Spoof Unions ufcw.net Members for Democracy
Are our unions for real or are they a spoof? As workers and members we need to ask this question and others. Are Canadian unions that much different from their business-unionist American counterparts? Are our unions really just hierarchical self serving business organizations disguised as our representatives?
In Canada, unions have a great deal of freedom. There are few laws regulating union behavior, no laws protecting union members against abuses from union leaders and pitifully few requirements for financial accountability compared to what is required of unions in the US. The upshot of this is that, in Canada, union leaders - rather than union members - have been able to shape and define what unions are all about. And they've shaped them into top-down leader-driven outfits where major decisions are made by tightly knit cabals of insiders and put to the members for approval - which is expected and usually obtained.
Does that make Canadian union members worse off than union members in the US? Not a chance. A lot of ink has been spilled comparing and contrasting the effectiveness of unions on either side of the Canada-US border. Most of it is pretty meaningless. Union members on both sides of the border are hurting and have been for a long time. A lot of time and effort has been devoted by their leaders to keep them from seeing the truth.