My letter to the union on behalf of my client on mandatory vaccination policy

Commentary

The following is a letter I wrote to the Chair of the Canadian Labor Council on November 24, 2021 as a lawyer on behalf of my client, a member of the union.

I will write to you on behalf of my clients, who are members of many unions under the Canadian Labor Council, to request that a new course on vaccine duty policy be set up.

Great opportunity

The union is missing a great opportunity. Worker abuse in the COVID era has provided the trade union movement with decades of the best opportunity to increase membership and demonstrate its value by fighting for oppressed workers. ..

I would appreciate hearing the many tragic stories that the union members, whose lives are being destroyed by their vaccination obligations, bring to me every day.

A woman who had myocarditis after the first dose of the vaccine but refused to be exempt from the second dose. Women with autoimmune disease and thyroid cancer — refused exemption. Female with severe neuropathy — refused exemption. Very dangerous pregnant female — refused exemption. All of them will be dismissed for “just cause”.

There are thousands of stories. Many people are unwise to receive injections of experimental drugs, especially given the extraordinary casualties around these vaccines, simply dictated by their own good sense. All these people will be dismissed for “just cause”.

Union response

Unfortunately, many union leaders have seized the opportunity to thin out their ranks and increase the oppression of union members who refuse vaccination. How did this become a union policy, and what are its limits?

Collective agreements are fences between employers and workers. The union keeps the boundaries and protects the gates. This time, some unions have opened the door to allow employers to break the fence and plunder workers.

Your oppressed workers are asking their union for help. However, some unions have abandoned them, removed them from fellowship, and often fell into bankruptcy and poverty, marking their lives as social cast-offs, disobedience, unvaccination, and unemployment.

You need to call these union leaders to explain who is supporting the brutal treatment of union members. These leaders vowed to act on behalf of the workers, but put on their jackets and acted on behalf of the employer. They work against their interests.

Attack on the union

And now it’s clear. Employers and governments are actually attacking the union itself. Hiding in a health emergency, they rolled a Trojan horse into the fence and wiped out the union’s authority.

They are attacking your collective bargaining agreement. You allowed them within the bargaining unit. They are in and you are out. They are deciding on a bargain. They dominate the union.

The British Columbia Government has issued the Order in Council. This can be expected to be followed by other governments. “If an employee is dismissed under the COVID-19 Vaccination Policy, the employee is considered to have been dismissed for good reason.”

This is a direct attack on the union movement from the highest levels, even from the union-friendly British Columbia government. They have nullified the power of your collective bargaining agreement. The interests of your political and trade union branch in British Columbia cannot be reconciled.

With just one stroke of a pen, collective bargaining agreements are wasted and powerless. Wouldn’t this retreat the union movement for 100 years? This is an unprecedented attack on the very existence of the union and the integrity of the negotiation process.

This is about the survival of the union movement. Indeed, do you remember the horrifying example of a dictatorship crushing trade unions in the past? Do you think it never happened again? It’s happening now.

Counterattack

You have to fight back. What have your pioneers fought during these past centuries if you sit vaguely while the attackers are destroying your movements? Your pioneers would have completely despised that these policies are now crushing unions at their feet.

I do not agree that the union has no means to oppose this attack. Absolutely wrong. You have a tool. You have all the tools. You lack certainty and unity.

A brief review of the history of the union movement will provide you with many ideas on how to end this oppression. Remember that your opponent has broken the agreement that was binding you.

The only way unions respond to attacks is to keep the promises promised in collective bargaining agreements to employers by all reasonable means available.

Conflict

A split union movement against itself is intolerable. Conflicts of interest always seem inevitable between your political ambitions and your obligations to your members. This time, the emergence of that conflict is at the forefront and center.

Apparently, the vaccine obligation policy is in favor of your political sector. But your labor sector is quickly torn apart by these same policies. You obviously didn’t mean to do that. Your dual goals are at odds with each other.

The move to abandon its foundation in pursuit of higher awards destroys itself. It would be much wise to reject higher awards of political power and maintain your foundation: your labor sector from which all your power comes from.

New direction

No one suggests that COVID-19 is not a serious enemy. But it must be met in a way that leaves behind the great principles of our society as a whole, including the right to organize workers.

Trade union honors of these times protect all members and ensure that no member is lost from the union role, from the most dreadful COVID-19 to the most hesitant member of the vaccine, regardless of the vaccine’s perspective. Is to do.

In any case, it is unwise to promote the safety and efficacy of these vaccines when clinical trials have not been completed and all side effects are not yet known. I don’t even know what’s in these vaccines. This is a splitting issue that is best left unionized.

There is no reward for those who deny the goodwill, religion, thought, beliefs, opinions, freedom of expression, and the right to life, freedom, security, equality, and movement (including informed outlets and medical rights) in the members’ charter. .. privacy.

I urge you to no longer lend your weight and influence to your movement and the vaccine obligation policy that is destroying your members. Instead, lend a strong and united voice to the restoration of justice, justice, and integrity in the labor-management process.

The obligations of these vaccines will eventually collapse before the law if our legal system survives. When it all falls, your move will want to be to the right of this.

The Canadian Supreme Court points out that:[T]The centrality of rights related to the freedom of thought of an individual is related to both the basic beliefs about human values ​​and dignity and the free and democratic political system … “In the Canadian Rights and Freedom Charter” It underlies the designation as “basic”.

All of these principles have been shattered to the ground in these times. In order for us to remain a free and democratic society, even in times of crisis, the freedom of individual conscience, as well as human values ​​and dignity, must be respected. This is mandatory.

I call on the union to set up a new course. Stand with the members against these excessive lawless policies, against the firing and orders that defile the members’ conscience and crush human values ​​and dignity.

Contrary to the core historical values ​​of the union movement, it is advisable to look away from this heresy. I think your opportunity to act is short, but it’s not too late.

I am convinced that if the union movement turns around on time, all infringements of workers across the country will be overturned in hours instead of days. This is your moment — if you pick it up.

Thank you for considering these issues.

Very truly yours,

Herb Danton
Barrister and lawyer

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.