The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Ontario division, have just published its Action Plan 2025 following its annual convention. The document reads like a Marxist manifesto from the 1800s, full of misinformation and theories of government, taxation and labour markets that have been long debunked as dysfunctional and destructive of an economy and society. Even the title of the document – “Rise, Resist, Reclaim: Forging Our Path Forward” – is highly political. What is interesting is that the vast majority of this document deals with political issues, many of which are global in nature, and not what one would usually believe to be a union’s goal of improving compensation and working conditions for the union’s members.
Some of the absurdities put forward in this document include the assertion that the Ontario government have been under a regime of “austerity” over the last number of years. What a crock. Anyone who can read a budget knows that spending by the Ontario government has only gone up, with our deficits and debit increasing in tandem. In key spending areas such as healthcare and education – highly unionized sectors and of major self-interest to CUPE – Ontario spends some of the highest per capita amounts in the world with abysmal results compared to other countries considering all the money spent.
It is ironic that later in the document CUPE claims “The real engine for widespread, quality employment lies hidden in plain sight: our public sector employs one in four workers.” A decade ago, the public sector employed about one in five workers, so the growth in the public sector has been significant in recent years. “Austerity”? Surely you jest. Claiming that the engine for quality employment is the public sector is also laughable at best. Government never pays for itself but relies completely on the success of the productive private sector to pay the taxes that enable government to exist. It’s hard to believe anyone sane could have written this document with a straight face.
The document goes on to cite the usual leftist tropes – that we need to tax the rich into oblivion, impose new wealth taxes and undertake a comprehensive tax reform so that corporations and wealthy individuals can pay even more taxes than they already do. There is clearly no recognition of the statistics that show Canada’s economy has suffered greatly in recent years because high tax levels have driven away the high-income entrepreneurs, professionals, doctors and others that are key to having a healthy economy and tax revenues for governments. Canada also has a major productivity problem that has diminished our standard of living, and larger government relying on a smaller private sector is a sure way to guarantee productivity will continue to decline and punish Canadians.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a public sector union document if it did not disparage Israel and express support for the terrorists in Gaza. There is much discussion of the so-called “genocide” in Gaza and how antisemitism has been “weaponized.” Absurdly, the document suggests that there has been a “very real surge in antisemitic rhetoric and violence from the far-right.” Anyone in Canada paying attention these days knows that any surge in antisemitism has very conclusively been instigated by the left.
Reading this extreme manifesto, you would think that Canadian unions are hard done by, instead of having one of the sweetest deals among all developed countries. In Canada, union dues payment is mandatory in any workplace that has been unionized. In many democratic countries, union dues payment is voluntary and up to the worker to decide. Despite this forced dues payment, unions still don’t have to disclose their financial statements, and how much they are devoting to extreme political causes instead of defending members’ interests in the workplace. Despite unions’ claims of being democratic, union members who have tried to obtain financial statements are regularly obstructed from finding out that information. There are currently a number of lawsuits by Jewish public sector union members challenging the fact they are forced to pay dues for antisemitic unions who work against their interests. We can only hope they succeed and some sane laws around unions can be developed in Canada as a result.
It’s also no accident that it is public sector unions that are the most militant. These extreme documents like that published by CUPE Ontario should concern all Canadians as these unions are totally funded by we the taxpayer. As governments have no competition in the services they provide, public sector unions can basically hold private sector taxpayers for ransom as they demand more and more. Currently, public sector wages and benefits are much richer than those of comparable jobs in the private sector, to the tune of a 30 to 40 per cent advantage for government workers.
Private sector unions have to compete in the marketplace. As a result, the proportion of Canadian private sector unionized workers has declined from over 30 per cent back in the 1970s to about 14 per cent today. In contrast, over 80 per cent of government workers are unionized. Over 60 per cent of all unionized workers in Canada are found in government. As the inability to compete in the modern economy continues to erode union membership in the private sector, soon the only unionized workers in Canada will be in government, where they will continue to extort the majority of Canadians unless some sensible changes are made.
It’s clear these public sector unions don’t have a grasp of Economics 100. Nor much knowledge of history, where these types of socialist fever dreams always end up in abject failure, having to be forced on the broad populace, usually with deadly violence. Sensible people don’t buy into this type of repressive government with the main result being sharing the poverty equally. Governments at all levels and of all political stripes have shown themselves to be cowardly in the face of unreasonable public sector union demands. Until Canadians stand up against these ridiculous expectations by public sector unions and require proper financial disclosure so their members can see what their forced dues are actually being spent on, we will continue to endure overpaid, inefficient government employees and inferior yet expensive public services.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
