Union pays $10 million to bust new union

Oh, the irony.

Construction union pays $10 million to buy off employees

In a twist to the explosive political infighting that occasionally flares up in the labour movement, the Toronto-based Labourers’ International Union of North America Local 183 is buying out about 80 employees with lucrative financial packages after they joined another union.

Several insiders say the move will effectively snuff out the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2, which represents Local 183 staff, because replacement members won’t have any allegiances and will eventually decertify it.

“It’s disgusting what Local 183 has done to get rid of them and the union,†one insider said Tuesday. “It’s a good example for non-union companies. If you don’t want a union, just buy off the employees.â€

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“We don’t want SEIU Local 2 in it (the Labourers’ union) in any way, shape or form,†O’Sullivan said in a statement, describing it as “a cheese-eating rat.â€

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“I was really disappointed to see that our employer (Local 183) was more anti-union that the employers we’ve dealt with over the last 15, 20 years,†D’Abbondanza said in an SEIU leaflet.

“How can you trust a union that fires its own staff for getting organized,†added Maria Da Silva, another veteran worker who lost her job.

Read that article. Unions have become the thugs of the civilized world.

When these bodies have enough money/revenue flow to buy out their competition, I think governments need to have a closer look at what's going one.
When union membership is MANDATORY (for most unionized positions these days), there is an issue.

I am not a union member, but belong to a professional organization that kind of functions as one, and has the same mandatory membership requirement. It's actually not mandatory to be a member, but it's mandatory to pay the dues.

I refused to become a member for a while, because at the time they tried to screw us new people over. There were ongoing certification requirements that they tried to impose on us, but they tried to grandfather all existing members. Our argument was if you're going to have new ongoing certification requirements (eg. every 5 years or whatever), then everyone should have them. Eventually they gave up trying to implement that, I suspect they realized that if they tried to do that they'd have a big legal fight on their hands, and their existing members were dead set on having those requirements imposed upon them.

However, it was just such a PITA not being a member, I finally just gave in and became a member.