Editor: Re: Labour Day messages, Aug. 29 We all need money to survive and have some to spare in the future, so it is baffling whenever intransigent union leaders utter the word "profit" with disdain.
Do they believe it is immoral to practice fiscal austerity? Labour cannot exist without business and businesses cannot function if they do not earn a profit.
There is no such thing as good debt and the commissars of organized labour are content to drown in it. I would challenge them to define a "fair" profit. After all, they want the value of the stocks in their pension funds to soar.
If unions care so much about controlling the cost of living, then why do our municipal property taxes and utility rates increase every year? Public service unions like the BCGEU and CUPE, with their incestuous relationship to the NDP, have done nothing to save the public money and live in a false economy where the government is the sine qua non.
They should respect the millions of working hands in Canada's staple industries - like oil, which they hate passionately - that buttress their professions.
People should take the time to educate themselves about their working rights under the law. When they become sufficiently informed and utilize their rights properly, labour unions would be virtually unnecessary.
Back in March, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted against joining the moribund United Auto Workers. Like them, I prefer to keep every cent of my paycheque rather than indirectly subsidizing my political enemies.
Labour Day is an occasion to appreciate the honest working citizen, not redundant entities that live on nostalgia.
Steven Austin
