MP Russ Hiebert’s private member’s bill to amend the Income Tax Act to enhance labour union financial disclosure has unleashed an outcry from union heads and accolades from free enterprise supporters.
British Columbia Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair told Business in Vancouver October 4 that he believes Hiebert’s bill is designed to arm employers with confidential union information that merits being kept confidential.
“The boss can’t get a hold of our information,” Sinclair said. “They can’t come to us before a strike and find out how much we have in our strike fund. There are things they shouldn’t know.”
Sinclair added union members are currently able to find out union financial information either by specifically requesting it or, in some cases, when unions report financial data in newsletters.
Free enterprise groups such as the Fraser Institute and the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C. (ICBABC), in contrast, are excited about the pending changes.
“Most unionized members are in the dark when it comes to how union executives spend the millions of dollars in dues that they collect each year,” said Fraser Institute senior economist Niels Veldhuis.
He pointed to a 2006 Fraser Institute study, Union Disclosure in Canada and the United States, which found that neither the federal government nor any province requires unions to publicly disclose financial information.
“Workers in the unionized workplaces of Canada have no say when it comes to paying their dues,” said IABABC president Phillip Hochstein. “If they want a job, they hand over the money. If their workplace is being organized, they have a right to know just where their money would be spent.”
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom