Public sector union boss Carol Furlong is emotional - shocked and dismayed - at the Liberal and New Democrat opposition for voicing an opinion on public sector collective bargaining.
Labour uber-boss Reg Anstey - head of Federation of Labour - is equally in a snit over the same issue.
The "crime" both the Liberals and New Democrats supposedly committed was to introduce and support a private member's resolution last Wednesday that called for an end to pattern bargaining in the public sector. That's the practice whereby the first contract negotiated sets the pattern, especially on wages, for everyone else.
Now a couple of things need to be borne in mind here:
First, private member's resolutions have no weight so Furlong's little release looks a bit foolish right on the face of it. Interference in the collective bargaining process? What silliness. A private member's resolution couldn't interfere even if it was approved unanimously every day in the legislature that sat every day for a year.
Second, even if such resolutions weren't largely symbolic anyway, the government party amended the resolution to take all the meaning of the words out anyway.
Usually when someone, either alone or representing some group, decides to get into such a lather, there's something else involved behind the stated reasons. And when the lede on the news release is about "shock and dismay" then you know something else is up. People only use those tired cliches because they have nothing else.
Pattern bargaining means that Carol Furlong can deliver a hefty raise to her members this year without lifting a finger or doing a serious tap of collective bargaining on behalf of her members.
The heavy lifting for clerks in the Confed Building, for example, will be done this year by Debbie Forward and her crew.
The pattern this year is being set by the nurses.
Nurses are in high demand.
Wages for nurses are relatively low and there's plenty of pressure on government to give nurses an increase much higher than they might otherwise.
The nurses will set the bar.
And Carol Furlong's members will repeat the benefits.
Oh yes, and when she runs for re-election, Carol will tell her members that under her leadership, her members gained such and such a wage increase.
Nurses, teachers and doctors haven't been big fans of pattern bargaining for some time. That's because they see a huge gap getting even wider between salaries their members earn in this province and what they can get elsewhere. Pattern bargaining does that by lumping every single public sector worker into the same pot. The cost implications get pretty significant if one portion of the labour force needs a 10% jump to stay competitive but that 10% has to apply to everyone in the workforce.
Now the problem for Furlong and Anstey is that it isn't really popular to talk about the facts of the matter. If they did, public opinion might take the side of the doctors and nurses and teachers over the views of their members. It doesn't matter that Furlong's members do work that is just as important, mind you. The point is that if the talk was about the real issue then Carol and her fellow NAPE leaders might actually have to do her job: defend her members based on a cogent, rational, persuasive argument.
It's way easier for Carol to make the news by talking about her emotional condition than to talk about the substantive issues. Sadly, in this province, that sort of drivel release gets coverage just like it does when cabinet minister tell us they are "shocked and appalled" at some other thing. Someone should just give them some Tylenol and a cold compress and tell them to lie down until the high dudgeon passes.
In the meanwhile, maybe Carol Furlong and Reg Anstey should be challenged to to explain to taxpayers why pattern bargaining is a good thing.
We don't care that they get the vapours.
People should hear the real reasons about why pattern bargaining is good. They deserve to know why Carol and Reg think it is entirely right and proper for people who - as Reg and Carol acknowledge - aren't even involved in collective bargaining to be gagged, to be prevented from speaking about an issue in the legislature.
That motion angered the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE). In a release on Friday, federation of labour president Reg Anstey said the motion showed a "complete lack of understanding and respect for the bargaining process by both the Liberals and the NDP."
You see, it's really significant for the whole province when union leaders try to muzzle the elected representatives of the people speaking about a public issue.
In an open discussion people will see for themselves whether or not the parties understand and respect collective bargaining. That is, if that's what Anstey's really worried about.
We might find out, in an open discussion, that they are a bit more concerned about two union leaders and their apparent disregard for free speech.
-srbp-