Viewers of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and other prime time programming of late may have noticed an ad touting the work of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). No doubt it is purely coincidental that ad is popping up during an Ontario election campaign in which union bosses have been driven to distraction by the prospect of a change in government.
Viewers may have missed that IBEW ad, however, given the endless rotation of the Canadian Labour Congress' "Lean on Me" pitch to viewers. And those ads are just a warm-up to the main event in union advertising: the "Working Families" ads that have become a regular feature of Ontario elections.
Most companies would love to have an advertising budget like that enjoyed by Canada's unions. In 2011, the union-run Working Families coalition spent $2.1 million on ads -- and that figure does not include any of its pre-election advertising, which even included ad time during the Oscar telecast.
And it was not just Working Families that was advertising. Other unions in Ontario reportedly spent $6 million on advertising in the 2011 election, which was more than the NDP's total campaign budget.
Those are extraordinary amounts of money spent trying to influence election outcomes, which would not be an issue were it not for the profoundly unfair system unions enjoy for raising money.
Canada's unions have a legal right to collect contributions from all employees in unionized workplaces -- even if employees choose not to belong to the union. This power of taxation over Canadian workers brings in more than $4 billion every year.
Some union members even get dinged with an extra charge, like those at the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association who were told in March 2011 that another $60 would come off their cheques for a $3 million advertising fund to support the Liberal government.
There are two fundamental problems with the current situation. First, union members have no choice when it comes to funding the social and political causes of union bosses. Most of Canada's global peers have legislation in place that prohibits the use of compulsory dues for political purposes, yet in this country the billions unions are collecting annually have effectively become a slush fund for union bosses to support various political and social causes, as we see played out during the Ontario election. In Canada, either you pay dues to fund everything or you are fired.
Union bosses should be forced to raise funds like anyone else -- by appealing to their constituents to financially support a campaign. If they are truly representing the interests of their workers, then they will have ample funds available to advertise any time of day or night.
Second, most union members will never know how much money their bosses have spent trying to influence the political process since there are no requirements in Canada for unions to disclose the amount of money spent on social and political causes.
A bill to correct that is before the Senate and would require unions to report annually their financial statements and any contributions of $5000 or more to political or social causes, but it has faced an unprecedented lobbying campaign by union bosses who want to keep their slush fund spending secret.
As a result, unionized Canadian workers have the worst possible scenario: no say in how their bosses spend money on social and political causes, and no accountability or transparency around how that money is spent.
No one is advocating that union bosses be silenced. They can spend however much they want on election campaigns, TV ads or any other political or social cause, but such spending should be fully disclosed and funded by voluntary contributions. That is critical to maintaining the integrity of the democratic process and the accountability of union leaders.
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