The role of labour was and is to ensure that business and management act with conscience.   NOT to infer that all business people or management are without consicence, that woull be totally unfair.

The Union contract is simply an agreement between management and their employees to abide my mutually agreed terms and conditions.  Either party may grieve what they believe to a breech of said agreement through due process.

There are similar contracts we agree to every day of our lives.

Buying or selling a house, car or business would be unthinkable without a written agreement.   Yet a contract that protects our employment, the means by which we are able to enter into "buying agreements" such as those noted above are unacceptable in the view of some segments of society.   This kind of "logic" never ceases to amaze me.

I worked for years for a non-union company which treated me and the rest of the employees with respect and fairness.  They even paid  union rate and we all agreed we didnt need a union to protect us.    When the business sold,   we found that the new employer had no respect for his employees and we quickly realized  how wrong we had been to trust our livelihood to an employers whim.    Regardless of how the new employer treated us we found that we still had to abide by the agreements we had signed for our houses, bank loans and rental agreements etc.

The fair employer has nothing to fear from the union and should he  or she feel they have cause to dismiss an errant employee, there are channels provided.   Just as any accused is entitled to a day in court, such is the case with that employee.   Should an impasse be  reached  the case is then heard by a panel comprised of   representatives of both union and management and a mutually agreed upon third party.

The list of benefits attributed directly or indirectly to the labour Movement's struggle on behalf of all working people is a long one.  Unemployment i)Insurance Benefits (UIC), Workes Compensation, Welfare, maternity Benefits,  Pensions and Health Care are but a few.

Unfortunately many workers, union and non-union  simply accept these benefits without thought.    The labour movement struggled long and hard to obtain them and is stuggling just as hard to maintain them.

This poem is dedicated to those workers.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

If you feel no sorrow when you see a fellow man

Stripped of self respect and dignity

Toiling or a master who owns his very soul

By brandishing the club of fear almost constantly

If you feel no outrage when you see a sister shamed

And think humiliation is her due

Then go about your business happy and relieved

But never join a union, it is not for you

If you think that welfare is a way of life

That adequately covers every need

Believe that our misfortune is determined by our worth

And live your life abiding by the rich mans creed

If the sight of battered children and the sound of hunger cries

Cannot make you change your point of view

Then horde your silver pieces, you earned them with your soul

But  never join a union , it is not  for you

If you rode the coattails of the many who have died

By accepting benefits that unions won

Like  UIC  and welfare and your meager OAP

You wear the blood of workers who died beneath the gun

But if you're quite contended to reap the harvest sown

While never having paid a single due

Then go to meet your maker but hide your bloodstained hands

And do not join HIS union, it is not for you

The bible is often quoted by people  who are  faced with logic or facts they cannot argue with.  A statement by a family friend that "going on strike" is unchristian prompted me to write  the next poem.

A STRIKING ANALOGY

His people were in bondage

Their masters owned their soul

Hunger was their shadow

Freedom was thier goal

When hope had almost vanished

There came into their midst

A man who spoke with wisdom

And to him they did lidst

He said they had the power

To change their destiny

And if they stood united

They'd end thier slavery

Fearfully they listened

Some with bated breath

For if they joined this stranger

The punishment was death

But death was more appealing

Than the hell they must endure

And so they formed a union

Of the hungry and the poor

And "MOSES" told his people

"Lay down your cutting stone

And see how many pyramids

They can build alone

And with their Saviours blessing

They "struck" to free thier chains

And we are their decendants

Thier blood is in our veins