The Problem With A Four Word Solution

Baiting The Left 65 Comments

“Right to Work Province.”
From the comments;

It’s going to get even better. My mom’s position is represented by SGEU. She’s a nice person who doesn’t want to go on strike, but they’ve been working without a contract for 2 years.
But here’s the kicker: she told me flat out today that their union leadership has been holding on so that they can go on strike at the same time as all the other public-sector unions…eg at SaskPower, SaskEnergy, etc…that have their contracts coming up. Plus, with the STF job action on Friday, it’s shaping up to be a nasty year of deliberate, planned extortion of the public purse.

65 Replies to “The Problem With A Four Word Solution”

  1. From the article: “Essential services legislation prevents about 50 per cent of union members from striking. Because each health region chooses for itself what jobs are essential, a strike could look different in each region.”
    This could be a dangerous strike. Lots of Sask. health departments could discover that “non-essential” members of this union really are non-essential, and they can get along perfectly well without them for a really long time. That could be dangerous… for the union.

  2. “If by striking we can get some services that will help people long-term, then it’s short-term pain for long-term gain that we’re hoping for. It’s certainly not our first choice.”
    ~extorsionist union president Cathy Dickson
    No, your first choice is to get all the wages and benefits that you’re demanding without the government protecting taxpayers from your threats to deny health services until you get what you want for yourselves.
    We’re disappointed that this what they’ve chosen to do, but it is something they’re legally allowed to do and they’ve now chosen to do it,”
    “It’s been a tough period of bargaining. The union came in with a large number of demands.”
    ~SAHO president and CEO Susan Antosh
    By all means, let the public know what the thuggish union’s demands are.
    I’m sure the general public will back up the government’s measures to put these people back to work if they know what absurd demands the union has been making.
    It’s about time that the public knew what kind of demands public unions are making instead of these public unions being allowed to pretend their demands are for the public good instead of primarily for their own wages and benefits.

  3. It’s going to get even better. My mom’s position is represented by SGEU. She’s a nice person who doesn’t want to go on strike, but they’ve been working without a contract for 2 years.
    But here’s the kicker: she told me flat out today that their union leadership has been holding on so that they can go on strike at the same time as all the other public-sector unions…eg at SaskPower, SaskEnergy, etc…that have their contracts coming up. Plus, with the STF job action on Friday, it’s shaping up to be a nasty year of deliberate, planned extortion of the public purse.
    Oz: I wonder if an FOI request could get the notes from these meetings, assuming anyone had the patience to go through them.

  4. They will most likely have rotating strikes. We did that in the Feds. As I used to say I am designated essential so go out and reduce my taxes. They only needed about half of us in the first place. When I wasn’t designated I just stayed home, to much aggro to go in and not enough to lose my dignity. Don’t think the union would like any sign I would carry.
    Someone just point out the more strike pay they dole out the less the NDP will get in donations from the unions come election time.

  5. Funny how unions always wait until the summer to go on strike. Let them strike in Jan and Feb, then we might think they are serious.

  6. Oz: I wonder if an FOI request could get the notes from these meetings, assuming anyone had the patience to go through them.
    No need for a FOI request.
    The government is negotiating on behalf of the tax paying public.
    The public have a right to know what the union demands are that are going to be met with their tax dollars.

  7. Oz: Kind of like we have the right to know what the CBC does with our money?
    Yes we should have the right, but we won’t get the information unless they’re forced to release it. IMO.

  8. t’s an election coming up… Get it. Remember when Devine was in the NDP/Unions said they were going to make this Province ungovernable?? Who gives a Rats A__ about taxpayers,or Democracy Have you ever noticed that the people who yap most about Democracy are the ones who abuse it the most Duker

  9. It’s an election coming up… Get it. Remember when Devine was in the NDP/Unions said they were going to make this Province ungovernable?? Who gives a Rats A__ about taxpayers,or Democracy Have you ever noticed that the people who yap most about Democracy are the ones who abuse it the most Duker

  10. Another Calgary Marc,
    It isn’t just the right to know what they do with our money.
    It’s the right to know what the stakes are when negotiations are taking place right now, and how much of that pain that the union creep so casually talks about we’re willing to endure to back our politicians when they say NO WAY NO HOW to these union creeps.
    Heck, I’d be willing to see that if some people were worse off during a healthcare strike because of a lack of timely care that the immediate providers of that care be charged with denying the necessities of life and imprisoned.

  11. I’ve written ay least a half-dozen letter to the editor to the SP that went against leftist politics. Every one has been declined. The SP is worst than the Globe and Mail or the Toronto Star. Total morons.

