Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘blue-collar union’

I feel really bad for any blue collar workers out there with legitimate grievances, which are surely getting lost in the shuffle. (Hat tip: Jonathan).

Unions are supposed to protect employees from abusive management, and that’s all very well and good. But who protects employees from their unions?

Blue-collar workers intent on disrupting snow-clearing operations Monday night intimidated colleagues into refusing their work assignments, Quebec’s Essential Services Council heard yesterday.

Assignment foreman Gerard Poissant of the Sud-Ouest borough said that as he went from worker to worker, others would call out in the background: “The others refused, the others refused.” And Poissant testified that a union delegate followed him around, saying: “This isn’t union advice I’m giving you, but were it me, I would refuse.”

The stress was so intense that two employees who had been prepared to take out the machines assigned to them booked off sick, he said.

In one case, the worker had already agreed to go out. But with the intimidation, he returned the keys, trembling, and announced he was going home, Poissant said.

Another blue-collar worker, a woman, badly wanted to work, and even told her colleagues that she desperately needed the money, he said.

“The others kept saying, ‘The others refused.’ She started crying and shaking,” and at 9 p.m., she, too, booked off sick, Poissant said.

Unions have so much power under Quebec law that it’s hard for employees to avoid caving under the pressure. And all too often, union leaders don’t actually have the best interests of their members in mind; instead, they’re out for their own political gains or personal victories. Employees in unionized fields have no choice but to be members, pay their dues, and toe the line… even if they disagree. And in cases like this one, where the Blue Collars are on an illegal work stoppage, it seems not even court injunctions can protect workers who actually want to do their jobs.

The system is broken. It needs to be fixed. Fast.

Speaking of the Blue Collar labour dispute, Paul puts things into perspective:

Gratified as I am that the blue collar workers have seen fit, in their infinite grace, to perform some cursory salting and de-icing on the sidewalks of some major arteries, I don’t live on one of those, but on the myriad of small streets in the Snowdon area. Moreover, my street is on a slope.

Therefore, allow me to explain the joy that is my life every time I have to take my dog outside: I open the front door, descend the stairs, reach the sidewalk, and try my damnedest by using a combination of tap-dancing, the Funky Chicken, and walking like a penguin to keep myself from sliding into parked cars, or all the way down the street on my face.

Granted, I’ll admit that one can have nothing more than a passing acquaintance with the adjective “funny” until you’ve seen your dog slip, spin one hundred and eighty degrees in the air, and fall flat on his back whilst taking a leak, but, all comedy aside, this is no way to live. (I should also note that comedy value decreases exponentially if one’s dog is still on its leash and one ends up sprawled across the hood of a car whilst laughing.)

Where I live (NDG), it’s no better. Even at the best of times, the sidewalk by my building isn’t exactly well-maintained. These days, it’s a veritable skating rink. If you think it’s easy skating in heels, *you* try it while carrying 5 bags of groceries.

The Blue Collar workers who agreed to binding arbitration but kicked up a fuss when it didn’t come out in their favour are being petty and nonsensical. They’re also endangering plenty of people who have to get around on dangerously slippery sidewalks. They’re predicting more freezing rain for tomorrow, and the workers had better get their acts together before the situation gets much, much worse. As Paul says:

To sum things up, I stand by my original statement. Montreal’s blue collar workers’ union is made up of lazy, overpaid, inconsiderate arseclowns. If they think that the public is behind them, they’re very sadly mistaken, and I would like to see them called on the carpet for the massive amount of injury and inconvenience that witholding basic services has inflicted upon the residents of this city.

Couldn’t agree with you more, Paul.

If you’re a blue-collar union member, apparently a 5-day workweek is an “unacceptable working condition”:

The blue-collar union maintains the binding contract, reached Oct. 4, falls short of union demands. It has the support of its 5,000 members, who voted unanimously on Sunday to reject the contract.

The Federation of Labour’s Henri Massé said the contract creates unacceptable work conditions, including eliminating the four-day workweek.

“The situation is very serious and the blue collars won’t accept the situation,” Massé said Monday. “Now we ask the mayor to discuss but after that, we’ll have to see.”

The union agreed to binding arbitration, but now it doesn’t like the result and wants to appeal. Why does this not surprise me? The unions in Quebec have more power than pretty much anywhere else in North America. Union members get fat paycheques, lots of benefits, and short hours. Heaven forbid the poor babies should have to work 5 days a week like the rest of us!

Even Quebec law, however, probably won’t cave to the union’s demands this time around. It’s about time that they grow up and join the real world.

(Hat tip: Jonathan).