour. Do you know what gave you away? “…being locked out and forced by the union to picket.”
    Regardless, crossing a picket line just screws things up for the group. I assume you are/were in the Forces. When can you accomplish more: when soldiers work together as a unit or when they just do whatever they want? ie. When they have their “freedom”? Exactly. Hard to win a war when all your soldiers are running around free, doing whatever they feel like. The point of having a union is to bargain as a unit, otherwise nothing gets accomplished. On the other hand, the NCC wants workers to have the freedom to work for less.
    What’s all this hysteria about striking? 93% of negotiations in this country are settled without a strike. I’ve been in a union for 16 years and I’ve never been on strike. Nobody WANTS to strike. It’s not a decision that’s taken lightly and it’s only used as a last resort in order to reach a settlement.
    BTW, workers are not forced to join unions in a union shop. However, they still have to pay dues because they receive the same benefits as the unionized workers.
    As for comparing the NCC to the Nazis: One of the first things Hitler did after he came into power was not ban guns, but ban unions.

20. It’s this kind of legislation that more or less ensures we won’t be able to compete with Asia. Let’s strap every ball and chain to our ankles that we can, tie one hand behind our backs, and watch our economy sink. This is protectionism, and it doesn’t work. Eventually, one ends up relying on the printing presses to pay wages that have no basis in reality. There is no free lunch. My end of the canoe is fine, it’s yours that has the hole in it. Socialist logic. Childish ignorance.

21. lberia..for you to even remotely compare unions to the Armed Forces shows you know nothing about “freedom”. If it where not for the Forces fighting Hitler and Nazism, you would not be “free” to say that walking off the picket line is the same as fighting and dying for your country and beliefs. Hitler banned gun-ownership in 1934, unions in 1936. You do not have to assume that canforce101 was/is in the military. You know he/she was.He/she joined the military willing, knowing full well that they may have to to give the ultimate sacrifice. Likewise myself. Until you can stand up and say the same,do not compare socialist union propaganda with those who stand and fight for YOUR right to say so.
    So tell me, how does the fact that you are not working because your union said you can’t,feeds your family?

22. Unions…The new guy busting his ass off while the others sit and watch….enough said. They had their time and that was a long time ago, now they just take monthly “fees” that I would be better spent elsewhere.

23. ”And unions still expect me to have respect for them and support them…..”
    Where do you think all your farm subsidies come from, barcs. Minimum wages result in minimal taxes. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

24. Union Labour: Where too many people do too little work for too much money-then go on strike to get too much time off from a job they like too little all the while demanding too much respect from the employer they hate too much.

25. Québec implemented anti-scab legislation in 1977, and has reaped the rewards of workplace stability. The average number of working days lost to strikes dropped from 39 days in 1976 to about 15 today, less than half the amount lost under the Canada Labour Code.
    British Columbia passed anti-scab legislation in 1993 with a similar reduction in time lost due to strikes. The amount of work stoppages dropped by 50% in the year following the introduction of the law, which remains in effect today.
    Ontario outlawed scab labour in 1992 through Bill 40 a decision later reversed by the Conservative Mike Harris government. Opponents of the move prophesied increased unemployment, strikes, and an imbalance of bargaining power. But experience during the short time the legislation was in effect did not bear out the dire warnings.
    The year after Bill 40 was introduced, work stoppages dropped by 45%. In the first full year following the passage of Bill 40, Ontario’s economic growth in GDP was 5.5%, the highest among G-7 countries.
    http://canadianlabour.ca/index.php/work_stoppage
    spin, spin, spin

26. “BTW, workers are not forced to join unions in a union shop”
    Riiiggghhhttt – but then they are subjected to harassment and ridicule for not joining – give me a break – unions have become far too powerful – it isn’t about workers rights anymore, it is about seeing how much you can screw your employer.
    God help this country if this passes – unfortunately, we have a Liberal opposition that will vote for anything if it goes against what the CPC vote for.

