[gabe]

And the majority of Toyota and Honda's parts come from unionized part supplier plants across North America, there is a reason, it's because quality is so good, I used to work for company that made parts for Lexus and Toyota they are unionized. You can thank the unions for getting those Honda and Toyota contracts. Mean while all you " i will only buy north american cars" type people don't realize Chrysler and Ford are getting a lot of their garbage parts from non union minimum wage car suppliers like Linamar and suppliers in Mexico and China to save a few bucks.
It is possible to operate without a union like Toyota and Honda but with so many companies around like Linamar treating their employees like slaves and refusing to give their employees proper benefits and wages yet the family members that own the company pull in millions and even moved some factories over to china even though their profits were up! just goes to show you unions are still very much needed.

 

[afransen]

One could make a condition of bidding for a contract (garbage, transit line operation, etc.) that there is a labour deal in place for the duration of the contract. That is, the contract expires before the labour deal expires. This way, services ought never to be impacted by strikes. Unions would be prevented from extracting undue concessions from their employers because any excesses would result in their employer being out-bid by more efficient providers.

Nothing wrong with well-paid jobs. You just need to have high productivity to justify it.

 

[nfitz]

Well, one way would be to treat them fairly and pay them well.

Then why is Ford promising to allow sub-contractors to stop paying fair wages; doesn't that in itself put as at a risk of strikes?

 

[spider]

Then why is Ford promising to allow sub-contractors to stop paying fair wages; doesn't that in itself put as at a risk of strikes?

No, because their workers are not union members.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Even if you eliminated the Fair Wage Policy, you'd still want some sort of 'fair wage policy' in contracts sent out to tender, wouldn't you? It'd be bad for the city if companies started using inexperienced/underpaid labour in an effort to undercut their competitors.

 

[Eug]

Even if you eliminated the Fair Wage Policy, you'd still want some sort of 'fair wage policy' in contracts sent out to tender, wouldn't you? It'd be bad for the city if companies started using inexperienced/underpaid labour in an effort to undercut their competitors.

I wonder how much experience it takes to sleep at a TTC ticket counter.

 

[lafard]

No, because their workers are not union members.

they can unionize. And there's not a whole lot the company can do about that. (The gov't of Saskatchewan just blocked Wal Mart from closing unionized stores... we might well see a huge wave of unionization now that the precedent is set... )

 

[nfitz]

No, because their workers are not union members.

What then, is to stop them unionising, and striking?

 

[nfitz]

I wonder how much experience it takes to sleep at a TTC ticket counter.

I can't say I've ever noticed a ticket attendant asleep. I'm sure it happens once in a while at some remote station in the middle of the night, after all, if someone driving a car can fall asleep driving, anyone can ... but it's hardly a normal state of affairs.

 

[mangasparky]

I'm in a trade union and I've worked with general contracters that have said they will never accept a bid from a non-union company again. This is based on quality of work and professionalism. There is a reason the city and private enterprise are willing to pay more for the same work. If the city decides to start tendering contracts to non-union company's, it will be a disaster. The low-ball bidding for contracts will be outrageous, and under qualified workers will take jobs from the pro's.

To think that unions in the public sector are no longer needed also isn't well thought out. Eliminate these unions and the first time they government needs to make cut backs, it will cut salaries to thousands of people. If you don't think that is the case then you're dead wrong.

Quality of life as a whole will be lowered.

 

[nfitz]

Probably depends what it's for though. For a specialised trade, work quality might be different than for the dustman.

 

[mangasparky]

Probably depends what it's for though. For a specialised trade, work quality might be different than for the dustman.

Clever. This general meant across the board.

 

[Eug]

The issue here really isn't unions. The issue is untendered contracts. Many tendered contract wins by 3rd parties are in fact by unionized companies, and subject to the same performance standards. The difference is operation efficiency and approach. AFAIK, Etobicoke's garbage collection is unionized, but aren't the monolithic city-sponsored workers. This is a reasonable approach.

I don't think one needs to force companies to have a unionized workforce in order to win a city contract though. If that were the case then efficient and top quality non-unionized companies would be unfairly excluded. However, each company must ensure that proper standards are met for the industry, unionized or otherwise.

BTW, having a union doesn't ensure good quality work either. I've been in institutions where we've been hamstrung by unions, unable to fire truly incompetent people because they have seniority. And the problem with the truly incompetent is not just they're draining funds for no benefit. It's worse than that. They're sometimes so bad that they bring everyone else down with them too. In other words, they paid to do harm to the organization. It may be unintentional harm, but it's harm nonetheless.

 

[nfitz]

The issue here really isn't unions. The issue is untendered contracts.

Which untendered contracts are the issue? I didn't think they were that common in recent years - with the notable exception of the subway cars (which doesn't seem to have been a horrific deal, given how much cheaper we are getting our cars compared to Montreal).

 

[Eug]

Which untendered contracts are the issue? I didn't think they were that common in recent years - with the notable exception of the subway cars (which doesn't seem to have been a horrific deal, given how much cheaper we are getting our cars compared to Montreal).

I mentioned garbage collection in my post. I would like to see an open tender process for this.