  12. I think that this type of action is going to eventually inflame the tax payers to the point where governments of all levels will have no choice but to start rolling back the demands of the public sector unions. We are seeing the beginnings of this in places like Wisconsin and this will add momentum to reactions in other jurisdictions.
    The unions need to start bargaining in good faith and act in the best interests (long term) of the members and no in the best interest in the unions dues.

  14. Let’s see . . . four words, four meaningful words.
    “Because Patients Come First”
    “Entitled to Our Entitlements”

  15. And Saul said; wrap yourself in moral garments. So it is that the Union/media framework with tell us that they are only on strike for the patients and not for the 18.5% wage demand.
    “We have been working hard”, to get a settlement for two years. What a crock and they know it.
    Negotiations only proceed when the parties get close and never when they are so far apart that they need binoculars to see each other.
    It would be nice to a see a government fight back against “rules for radicals” in a hard hitting meaningful way.

  16. Hey Brad Wall. Think of Maggie Thatcher and the coal miners, or Ronald Reagan and the air traffic controllers. The voters are sovereign, not the unions. The first thing I learned when I returned to Saskatchewan was that government snow plow drivers are not people you can depend on and not at all irreplaceable.

  17. Funny how the unions always look to a similar group who make more money as their benchmark, never the other way around…..

  18. Let ’em walk and then keep ’em out for a LOOOONG time.
    As my late, great CUPE VP Dad taught me years ago, the average union member is 2 to 4 pay cheques away from eviction … the more their union has to waste in strike pay, the poorer the union becomes for NDP financial support later.
    ALL STRIKERS HATE LONG STRIKES!
    A LONG strike (rotating or otherwise) benefits the taxpayers of Saskatchewan and weakens the union and their bought & paid for NDP puppeteers.
    Time for Canadian taxpayers to draw a line in the sand, starting in Saskatchewan where all our socialism began.

  20. Teachers deserve a decent hike in pay. It’s been too long and the 5% over three years is basically a cut with inflation…
    As for the rest…Wall should probably play hard ball, but I’m not sure he’s the type of guy who really “gets it”. Hard to tell. I left Saskatchewan after the 2003 election and was really glad when they finally took over in 2007, but Wall seems like a bit of a lightweight.
    We’ll see.

  21. It is really a rather simple solution:
    Step 1) Fire them all
    Step 2) Post for-hire advertisements for 50% of the fired positions with a 30% pay increase on average (a net savings of 35% overall), clear performance gauges, and no-union caveat.
    Step 3) Black-list every union leader down to the lowest pond-scum ‘organiser’ from ever working for gov’t or gov’t contracts again.
    Step 4) enjoy the show that will shortly begin!

  22. Ah yes, the class war comes to Canada …. the government union class vs the free market worker class.
    The latter pays for both sides … we deserve more respect than an infantile union strike by the fat for more jelly on their bread.

  24. When hospitals were not manned by union workers, most of them were clean. When Doctors and nurses were proud professionals they were respected by people seeking help with health problems or emergency services. Hospital wards of the past were filled with flowers and chocolates from grateful patients. The floors were always waxed and polished, the sheets were bleached and starched, the towels were snow white and facets shone in the bathrooms; people smoked tobacco in the rooms and the windows opened to let in fresh air. Visitors visited only during visiting hours. All hospital professionals wore white uniforms and closed shoes. No one loitered in the hallways armed with a filthy dust mop wearing a casual outfit and/or bedroom slippers or beach thongs. Lots of people volunteered in hospitals at one time; when I was a teenager I belonged to a group called ‘Candy Stripers’ (we wore red and white striped dresses), Candy Stripers went to the hospital after school to help the nurses, we served dinners, read to or visited with patients, ran errands for patients etc. Unions have outlawed most volunteers and thrown proper dress and cleanliness policies (‘green’ cleaning products are bacteria friendly) out; the unions have endangered the the health and safety of patients, IMO because hospitals are now stressful and dirty, not quiet, restful and germ free.
    Unions create two bosses for every employee. Unions do not allow individuals to have any say and they stifle the urge to excel; no one who works in a union is allowed to innovate or take pride in their own work. Unions, not employers, must change if Canada is to move ahead. People cannot fly like eagles if they are forced to roost with turkeys.

  25. My wife the teacher is looking at the Alberta Teacher’s Association demands and wondering if her union is insane. She would be happy to forgo a raise for the next few years as she feels she is compensated fairly right now. She’d rather see that money put toward keeping more teachers or improving programs for kids. She expressed this to her union rep and was lectured for it.
    There is often a large disparity between what the union wants and what its members want, and the leadership isn’t accountable to the members.

  28. Teachers deserve a decent hike in pay. It’s been too long and the 5% over three years is basically a cut with inflation…
    ~Jeff
    The article says it’s been 2 years.
    Basically everyone who isn’t in a PSU hasn’t got a raise since 2008.
    The way you casually use the phrase “deserve a decent hike” sends the clear message that you are union related.
    You want to talk about inflation?
    Union wages hikes are a major driver of inflation.

