Farm Workers and UFCW
Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that Ontario's exclusion of farm workers from the Labour Code was unconstitutional:
Farm Workers
I agree that agricultural workers should have the right to voice their concerns without fear of reprisals and that can only be achieved if they can speak collectively. However, their lot may not be all that much better working under the thumb of a business union.
The UFCW set up a local and put Mike Doyle and Wally Lumsden as front men to run it. Wally was the "President" of the new farmworkers local. What a crock. Wally is now the "education" guy for UFCW Local 175. He was an Executive Assistant to the Canadian Director and Mike Doyle is an ex money guy hired to run the National Education fund.
The farmworkers local seems to be just another business set up to be run by a couple of staffers who are conveniently referred to in the judgement as UFCW "organizers."
We know how well the Swiss Chalet workers fared, now tell us how well farm workers will do--Mike.
Let me understand this.Using a good law passed by an NDP government the UFCW sets up a new local union to organize farm workers in Ontario.How awful.
The new local has some initial sucess and is certified to represent workers at a mushroom farm.Interstingly the CAW and other unions Don't seem interested in moving into the farm worker jurisdiction, at least they aren't wasting their members dues dollars frivolously organizing the people who work in this underpaid and mistreated segment of our economy.
Then when the farmers friend Mike Harris is elected premier he repeals the law allowing farmworkers to organize. striping the union from those workers who had already fought to get one leaving them exposed to the wrath of their employer. Good thing though he prevented all those dues dollars from being squanderd.
Does the UFCW know when to give up,no, they keep fighting spending thousands of dues dollars on a risky charter challenge with no guarantee they will win.
When they lose at the Ontario supreme court do they realize it is time to quit. No.
When they lose at the Ontario court of appeal do they realize it is time to quit. No. They keep fighting all the way to the Supreme court of Canada.Wasting dues dollars all the way.
Now the Supreme court has ruled in UFCW's favour, dammit. whats next, those pesky farm workers will probobly want us to spend the members dues dollars to organize them again.
Get with it, this is a major victory for the rights of workers.The MFD ought to stand and applaud the courageous stand taken by UFCW. or is it just too much for you admit that the UFCW does anything right
[ 12-21-2001: Message edited by: tug ]
Tug, it's about union revenues not about workers rights. Take time to read what good unionization has done for Swiss Chalet workers: http://www.ufcw.net/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=000032
Read it all, Tug.
I don't believe it. We get a big boo hoo from the machine 'cause we didn't give 'em no respect.
In BC, retail food start wages have fallen by $4 per hour in the last 20 years. Two-tiered contracts abound. Swiss Chalet employees have been in the union for 20 years and they still make minimum wage. It's pretty obvious that the union can't take proper care of the members it has.
Minimum wage and the right to pay union dues ain't all that you'd have us believe.
Why the hell would anyone applaud it when it takes on more. What the F&%$# is the UFCW going to do for migrant farm workers? What the hell does Wally or Mike know about migrant farm workers?
Tug, save your crocodile tears for the gullible.
quote:
Get with it, this is a major victory for the rights of workers.The MFD ought to stand and applaud the courageous stand taken by UFCW. or is it just too much for you admit that the UFCW does anything right
Whether the machine has done something right is yet to be seen. Getting the Supreme court ruling and effecting it are two totally different things.
Tug wants us to applaud because the sun is shining on the machine.
Sorry I'll hold the applause until I see the machine making hay!
You've got it right again, Siggy. The UFCW won the right to "leaflet" by spending thousands and thousands of dollars going to the Supreme Court. What have they done with that win and what has it meant to the Power Source? $00.00
Now the Ontario farm workers may get a chance to pay dues to the UFCW. I think somebody rightly pointed out that Swiss Chalet workers have that right and it's done nada for them.
Retail food workers get the privelege of paying dues to the UFCW and they are sliding closer to minimum wage every contract. Has UFCW membership gotten them any great gains?
Can somebody tell me what makes anyone think that farm workers will be better off in a union? The minimum wage farmers will probably need a wage increase of over 4% just to pay the union.
The cost of produce goes up, but the workers are no better off. So I'm supposed to pay more at the store and nobody benefits but the union bank account. And that bank account is used to pay for fancy clothes, luxury SUVs, and paycheques ten times larger than the average member's.