27. Iberia,I also refute your comment,that workers aren’t “forced”to join unions.We(my co-workers and I)WERE forced to sign-on to the NDP Gov’t union few yrs.ago.To me,union has done nothing,but take my money,protect the useless,and the lazy!Prior to forced unionization,my own work was recognized,my contributions rewarded,with healthy pat raises,as well as the “luxury”of managing my own time.Now,my pay increases are dictated by idiots,and even tho I am senior employee,with most experience/credentials..employer not at liberty to recognize my dedication and contributions,or reward this financially.They are bound by union rules,and the halfwits that are hired,years after me,are entitled to same pay.The majority of these new employees don’t stay long,have NO dedication to the job..just there for the handout.Union is always looking for some stupid reason to file grievances,not caring one wit,for lack of services to the clients..it’s all about getting something for nothing.Because of my seniority,I was coerced into becoming President of our local,but I quit position in protest of this stupid mindset,that employees deserve a handout for being lazy,no work ethic,that whole “gimme gang”mentality.Because of nature of my job,I have many yrs of involvement with unions,have seen how they have made mincemeat of whistle-blowers..the attitude was “shut up and carry on”..I’ve seen healthcare workers sorry asses protected,when care-home residents were forcefed,neglected,and abused,and the staff that reported abuse,were driven out,after yrs.of solid work history..seen good,caring staff made fun of,to the point of nervous breakdown.
    If you are a person with good work ethic,why do you need some union to fight for your job?Do the work with pride,and self respect,instead of depending on someone else,to get you something you likely haven’t earned.

28. Frankly speaking, any “bill” the Quebec centric block party proposes should only effect Quebec….something our dunder heads in Ottawa have never tweeked onto. A party that only runs in Quebec and only represents Quebec should not be making bills bills which effect the rest of the nation outside Quebec.
    The bloc’s parliamentary power should be restricted to things that only effect Quebec…essentially Quebec has 2 levels of provincial legislating…..and I’m sure the BQs party mission statement is unconstitutional…why we have coddled these bug FXXKers so long I have no Idea. Canada needs Quebec politicians like a fish needs a bicycle.

29. There was a time when unions were required to protect workers from employers. After many years, however, sufficient laws have been enacted to address most of the original issues that necessitated the formation of unions.
    Now…I think both employers AND workers need to have new entities developed to protect THEM from the unions. Funny how things turn out.
    I remember hearing Bob White (ex-head of CAW) telling of how things for the union had really improved. Paraphrasing…”Back in the day, we had to take cabs and buses and trains to get to international union meetings…but now we can take our own private jet!”. It always struck me that this should have enraged union members, but I never heard any sort of backlash.
    Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Unions enjoy significant power…and suffer from significant corruption.

30. “”BTW, workers are not forced to join unions in a union shop””
    BULLSHIT.
    Ever heard of a closed shop ?
    Try and be a teacher in Canada. you MUST join & pay dues.
    Unions & union lovers . . stuck on stupid, forever

31. The unions must be outlaw. Their leaders must be locked up for a few years to prevent them from stirring sh_t and setting up the new unions. That is par for the game.

32. Iberia,
    You have been a union member for 16yrs, and I have managed union employees for over 16 yrs. Your comments do exemplify the union/ndp position, that there should be major concessions paid by the majority to satisfy the minority.
    This is why your belief systems will never be in a majority position in this country. You are the bitchers and complainers who do the least to move this country forward. Most people have more regard for what they scrape off the bottom of their shoes after walking through a pasture than what your leftist ranting puts forward.

33. Unions are parasitic on the workers; they live off the wages of the worker – and like a parasite do nothing except to harm the worker.
    In the 19th century they had a role in mediating the owner-worker structure; this structure has been taken over by the government. So, why do unions exist? They have transformed into a new corporation; a parasite corporation living off the workers.
    As a parasite, they greatly infringe on the freedoms and rights of the workers. It is untrue, as Iberia asserts, that you don’t have to join a union. You most certainly do- in many instances, companies are forbidden from hiring non-unionized individuals.
    If you, for example, refuse to ‘join’ the union – your refusal might be ‘noted’ but the union still deducts their fees from your wages! If the union strikes, you are still not allowed to work! So, Iberia is quite wrong in his claim – unions are actually destructive of individual rights and freedoms.
    If the union calls a strike and you want to work – you can’t. The company is forbidden by law to allow you onto their premises. You can refuse to walk the picket line; that means you get no pay. Your regular pay is stopped and the union won’t pay you either – Walk the picket or no strike pay.
    The fact that Quebec is so heavily unionized is one of the major factors in their low economic productivity.
    Corruption? Unions can be heavily corrupt; what an invalid comparison made by Ibiera- and showing the typical leftist mindset (corporations evil; unions good). Union leadership can be as corrupt as any other group – and are and can use their power to prevent valid promotions, support their friends..and so on.
    There is no role in our modern society for these parasitic corporations, the unions.

