Strike, Strike, Strike

Saskatchewan has become accustomed to hearing about strike this year.  With the strikes centered in the province of Saskatchewan, there are more to come.  It just so happens that they are conveniently striking when a provincial election is set for this fall.  I guess you can look at this as they want to really disrupt the current government that they might see the fall of it so that the NDP will get back into power.  As you may or may not know, the NDP are rooted in unions and the unions would like to see the NDP back in power.

Now the strikes happening or that will happen are in the public sector or within crown corporations.  Being that Saskatchewan is a socialist province, a lot of people depend on the programs and if they are on strike, it will screw everything up and cause more headaches and an unnecessary backlog of work.  But that probably doesn't even factor into it.  They don't care about that.  If they have to work some overtime to get caught up, that's more money for them.  They are striking because they want a better rate of pay, don't like the working conditions, or some other item.  Mostly it's about the money.  Non-unionized workers have the option to either suck it up or find another job.  It's that simple.  But to bad these public sector and crown corporation employees are too good to look for another job if they don't like their current rate of pay.  Let's just strike to waste time and money because we are greedy.  To the people that feel they need to strike, I say boo hoo because people in the private sector or the non-unionized workers can't just walk off the job.  It was to walk off the job, I would be told to "have a nice day" and told to look for other work.  Have it too good in a sense.

The only time they don't have it good is when they strike goes to the length that they start getting strike pay.  Strike pay can't afford you to pay bills.  That's one reason why resolving disputes is in the best interest of everybody, especially those supporting a family.  Also, strikes cost money and can hurt the economy if it's already fragile and unstable.  Maybe hurting the economy is what some union leaders want because they want to make the particular current government look bad.

Most of the strikes, as I said, are based upon money.  That's what the teacher's strike is about.  They want to be paid the same as other teachers in Western Canada.  If what EducationCanada.com says is up-to-date, than a person with a six years of education, than you can make at the most is $66,103 and four years of education is $59,500.  I might not see $50,000 a year.  People who make $50,000 to $60,000 are so hard done by.  They want an extra ten to twenty thousand dollars a year.  Suck it up buttercup, you could be making $20,000 or less a year like a lot of people.  We wouldn't want to have them face reality and make a wage like a lot of people make.  If you don't like the money you're making or that it's not good enough than go find another job.

There are two evils to unions that I see.  Now this is a non-unionized workers view bare in mind.  Some people union members don't to have to pay into unions because they are seemingly paying into something they don't want to be a part, but seemingly have no choice.  Than the other side of it is is that they are basically paying into something that allows them to basically hold their employer hostage because they are selfish in a round about way.  If a union has 500 member and only 100 show up to meetings and strike votes, than why force people to pay into something they don't care about?  Unions would be better served by having people who want to be in unions pay into them.  But it seems like you have no choice but to pay into them.

Certain union leaders like Bob Bymoen like to pull these stupid tactics.  For instance, Bymeon took the snow plows off the highway in 2007 when they were needed.  Earlier this week because of Bymeon, the crop insurance sector walked off the job during a time of need.  Sure crop insurance strike was quickly ended as a deal was reached.  I'm sure Bymeon does this for his own amusement.

This summer in Saskatchewan, we are expected to have more strikes by more public sector and  crown corporations.   I'm just so sick of these strikes.  The sooner they are over the better.  If I hear about another strike, it will be too soon...