What kind of strangle hold do union bosses have on their members?
Gerry Nicholls has a nice piece at the Brookstreet Blog on how the unions spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on NDP candidates last election without a peep coming from the employees on their opinions of which party should get the union financial support.
Well this is now changing and that money will, inevitably, be pumped into the Liberal party.
Hargrove told the convention in Vancouver that as long as he has member support, the CAW would not be part of a body that doesn’t respect one of the largest unions in Canada.
The outspoken labour leader says this doesn’t mean the CAW won’t support some New Democrat candidates, but overall the NDP will not get financing from the union.
Getting back to the stranglehold, I must point out that the only candidate other than Buzz Hargrove on the ballot has withdrawn his nomination and is now supporting three faced Buzz.
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The Liberals will have to fight the Bloc for some of that CAW dough!
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What dough? Under the new campaign financing laws, unions have very low limits on what they’re permitted to contribute to political parties.
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Doesn’t stop them from acting as third parties. Under the third party legislation, unions are exempt from spending restrictions when it comes to their own members. Various OPSEU, CUPE and CAW unions carried on a furious mailing campaign in that regard.
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The new guidelines state as such
a corporation or trade union that is eligible to make a contribution can give up to a total of $1,000* annually to registered electoral district associations, the nomination contestants and the candidates of each registered party
This means they can give $1000/year to each candidate. This far exceeds what an individual or a corporation can give in total to a party, which is limited.
i.e. if an election occurs each 4 years, hypothetically, the CAW could give out well over $1.2 Million in donations.
go figure.
Actually, I think I may be wrong above. the word total might mean they are precluded the way corps are.
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This garbage is exactly why I never attend union meetings where I work. I have to pay union dues, and that is fine, but I PAY them to represent me in the WORKPLACE, and not act as my Member of Parliament. Union and management politics in the workplace I can deal with, even the union supporting legislation to help me in the workplace I can understand, but don’t start using MY union dues to politicize, like the stuff going on in the Middle East. That is not the jobof unions.
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Glad you liked my Brookstreet piece. Let’s hope Prime Minister Harper works to reform labour laws so that no unionized employee is forced to support a political party against their will.
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Here in BC, during the most recent provincial campaign, there was more union advertizing than by the political parties themselves. They were very careful to avoid endorsing anyone… but they made no bones about who they didn’t want citizens to vote for which meant it was complete negative advertizing.
It got to the point where the NDP leader, Carol James, started distancing herself from the unions… which didn’t go over well.
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According to the local newsrag, Buzz took time out of his busy schedule to propose marriage to his girlfriend… who accepted. Personally, I think she should have gone on strike to push for a better deal but what the hey!