Canada’s unions are too big. Instead of many small unions who support each other with coordinated strikes, we’ve got unions so large that the union itself has become a corporation with employees who are unionized separately.
All of those people being paid out of union dues from the guy stocking shelves in Foodland or equivalent.
They now have their own agendas, and as often as not they’re not doing what they were supposed to do - protect workers from exploitation.
I’ve heard of unions grieving cases where an employee was dismissed with cause for gross negligence where he put other workers in harm’s way, another where the employee claimed on their pay sheet “union business” for personal days used for hobby certifications, and worse. A friend of mine is in a union where they negotiated a collective agreement that stipulates the company doesn’t promote based on merit or performance, but simply on seniority. It’s resulted in a lot of unqualified or otherwise shitty people making the rest do their jobs for them.
As a non-union employee in a company where the conditions are non-exploitative, I would be completely unwilling to join a union today.
Meanwhile the membership especially in construction will continue to vote blue
Historically this isn’t the case. Current polling does have Poilievre as the most popular choice among union members, however still at a lower rate than the Canadian average. So it seems like unions are stemming the growth of his support among its members somewhat, within the context of an overall upswell of Con support in Canada generally.
I think it’s important to make a distinction between union members and blue collar union members. I’m sure teachers and public servants are more likely to lean further left but all the rhetoric I’ve heard on construction sites since I got into a trade has been super conservative.
The union even endorsed Doug Ford in the latest provincial election.
For the record I have polar opposite political views to the other workers and it’s a very lonely world
gotta love that redneck koolaid. Amazing how they managed to convince the people most in need of socialism that it’s somehow evil?
Trades guys are your standard peaked in high school jock types for the most part. They get very angry when they can’t call people fags or have to acknowledge transgender folks etc. At least that’s been my experience. This is changing and the new guys coming up have a different mentality but the old school ways are alive and well on the jobsite for anyone Gen x or older. The younger guys get radicalized by toxic manosphere types cause they struggle to get laid and shit like Rogan podcasts.
Jagmeet Singh’s largest failure is how he, in the middle of the worst income inequality in decades, with price gouging front-and-centre, and with support for capitalism at it’s lowest, is somehow polling behind the the fucking Conservative party among blue collar voters.
It speaks to a complete inability of the political left to talk about working-class concerns. Sure, a lot of it is that the media and the establishment will ratfuck anyone that rejects the neoliberal consensus, but it’s not like it isn’t possible to get traction and change the discussion. Bernie Sanders has been quite successful; Singh barely tries.
