Letters

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Dear Editor,

Regarding the March 5th Jim Merriam column "Facing unions a hard fact in tackling debt" in the Owen Sound Sun Times.

The Supreme Court has determined that the right of workers to bargain collectively is so important to society as a whole that it is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There are millions of Canadians that gain or sustain their voice in the workplace and on the electoral stage due to this Charter right.

Mr. Merriam is typical of those that see unions as some kind of bogeyman and in their haste to make their point do little research and hope that if they dump enough in the way of inaccurate fear and loathing in their medium that they will sustain the rest of their ilk in their ignorance of the century and half of social progress that the Trade Union Movement is responsible for.

When the Jim Merriam's of the world take a day off or get paid for a statutory holiday or enter a workplace that provides protection for workers through various laws and legislations, please remember that each of these was not brought to him or them by any politician or business person; it was brought about by social progressives of which trade unionism is a pillar.

Oh yes, regarding the vitriolic rantings about public sector unions being responsible for budget deficits; perhaps, it is time to ask why, against over 20 years of advice by the Trade Union movement, that governments have handed out billions to corporations while sending millions of jobs offshore and have reduced the very tax base that supports our communities.  

Dave Trumble

President

Grey-Bruce Labour Council

http://www.greybrucelabour

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Sunday, March 06, 2011