February 14, 2012

Letter to the Editor

Unions: “Due” we get what we pay for

To the Editor:

Imagine you are required to donate your hard-earned money towards a charity with every paycheque you earn as a condition of your employment. You are led to believe that your donation is justified for the greater good for yourself and colleagues.

However, you have no means of verifying whether your money went to the desired cause because this charity does not publicly disclose any of their financials.

Now imagine one day you pick up a copy of your local paper only to discover that the charity administrator had squandered your money on lavish expense accounts and family vacations to Disney World rather than furthering the goals of his charity.

The actions of this charity and executive would be illegal in Ontario because the law requires all charities to disclose their financial transactions to prevent fraudulent activity.

Now, let’s reread the first paragraph replacing the word “charity” for “union”. We arrive at a completely different situation in this province. Not only are these actions legal by a union executive in Ontario, but also condoned and rewarded by the union. This exact story made the front page of a major paper twice in the past weeks.

Though I’m appreciative of the press’s recent discovery that union executive John Mandarino was rehired as the head administrator of the LIUNA Local 183 Training Centre (editor note: Mandarino resigned a short time after being rehired), it shouldn’t be left to the press to reveal the seedy and shady financial practices of a union or the obvious misuse of dues. Nor should it be the duty of the press to reveal this waste of tax dollars that the labour union has received from McGuinty; we have legions of bureaucrats whose job is to safeguard public moneys.

Unions, charities, public companies and governments all spend money ostensibly on behalf of their members, donors, shareholders and taxpayers, respectively. They all have a legal duty to inform the public on how their money is being spent. All of them that is, except unions.

When organizations keep this information secret they deny people the ability to objectively decide whether they should still contribute to the organization or not. Furthermore, the lack of accountability not only encourages honest people to engage in wrongdoing, it encourages dishonest people to seek opportunities within these organizations.

The McGuinty Government is funding union training centres over $25 million and it is completely unacceptable that there is no public disclosure of where and how this money is spent. LIUNA Local 183 is just one example made public regarding the abuse of taxpayer dollars, not to mention the millions these unions amass from dues annually.

Coming from a trade union background, I know all too well the inner workings of a union hierarchy. Workers are dependent on their union leaders to secure their next job. While they may be concerned where their dues go, they will not risk questioning these administrators out of fear of losing their next paycheck.

In 2010 I tabled a bill entitled the Defending Worker’s Rights Act. I believe that unions ought to publicly disclose their financial dealings since it is mandated by legislation that their members must contribute these dues.

No public funds should be provided to unions without full public disclosure. The law that requires union members to contribute these dues was enacted under the pretence that these funds were required to offset the costs of collective bargaining.

If unions across Ontario are using these funds as the legislation dictates, then there should be no reason that they would oppose showing exactly how much money goes to the collective bargaining process and how much goes for fine wines and warm sunny climes.

Randy Hillier, MPP
Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington

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