34. Sammy I know where I slum [work] you have to pay union dues but you don’t have to join they get your 400$/yr regardless.
    And now they want to double that,…

35. Cupe has for some now building a warchest for a strike in late spring.
    This bill is designed to help them win the strike.
    I compare this to the air traffic controllers strike in the Reagan era:
    With the steady decline of the rich private sector union membership – steel and auto sectors -the public employee unions are vulnerable to a public opinion backlash. This upcoming mega-strike is their last best chance to turn the tide against unions back in the public sector – particulary against contracting out to non-union firms.
    This legislation is aimed squarely at preventing such non-union workers from working during a strike.
    The big question now is: “Will the LP vote for it?”

36. Eeyore -8:43 am – Bob White got his union start here in Woodstock, Ontario my home for the past fourty some-odd years.
    Woodstock was recognized as a ‘union town’ by employers far and wide.
    In the ensuing years many unionized high end employers have left Woodstock.
    Gardner-Denver, Fisher Controls, Kirsch drapery MFG., Link-Belt, GM dies from Standard Tube after a massive strike, Thomas Bus, TimberJack (now John Deere) the most recent.
    GM has a massive parts distribution plant here as well but is being phased out and I suspect it will be gone within a few more years.
    All these entities were well paid industries but unions kept squeezing until it made no sense to stay here.
    Mexico and the US south was the answer.
    That’s just some. there are others to this list which do not pop into memory as I write this.
    The union pendulum has swung way too far for too long.
    Currently Toyota is building a massive auto Mfg. plant due for production in 2008.
    Toyota is a non-union employer.
    Fred @ 8:43 is absolutely correct about Ontario school teachers.
    A monster with a choke hold on education coupled with the healthcare tag team’s stranglehold on rationed health care!
    Bloody awful.

37. I can’t believe that this argument is even going on in our time.
    Unions are like any other cause that started out with laudable and jutifiable goals…it has outlived its usefulness…but, like any other organism, it has also developed its own will to survive.
    Back in the 18th and 19th century, I can understand where the drive to create unions came from.
    Back then, it was common to have situations where a given town had 1-4 factory owners who were engaged in collusion. At that time, for the most part, workers could only make a living by doing manual labour (as there were not many jobs where you could independently make a living by using your brain). Since the rich “bourgeosie” were colluding and true competition was scarce and the labour itself was essentially a commodity, I can see where the setting was perfect for workers to be “abused” inasmuch as they were treated like slaves, paid crap, and totally disillusioned that they could find any other work.
    This is the back-drop from which Marx and his ilk formed their somewhat understandable views that life for workers would be pretty bad until that great revolution came.
    But, as with most social issues throughout history, reform came instead of revolution. Technology, economic diversification, improved labour codes, laws against collusion, and ever-increasing access to education (heck, socialists today even think that “education is a right”) changed the landscape.
    Today, non-union workers have all of the protections and freedoms that would have made the original union organizers green with envy.
    Iberia’s position – and that of the NDP-types -relies on people being convinced that we are still living in the 1800’s. They also rely on the “common worker” believing that extra effort and dedicaiton to your work doesn’t matter – that it won’t result in greater rewards. Of course (their logic goes), this is because wealthy, successful people have contempt for the common worker. They’re all a bunch of greedy misers (like Mr. Burns) and they don’t want you to get ahead in life.
    None of this is true and anyone who has worked their way up in a corporation without the politics of a union knows that.
    I work in the software industry. It is a field that demands the best and brightest rise to the top. If our industry had any unions, it would be destroyed because seniority means nothing when it comes to talent and dedication. I’ve never met anyone in this field who believes we need unions. The only software engineers who belong to unions are those with government jobs. But, it is well accepted that when a technology engineer goes to the government (and thus the unions), in only a few years, they will be un-hirable by the private sector. The reason, the union will take away their need and drive to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the industry. Thus, they will lose their edge in short order. That’s what unions do today.
    If I am doing a kick-ass job and my employer doesn’t recognize it to my satisfaction, I have plenty of choices when it comes to working at other places.
    I think that this is true in most other professions (except perhaps fields where the work is simple, repetitive, manual labour that isn’t worth much and so a union is needed to artificially inflate the wages).
    The irony is that union members today actually have less rights that non-union workers. It’s time that unions be disbanded.

