Game On but The Union Should Be Out

Canada’s national sport has been in a state of limbo since it was supposed to begin this season. That’s because the game’s players went on strike, leaving fans waving their flags in empty sadness.

That was until the National Hockey League (NHL) finally struck a deal with the players union, and it’ll be game on for a shorter 48 game season, set to begin Jan. 19.

Unions seem to be taking the more aggressive approach these days when it comes to labour negotiations.

Strikes, walkouts, protests, work to rule, and work slowdowns and even work stoppages are becoming more common than sitting at the bargaining table and talking like grownups.

Remember when you were a kid, and you’d throw a temper tantrum by kicking and screaming until you got your way?

Unions seem to lack the maturity to negotiate in good faith as they throw their own hissy fits, only when a union throws a hissy fit, it affects more than just those in the room.

Here in Ontario, Canada, the province’s teachers are constantly throwing hissy fits as their union threatens action over a piece of paper that takes away their collective right to strike.

Since the school year began last Sept. Students have continued to suffer, because the teachers refused to run the extracurricular activities which makes our schools well rounded places of learning. There is more to life than reading, writing and arithmetic – and that’s what those after school programs and clubs is for.

Yet the people charged with helping bring today’s youth into the adult world don’t seem to care if those kids aren't well adjusted members of society, so long as they can throw their hissy fits whenever they don’t agree with their employers terms of employment, they’ll do their job – that is if they aren't throwing a childlike hissy fit.

Unions don’t just force their employers to cave in among unreasonable and unrealistic demands, they have also taken to throwing their hissy fits when governments interfere with their right to be treated better than anyone else in society.

It isn’t uncommon for the unions representing pilots and airline workers to throw a strike just as a major holiday season is upon us in Canada or the States, requiring governments to get involved to barter the peace, and keep innocent travellers moving.

Unions once had their place in society. At the turn of the 1900’s when the industrial revolution began, and employers treated their employees like garbage, unions made the world of work better for all.

Labour laws were brought in, thanks in part to the union movement, which prevents horrendous abuses by employers.

So unions these days, fight for things which most of us non-union stiffs could only dream of – job security, guaranteed wage increases, the right to throw a hissy fit whenever we want.

A few years ago, the largest corporation in the world sent a clear message to it’s union – make all the demands you want, but we’ll go out of business if we give in.

General Motors actually threatened to shut down, to declare bankruptcy, to go belly-up and cease to exist, if the unions persisted in their outrageous threats to strike for better wages and job security.

See, in the real world which unions don’t seem to be, wages can only increase if the company can afford to pay those wages. In a declining economy as we've seen for the past decade – a recession really – people don’ t buy cars. When people don’t buy cars, why is it that the automotive unions continue to insist on wage increases and job security?

Just another example of childlike behaviour in the real world, by union leaders.

Abolish unions for the good of everyone. That’s what we need do.