Labour's foes have neither law nor history on their side

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=e7625c1b-a3f4-489e-ac92-7e538d529e18

George Heyman, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, October 11, 2007

Re: Forced labour: Canada flouts the UN Declaration on Human Rights and its Charter in compelling workers to belong to unions, Oct. 4

In its haste to weaken workers' rights, the employer-dominated LabourWatch Canada has misled readers on the rights and obligations of union membership.

Authors Jan Sodergren and John Mortimer point to one section of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to support their attack on unions. However, they failed to note Article 23 (4) of the declaration, which says, "Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests."

The authors have distorted the intent of the declaration and ignored unions' democratic right to negotiate collective agreements on behalf of workers. Following the authors' fractured logic, employees who opt out could potentially enjoy the same wages and benefits as unionized workers, without paying dues to support the many services that unions provide to their members.

Such action is unnecessary, as Canadian law already allows employees to democratically decide whether to join or decertify from a union if a majority of workers choose to do so. Collective agreements are also approved or rejected by a majority vote of members.

We doubt that Sodergren and Mortimer would advocate that citizens should be able to opt out of paying taxes, simply because they may not agree with the way a government uses the funds to provide services. However, that is exactly what they are asking us to agree to with respect to unions.

Fortunately, Canadian workers now enjoy greater protection in law. In a landmark decision striking down parts of the Campbell government's Bill 29 in June, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that, "We conclude that the Section 2(d) guarantee of freedom of association protects the capacity of members of labour unions to engage in collective bargaining on workplace issues."

FULL 2 page story at link.