BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is a rebuttal to 'LETTER: Unions help workers restore financial imbalance,' published Oct. 4.
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Kelly, you are indeed correct that it would be wonderful to simply work an eight-hour day, then go to your home, have a great dinner, enjoy your favourite pastime and go to bed. I agree, that would be wonderful.
Unions definitely have worked to boost wages and benefits for workers. On that I, too, agree. I have never indicated that people should be paid more or less during their term of employ. But the reality is, for whatever reason, we live in a totally different world than your rose-coloured glasses show. You are thinking that we all have an entitlement to something that is not available.
Perhaps you should consider what these workers would earn in the private sector. What benefits would be available? How about job security? Many workers today simply have no parachutes to rely on. I am not sure what sector of the society you are employed in, but just because you work with a union doesn’t mean you have total entitlement. CUPE is a public-sector union, therefore it affects all of us. I am simply saying from folks that I meet daily, there is no more.
Most retail workers would be glad to work for that salary alone, let alone the benefits and finally job security. At the end of their stint, should they make it to retirement, they are simply “left on a string” unless they put a healthy percentage of net income towards retirement, and we all know how difficult that is.
Yes, perhaps the large companies and groups of wealthy folks should contribute more, but as it its right now, they don’t have to due to loopholes in taxation. In addition, for many workers in Canada, their income is provided directly or indirectly by these organizations. Increase taxes, we have already seen massive upheaval in jobs, so do we want them to leave, legislate them to pay more? Do you really think they would stay?
I would like to make more, but this is where I am. I truly don’t expect anyone to contribute for my well-being. I am not a wealthy man, but I have always been able to make it, by hard work and planning.
According to the Fraser Institute in 2021, our first tax-free day, the date after which we have covered our annual taxes (excluding sales taxes) was May 24. Would you like to push that into June? Not saying I like it, but there is a reality here that seems to be impossible to change. Perhaps you have a solution.
Gord Crawford
Gilford
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