38. Blue Drew,
    British Columbia passed anti-scab legislation in 1993 with a similar reduction in time lost due to strikes. The amount of work stoppages dropped by 50% in the year following the introduction of the law, which remains in effect today.
    Always good to quote the great works of the BC NDP who virtually destroyed the province. Glen Clark and his ilk drove BC into the ground by giving the farm to the unions. Temporary labor peace until they wanted more, more, more. Never ending demands.
    enough

39. If you want respect from your boss, do your job with pride. The problem with unions is it brings every worker down to the lowest level. Why should I do a better job etc, if the one doing the worst job gets the same pay as I do, and teachers are the worst example of this. Postal employees come next. I agree with the idea that anything brought up by the bloc should only affect Quebec. What a concept, we should urge our mps to pass a bill to that affect, and they should not be allowed to vote in the HofC on anything affecting the Greatest Part of Canada. As for this proposed Bill, it better get defeated by a huge number of mps from all parties.

40. If you want to read the text of the bill:
    http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?pub=bill&doc=C-257&parl=39&ses=1&language=E

41. lberia, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more brilliant example of Godwin’s Law in action.

42. Iberia says “How about Enron? WorldCom? Bre-X? Want more examples or do you get the point?”
    I get your point and that’s an excellent point. Those companies are in the dustbin of history , where unions are going.

43. Healthcare is one of the worst offenders of the don’t ask,don’t tell mindset. If you do get into trouble cuz you just happened to lose it,and strike out at alzheimers patient,or verbally abuse a stroke-patient for not sticking to the assembly-line rush to get him/her out of bed and dressed fast enough..so you can go have a very important gossip session with your co-workers,the union will step in and protect you.If you are a shite-disturber,and have filed incident reports against co-worker for abuse,watch out!Your ass will be grass.I KNOW from first hand experience,could NOT sit back,and listen to a useless activity director scream at resident for being late for a “coloring book session”..(and how degrading is that,to have been a hard-working all your life,and be treated with so little respect/dignity)When said resident refused,act.dir.let loose a barrage of swearing,name-calling,for no good reason.This resident had been a hard-rock miner in his day,I imagine he spent a lot of his downtime coloring!I reported the incident,and not too long after that,I was excluded from the usual chat,basically frozen out.
    My parents brought me up to always take the side of the underdog,and if you do nothing,you are as guilty as the one doing the harm.Any of you that have loved ones in-care,be ever vigilant,and if a favorite,decent nurse,or healthcare aide suddenly disappear,don’t be surprised if they quit,or were gotten rid of for taking the high-ground.You can bet your ass,the “perp”will still be there,thanks to a great union!You learn LOTS after 30 yrs.in the “system”..it’s a cesspool.

44. Don’t just bitch do something about this horrible Bill. Check this link out and find out how your MP voted on 2nd reading:
    http://www.psac.com/issues/documents/Bill_C257_results-e.pdf
    If they voted for it on second reading (and 20 Conservative MP’s did!!!) Tell them to vote “NO” on the final vote. If they were absent, make sure they know it is a priority. Union goons are contacting MP’s, we need to counter-act it.

45. Unions are self-defeating. They whine bitch and complain about jobs going to China then they do stupid things that make more jobs leave.
    Unions should be banned. Not by parliament but by their workers. Unions protect the laziest, most imcompetent and irresponsible workers from the fate they deserve (firing) and hobble the interests of both the good workers (who don’t get ahead because getting ahead is based on who has watched the clock the longest) and the company who is driven out of business by non-union shops.
    There is a reason that Honda and Toyota can make cars in Canada and the US at a profit but union shops like GM and Ford can’t. And the workers at Honda and Toyota make as much as the union shops, have as good if not better working conditions and as they don’t have an Us Vs. Them mentality, they have much better relations with management and much better moral.
    Iberia, I bet you’re a lazy clock-watcher who files grievances with your union when your employer expects you to do the work they’re paying you for.
    You’re dead-wood. You’re a drag on the nation. You’re lot are less than useless.