  29. I already sent a donation the Sask Party’s way last Thursday, and note saying I was 100% behind them taking a stand against the unions.
    Curious how I have never seen these fat cat union types volunteering to take a hair cut in the lean years, but the clear talking point coming through is how they don’t feel they are sharing in the prosperity.
    Public executions, mass firings, confiscation of the war chest, I am in full support of whatever action the government wants to take against unions. This is Sask’s last chance, if they cave this time, there will not be another (figurative) spring in this province, like we have seen the past few years.

  30. People don’t generally realize this, but a halfway competent doctor can keep a hospital going with nothing more than untrained but willing help. The doctor can and will do anything the nurses normally do, helpers just have to follow instructions and not be utter morons.
    Speaking as a trained physical therapist who has worked in a few hospitals, that job can be done by a large kid if he/ she has more than half a brain. Welding or carpentry is harder, from a purely intellectual and skill acquisition POV. IMHO, of course.
    Truth is, much of the cost of patient care is due to empire building by regulation and unnecessary certification. You don’t need to be a certified, licensed, government inspected-and-approved $40/hr Masters PT grad to take grandma for a spin around the ward. The janitor guy can do it.
    Cue the screams of rage from nurses and PTs. Too bad so sad, truth hurts.

  31. Jeff..
    Sorry but no one deserves anything in our society. It is always about ‘ability to pay’. If you can agree to that then within the context of a balanced budget choices have to be made. Every government that is allowed to do different will do so to get re-elected. Every party in the country does spend more than they collect. I have no use for them.
    The biggest crime will be when inflation hits and government wins again by taking even more money from their citizens. Every vested interest in the country are sidling up to the CPC to see how they can stay at the trough.

  32. After being without a contract for almost two years the Nova Scotia Healthcare workers got what every other provincial union got from the NDP government: 1% + 1% in year two. Keep in mind that the HST was raised by 2% in the last two years, there actually has been inflation, the power, water, heating oil and gas prices have increased by double digits.
    Personally, I am worse off financially that I was when I moved here three years ago but what bugs me is that the great 1% raise is suppose to come out of the department’s operating budget which has been frozen to last year’s level. Every part, tool or service we purchase to maintain the level of patient treatment has increased. And forget about any capital expenditures. For us, 7.5% over four years sounds pretty sweet.
    Question is, besides overhauling the Canada Health care system, which we know will never happen, how long will the present system last?

  33. Texas, difficult to put a hard time line on it. But it will last until the taxpayers start buying their health care privately because they have to. Same with the school system.
    That could take a while, if Detroit is any example. Half of Detroit can’t read, but the Detroit Public School Board is still drawing a salary.

  34. Question is, besides overhauling the Canada Health care system, which we know will never happen, how long will the present system last?
    ~Texas Canuck
    The CPC just has to change the Health Act to allow the provinces, where the delivery takes place, to make the changes.
    Considering that health care takes up the lion’s share of provincial budgets, I would be surprized if some provinces didn’t allow a parallel delivery system to ease their budgets and improve delivery wait times.

  35. Yep, all signs point to the unions gearing up for a big show before the fall election. I think Labour is misjudging the mood of Sask voters. Our province has done relatively well during the recession but Sask people don’t favor big raises for government employees even at the best of times and right now people are still a bit worried about the economy. Besides, the Sask Party can remind voters that the NDP also had union troubles. For instance, Calvert’s NDP government locked out SaskPower workers and then legislated them back to work with a non-negotiable contract.
    Re: teachers wage gap between Alberta and Sask:
    1) instead of Sask taxpayers being obliged to meet Alberta wages, isn’t this the perfect opportunity for Alberta taxpayers to insist that their teachers wages be frozen?
    2) I’m tired of the unpaid extracurricular activities argument. First, not all teacher actually give up their own time (it might be cheaper to pay overtime to those who do). And second, this argument has been used for decades so surely we have now compensated them for this at least 3 or 4 times (Be creative, get a new argument)

  36. Education like health care needs to be addressed. Here in AB we haven’t had politicians that have the gonads to take on either group. I thought Klein might try it. He should have as the conditions were right. Lougheed, Getty Stelmach arrrrgh.
    Whoever takes them on had better be ready for the fight of their life.
    It’s going to be awhile before any provincial gov’t has the guts to take away collective bargaining rights like they are attempting to do in Wisconsin. SK should declare teaching an ‘essential service’.

  37. Regarding teachers, it is time to break the current system and remake it. Sweden did that in 1993 with a voucher system and it has been extremely successful. It is time for a government to grow a pair and remake the education system. The current one is a lumbering dinosaur that is Bolshevik in nature. The union demands for money will never end. Time to make that happen.

