Ontario’s workers and their families will be facing one of the biggest attacks on their rights if right-to-work-for-less legislation becomes a reality in this province.
“My livelihood will be in jeopardy,” said Glacier Samuel, a bookkeeper at Oakville’s Real Canadian Superstore. The mother of three said right-to-work-for-less will empower the rich at the expense of poor, stripping workers of hard-fought rights and protections in the workplace. “Companies will be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want to us,” Samuel said. “Our wages could be cut, our benefits eliminated and people will have to struggle more than ever to make ends meet.”
At its essence, right-to-work-for-less is the gutting of labour laws and the decimation of resources unions use to protect and defend members.
Big business and their political allies are counting on labour resources crumbling to the point where unions will no longer exist. “Everyone needs to contribute their fair share so the union will be able to protect and defend us,” said Maria Cabral, a steward at Maple Leaf Poultry.
Right wing extremists, supported by big business have led the recent fight to spread the right-to-work-for-less agenda beyond the south to states which have traditionally been worker-friendly. “Right-to-work-for-less will divide workplaces, pitting worker against worker,” said Cabral. “People have to ask themselves if they want to work in a divided toxic environment.”
Kyle McGreal, a steward at National Grocers Maple Grove Warehouse, said right to work legislation will gut his ability to provide for his family.
"Right to work-for-less will weaken the union's ability to to bargain improvements to our current collective agreements which will effectively lower our current standard of living in the future," he said.
Leading the charge for right-to-work is Ontario PC Party leader Tim Hudak. This summer, he released his ‘white paper’ on ‘flexible labour markets,’ bringing the right-to-work-for-less debate to the doorsteps of the province’s workers. It is clear, if Hudak succeeds in being elected, he will turn Ontario into a right-to-beg one.
“It is going to be the worst fight of your life to keep right-to-work out of your province,” said Sue Mann, Recorder at UFCW Local 455.
Mann is from Texas, which has been a right-to-work-for-less state since 1947. “Workers cannot afford right-to-work — it will be the worst thing that can happen to members and their union,” Mann said, adding that if right-to-work passes, workers will find themselves in an environment where they are constantly beaten down.
In the U.S., right-to-work-for-less exists in 23 states. According to a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives article, right-to-work-for-less jurisdictions have “higher rates of poverty and child mortality; lower per-capita income, life expectancy and standard of living; and lower levels of worker productivity.”
“Unions make life better for families and communities and bring up the standard of living for everyone,” said Diane Wilmot, a steward at Stephen’s No Frills in Toronto. “People need to understand right-to-work-for-less will be a big step backwards for this province.”
President Pearl Sawyer said Hudak’s policies will hurt workers and the economy. “In Hudak’s ideal province, the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer and the middle-class — well, forget about the middle-class: they will cease to exist,” she said. “As workers, we cannot let that happen — the very survival of working people and the middle class is at stake.”
As for Cabral, she is ready to start getting the message out to her fellow workers at Maple Leaf Poultry and encouraging them to get more politically involved. “We are facing a war against people who want to destroy workers and the middle class,” she said. “If we let them win, we will get poorer and poorer and what kind of future will that be for our children and grandchildren? We have to start the fight and we have to start it now.”
