I Don't Think Most People Hate Unions.....

....but rather they think that unions have outlived their usefulness especially those unions who are run by dinosaurs. My experience with unions is that they usually protect the rights of marginal workers who are usually a pain in the ass to the employer as well as the union. BTW I have played both sides of the street as a union organizer and dealing with unions from a management perspective.

Robert Fulford on why people hate unions: The TTC strike and blowhard labour leaders, for a start

Posted: May 02, 2008, 4:46 PM by Marni Soupcoff

Robert Fulford

When you hear the phrase “Canadian values,” you know something ugly and mendacious is beginning — a speech by Paul Martin, for instance.

Martin made unctuous bragging about Canadian values (he said they were the envy of the world) into the closest thing he had to a platform when he stumbled toward defeat in the 2006 election and turned over the government to Stephen Harper. But it was Martin’s friend and admirer, Basil Eldon (“Buzz”) Hargrove, the head of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), who used those words this week, in an exceptionally foolish article he contributed to the Toronto Star.

Hargrove probably admired the way Martin wielded the phrase when they appeared together during the campaign, both wearing CAW windbreakers, so that Hargrove could help Martin and the Liberals stay in office. Hargrove believes in tactical voting, and imagines himself a master of this devious art, though his record so far, in provincial and federal politics, has not reflected the canniness the work requires.

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