(QUEEN'S PARK) Randy Hillier today tabled his labour private member’s bill, the Defending Employee’s Rights Act.
“Unions are created for one reason: to defend the rights of their workers. Unions are supposed to fight for better working conditions,” stated Hillier. “But today, workers in the province of Ontario have no idea how their money is being spent. They have money deducted from their paycheque every month, but have no way of knowing where that money goes.”
The bill calls for unions to provide a mandatory financial disclosure procedure through the Ministry of Labour, much like the disclosure procedures which already exist for unions in numerous other jurisdictions.
“The only place you can find out about the finances of trade unions in Ontario is through the Department of Labour in the US,” noted Hillier. “This government has kept us in the proverbial dark ages of labour relations, because they have a vested interest in keeping union finances hidden.”
The bill also mandates that unions receive a waiver from employees before using their dues for political or social advocacy not directly related to collective bargaining.
“Several years ago, a union here in Ontario supported the Israel Apartheid movement, something that this legislature and our federal parliament have denounced unanimously,” stated Hillier. “The Rand Formula allows unions to take dues from their employees’ paycheques, but Justice Rand never intended these dues to be used for social and political causes outside of employees’ control, and quite possibly contrary to their personal beliefs.”
“My bill will ensure that if trade unions are using their dues for something that doesn’t directly relate to their workers, the employees in question at the very least know about it, and consent to it.”
Randy Hillier, MPP Lanark Frontenac Lennox, is a co-founder of the Lanark Landowners Association, which was brought to life to address government imposition on the rights of private property owners, and to address the regressive regulatory impositions that government was bringing down upon farmers and business owners in rural Ontario.
In 2006, Randy resigned as President of the OLA in order to run as a candidate for the Progressive Conservatives. Randy was elected in the 2007 provincial election.
Randy a long-time resident of Lanark County, an electrician by trade and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), continues to co-publish and edit rural Ontario’s successful magazine “The Landowner.”