Somnthing's wrong with this picture.
These UFCW idiots floor me. Once again they've flexed their legal muscle (work done by lawyers not by them) and proved what? that farm workers can join a union? So what.
As for wasting our money tug, it's not that the UFCW allocated a war chest to liberate oppressed workers as much as it's that this pathetic union can't do anything for them. Other unions are smart enough to realize this sector's employers don't make a lot of money and face real life problems making effective bargaining extremely difficult. First off they're extremely vulnerable to conditions ranging from market fluctuations to weather to extreme competition.
You candy ass's break wind at the first sign of trouble at the bargaining table with employers like Weston who have more money than God. What in the world makes you think you can do a damn thing for these people? You can't and you won't. What's worse is Weston's gonna use it a another smoke and mirrors tool to talk about how increasing price's have effected his bottom line and the wage reductions are gonna be passed down to members you already have and are doing bugger all for as it is.
This isn't a liberation of an oppressed workforce, this is an exploitation of a workforce you think is to uneducated to see your only using them for their dues money. They'll get bugger all in the way of improvments and you know it! and you actually think you deserve a pat on the back for it? What? this makes everything better now between the MFD and the UFCW? What? your really a good union now and learned the ways of true unionism? What? You really are the "voice of working America"? What?
For those of you who caught it, What? is Stone Cold's favorite thing right now. The way I figure it, the WWF isn't a whole lot different from their other "entertainment" counterparts the UFCW. All show but nothin's real, accept the acting.
quote:
Interstingly the CAW and other unions Don't seem interested in moving into the farm worker jurisdiction, at least they aren't wasting their members dues dollars frivolously organizing the people who work in this underpaid and mistreated segment of our economy.
Tug has reproved me for slamming the machine on a couple of occasions. Yet, here you find tug slamming other unions, highlighting his opinion of the CAW.
Is this your idea of solidarity/Democracy tug? One union for all, whether they like it or not?
quote:
Does the UFCW know when to give up,no, they keep fighting spending thousands of dues dollars on a risky charter challenge with no guarantee they will win.
When they lose at the Ontario supreme court do they realize it is time to quit. No.
When they lose at the Ontario court of appeal do they realize it is time to quit. No. They keep fighting all the way to the Supreme court of Canada.Wasting dues dollars all the way
Hmmmm! What would be the easiest, (we know it's not cheaper) machine route to a dues gold mine? Rally/educate the workers? or through the courts?
quote:
Now the Supreme court has ruled in UFCW's favour,
Is this a win for the machine or a win for workers rights?
Come-on tug if it's all so good, convince us. Instead you spit out some rhetoric and run back under the bridge. Show the Power Source what all these good rulings have done for them. Show us the advantage tug. Show the Power Source the money!
edit= thoughtcorrection (re: solidarity/democracy)
[ 12-22-2001: Message edited by: siggy ]
My hunch is that, if the farmworkers ever get a contract, it will look a lot like the Swiss Chalet agreement. A snoop through a few recent collective agreements signed by UFCW Local 206 shows that they contain substantially the same language as the restaurant agreement (which, if I recall, your series said was patterned after the agreement a company union signed for them in 1981). It sounds like the UFCW may using that crappy agreement as a model.
Mushroom farms and manure contracts? Are you saying that there might be a connection?
quote:
Mushroom farms and manure contracts
Sounds like a country song ..
Mushroom Farms. Manure Contracts
Unions taught me how to hurt real bad
and cry myself to sleep.
showed me how their lies can shatter dreams.
Another lesson that a nieve fool
can't trust the union boss.
But I signed the card and law say's I can't leave.
Ya it's, mushroom farms, manure contracts
and over paid B.A.'s
we never see cause they're always at the beach.
Oh it's, longer days for shorter pay
and pensions we'll never see.
but it's kind of life they say we all should lead.
Ok, I admit it, I was bored and had nothing better to do.
Who else knew Scott was gonna sing? Yee Ha! 
If country music is about hurtin' then Scott done wrote a damn fine country song. Now we're all hurtin'!
ah ya know, my life's just one big hit country song giddy up.
