CUPE - the Hotel California of organized labour
We’ve all heard the stories of people who join the Church of Scientology or some cult, and then when they discover they don’t want to be there, they find it is not an easy thing to walk away.
That thought crossed my mind recently when I heard that New Brunswick’s Licensed Practical Nurses aren’t allowed to walk away from CUPE even thought 85% of them voted to do just that.
Photo creedit: Global News
And LPNs aren’t the only ones. In fact, they aren’t even the only ones in health care delivery who can’t break away from CUPE no matter how much they may want to. The province’s paramedics want out just as much as the LPNs do. In fact, they voted 97% to leave, and for pretty much the same reason, and a good reason it is.
Both groups, understandably, see themselves as health care professionals and would like to be represented by a union that doesn’t classify them in with housekeepers and cleaning staff and the like. Those are solid necessary positions as well so this is no slight on them, but there is an obvious difference, in training, in the nature of the work, and the level of responsibility that goes with that work.
I get it that CUPE doesn’t want to lose the dues money from the thousands of LPNs and paramedics who work in this province. But what does it say that once you join they will go to the Labour and Employment Board to try to ensure you can never leave.
It’s like CUPE is the labour union equivalent of Hotel California.
What does it say about CUPE that it summarily dismisses the wishes of its members? Isn’t working in the member’s best interests kind of the bedrock on which unions were built? The fact that CUPE doesn’t care what its LPN or paramedic members want, must create an awful challenge when it comes to bringing in new members? I bet there is no mention of this in their recruitment brochures.
Groucho Marx once said “I would never join a club that would have him as a member.” If he were still around and was a paramedic, he probably wouldn’t be very good one. But that aside, he’d probably say he would never join a union that would never let him go.
It’s unfortunate that the New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board has decided that for both LPNs and paramedics, it knows better than the actual employees do, what is best for them, and has therefore sided with CUPE that they should not be allowed to search out what the employees consider more appropriate representation.
Both groups are health care professionals. Being represented by a union that recognizes that isn’t an unreasonable ask. LPNs have now called on the government to change the legislation or do whatever is necessary to allow them to switch. Paramedics likewise have not given up the fight.
Make no mistake, I am pro-union. I see the difference strong unions make, and how the demise of unions, especially in the United States over the last few decades has led to the erosion of the middle class and unprecedented inequality between the rich and the poor. And I am quite familiar with the research that shows that areas with the strongest union presence, are areas with the highest standard of living, and not just for the unionized employees, but for everyone in the area. So yes, I value unions.
Photo credit: huffpost.com
But in this case, it is hard to see the benefits CUPE is providing these particular members, and obviously, they aren’t seeing it either. Unions are like a marriage. Great as a concept, but it can only work if both sides are into it. It’s kind of pathetic when one side goes out of its way to stop the other from trying to better itself.
Welcome to the Hotel California. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