  38. If all the public sask unions decide to go on strike, let them know that there will be bonuses and penalties depending on the order in which they accept offers. First one to accept gets a nice deal, which steadily gets wose for the ones who come after. Exta 1% for the first to settle, -1% for the last to settle. Play them against each other. Much like how the first to snitch to the police gets the better deal.

  39. Yep, all signs point to the unions gearing up for a big show before the fall election.
    But what’s their plan? Do they actually believe that if the Government plays tough with the unions then SaskParty voters will defect to the NDP?

  40. Do they actually believe that if the Government plays tough with the unions then SaskParty voters will defect to the NDP? – glastnost
    My best guess is that, yes, they do think that people will vote for Link (haha) if they make a big enough headache for the SP. Like many workplaces, union shops live in a bubble where the only people they work with and associate with are other union members. The union executives world is less diverse because most, if not all, are active members of the NDP – their bubble comes in shades from red to deep red. So it is easy to understand how they can become out of touch with voters. To be fair, there are some small cities/towns with a large enough pool of union workers to knock out a SP MLA but the scale of the Orange Wave would have to be in Quebec-like proportions. Possible but unlikely.

  41. Kate’s four-word-solution is the ultimate, and probably most politically expedient, answer to dealing with anachronistic unions.
    It seems that most of the public polls that have dealt with the “union issue” in the USA and Canada have neglected to ask the question: “Do you agree with forcing people to join a union?” But the few polls that do ask that question get a strong NO.
    It’s my belief that right-to-work principles would be an easy sell to the general public, including many union members.

  42. Here’s the funny thing about ‘working without a contract’: Does it mean you don’t get paid?
    Have all these employees been working for two year without a cheque? I have no contracts anymore (since I ceased to be a contractor) and as I own my own companies, I need to find my own work and then do it.
    So someone please help me out with the whole ‘I don’t have a contract’ whine…er, line. I’m afraid I don’t understand how that’s supposed to be a bargaining chip.

  43. RTW might be too big of a step. I’d start with allowing union members to decide if their union dues should go to political parties (NDP) and organizations (SFL). Starve organized labor of funds first.

  44. I’m sure Premier Wall will cave and Kate will look the other way when he does.
    I support getting rid of public unions, but I can’t support Right to Work laws applied to the public sector. They represent interference in the private contract between employer and union.

  45. “Wall seems like a bit of a lightweight”
    The Premier is not a loudmouthed grandstander in the mold of a Dwain Lingenfelter or Jack Layton, however, in his quiet way, he gets things done. I wouldn’t underestimate his ability to deal with the unions’ bad behaviour.
    This so-called labour unrest is simply a cheap and poorly-disguised ploy by big labour to make the Sask Party government look bad.
    Considering Saskatchewan’s current prosperity and bright future, big labour’s tactics will backfire … badly. Saskatchewanians have finally discarded socialism and are in no mood to put up with any union crap.
    As the election approaches, watch for the usual MO of the NDP and its big union sidekicks … scare tactics, smears and intimidation.

  46. Oh how sweet it would be for PSUs’ Waterloo to be Saskatchewan. Tommy Douglas would almost be dead enough.

  48. Saskatchewanians have finally discarded socialism
    Not true. Wall’s policies are almost identical to the previous government’s, which you’d see if you weren’t a partisan. The only thing wall has done is massively screw over PotashCorp shareholders.

  49. You want to talk about inflation?
    Union wages hikes are a major driver of inflation.
    – Oz
    Bingo! And they also prolong recessions, because their contracts prevent wages from falling, which is a necessary step in getting hiring re-started.
    The great irony is that every leftist’s favorite economist, John Maynard Keynes, recognized that the union member’s intense selfishness is an economy-destroyer, and he, in fact, fought his entire adult life to destroy their power.
    Jeff – teachers don’t deserve a decent hike in pay. Let their union put some competition into their contract, so that more effective teachers are paid more, and the incompetent or lazy are fired, then, if they want more pay, they can work for it, and earn it. Teachers need to lose the entitlement mentality. They are not underpaid, otherwise they would seek employment elsewhere.
    I hope someone in governmetn has paid attention to how Chris Christie fought and defeated the NJ teacher’s unions, which had at least as much power Sask. public employees have.

  50. If given the option, how many people would rather have an iron-clad contract than join a union? How much time, grief and money would that save?
    Everyone deserves a decent wage and good working conditions but no public employee should be holding the average citizen over a barrel. This is that barrel:
    “The Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO), which represents the provincial government in negotiations, has offered workers a 7.5 per cent wage increase over four years, while the union is seeking 18.5 per cent over four years.”
    I’d be happy to get any pay increase but then again I’m not greedy.

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