46. It is time for right to work legislation in this country to break the dictatorship of the unions.
    Most central states in the US have it in place and gives union workers the freedom to not support their union if they disagree with their politics.
    http://www.nrtw.org

47. If you want to properly measure whether such legislation reduces working days lost, you need a provision in the legislation which bars government from legislating anyone back to work.

48. Against Insanity, 10:58 am, said:
    “Don’t just bitch do something about this horrible Bill. Check this link out and find out how your MP voted on 2nd reading:
    http://www.psac.com/issues/documents/Bill_C257_results-e.pdf
    If they voted for it on second reading (and 20 Conservative MP’s did!!!) Tell them to vote “NO” on the final vote. If they were absent, make sure they know it is a priority. Union goons are contacting MP’s, we need to counter-act it.”
    Folks, he’s right. Unless some major changes occur or 3rd reading is delayed, this Bill will pass. I checked the site and found my own Liebral MP voted against it. So far, so good. But if you exclude the paired votes and the abstentions/absences, the second reading count is: Yes 167; No 101. Not surprisingly, the regional break down is as follows: Western Provinces Yes 29; No 56 / Ontario Yes 58; No 32 / Quebec Yes 59; No 7 / Atlantic Yes 18; No 6 / North Yes 3; No 0. Also not surprising, Lib/Dip MPs in the east are again putting the boots to western initiative and vigour and saying yes to economic decline.

49. This question is definitely applicable to this thread.
    Is there any will to take a look at that ‘other’ two-tier system operating in Canada?
    Perhaps, while the MPs look into the impact of the income trust tax decision, they will flesh out just how much of that investment income, for the public sector union pension plans, came courtesy, the lowly little taxpayer.
    “Canada is on its way to a two-tier retirement system, one in which those who work in the private sector or are self-employed will not be able to retire as early as those in the public sector.
    The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says there is a widening gap in pension plans between Canada’s public and private sectors….
    “In researching this issue, it became obvious that those of us who work in the private sector will not have the same means to retire as our counterparts in the public sector,” CFIB president Catherine Swift said in a statement.
    “And to add insult to injury, we are subsidizing their retirement lifestyles…..”
    “Stating it simply, Canada’s pension predicament is one of fairness between the public sector and the private sector,” said Swift.
    “There is no valid reason why Canadian taxpayers are on the hook for public sector pensions plans when in fact half of the Canadians working in the private sector will not even benefit from any private pension plan upon retirement.”
    3w.ctv .ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070117/retirement_070117/20070117?hub=TopStories

50. BOSTON — Arthur A. Coia, the powerful national labor leader from Rhode Island who became a key political fundraiser for President Clinton, could soon be a convicted felon.
    The recently retired president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America signed a plea agreement yesterday in which he admitted defrauding Rhode Island taxpayers of nearly $100,000.
    Coia, 56, of 20 Payne Rd., Barrington, is scheduled to plead guilty in federal court here at 2 p.m. Monday, before U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole.
    Crete Man Sentenced to Seven Years in Federal Prison for Paying Graft to Union Local Officials, and for Embezzling from and Defrauding Union Local Pension and Welfare Benefit Plans of $6.9 Million(USAO-ND Illinois, 12/19/06)
    U.S. Arrests Contractors for $6.5 Million Labor Fraud and Bribing Union Employees(USAO-SD New York, 01/09/07)
    Former Labor Union President Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Funds Given to Council Candidate(USAO-CD California, 11/13/06)
    Two Union Officials Sentenced Today on Charges of Soliciting and Receiving Prohibited Payments in Violation of the Taft-Hartley Act (USAO-ED Michigan, 09/26/06)
    20 People Indicted As Part of a Widespread Investigation into Payroll Fraud Within the Boston Longshoremen’s Union (USAO Massachusetts, 08/09/06)
    Former Local 91 Officials Plead Guilty in Federal Court (USAO-WD New York, 08/01/06)
    liberia I could keep going on and on and I don’t have to go back thirty years. In fact I could go back to my previous employer in Sask. where our local vp was terminated after it was discovered he had been ripping off our AFCW local to feed his heroin habit. Of course it never made the news, being hushed up at by the local.