Unions are necessary to balance out greedy/corrupt employers, and scabs are necessary to balance out greedy/corrupt unions.
Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Canadian Labour Movements
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Scabs are class traitors and entirely unnecessary. They weaken the labour movement for their own gain. Selfish and unwelcome.
I disagree. That makes it sound like ideology is the driving force. No ideology is perfect and there are reasonably held ideologies that cannot be reconciled with each other.
Scabs should be illegal under the same legislation that makes unions possible. The vast majority of union contracts require the employer to hire only union labour. Under those contracts, hiring scabs during a labour dispute is a violation of the contract, plain and simple, no ideology required.
The only good scab is a fake scab who damages equipment
Unions can't allowed to tell people who aren't in the union shit.
Not only can they, it's part of the supply and confidence deal between the NDP and the Liberals.
That's messed up.
Nah, it's fantastic. Scabs can get fucked.
So somebody I have no agreement with can stop me from working? How is that not messed up?
edit: "Class traitors" fucking commies are so stupid.
It's not about having an agreement with you. It's about the company and the union having an agreement with each other and the company just trying to discard it to undercut workers' rights to collectively bargain. The government is just stepping in to force companies to negotiate in good faith rather than exploit workers' desperation.
I can guarantee you that there are companies that want to hire you for $2 per hour with no overtime and a minimum required schedule of 80 hours per week. The government is "stopping you from working" for them too.
Companies face all sorts of regulations. They are now facing regulation banning them from using scab labour. Making it more difficult for class traitors to undercut working people is an unmitigated good.
Because if you do that, you are a class traitor and you deserve any difficulty coming your way.
It's not the unions dictating behaviour. It's the company breaking the contract that says they will hire only union members. The union is only trying to ensure that the contract is enforced.
Some union members and even some unions go too far by taking that enforcement into their own hands. Instead, they should be taking that to the proper authorities and letting those authorities deal with it. Which is exactly what they're doing with this call for explicit legislation.
Unless they're interfering with union activities, like scabs do.
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