Union transparency needed

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Union transparency needed

Postby Thomas » Tue Mar 17, 2015 3:28 am

Could Bill C-377, the union transparency act, have prevented the shocking corruption probe involving Ontario Provincial Police union staffers? MP Jeff Watson thinks so.

The controversial C-377 – deeply hated by organized labour, which accuses the federal government of “attacking” unions with the bill – remains stuck in committee in the Senate, after nearly being passed last year.

If it passes into law before the election this fall the bill would force unions to open their books to their own members in return for enjoying tax-free status.

Wages, expenses, donations, paid political action – all of it would be public, just as union finances are in the rest of the civilized world, including the U.S. and Europe.

The hope is, then union officials would not be able to use members’ dues to fly to the Caribbean for vacation, speculating on condos in the Bahamas, or charging time off as working hours, as the OPP union officials are accused of doing by the RCMP. No charges have been laid yet.

Had Bill C-377 already been in place, says Watson, Conservative MP for Essex, the three top members of the Ontario Provincial Police Association might not have been able to conduct questionable financial manoeuvres without raising suspicion among their own members.

The three union executives are suspected of fraud, theft and money-laundering in connection with their handling of the police union’s budget.

One of the men, a former provincial Liberal candidate, was fired from his job as chief administrative officer by the union. But since all three happen to be cops in Ontario they are entitled to continue drawing a salary for years as the investigation into their conduct unfolds. OPP investigations tend to take a while.

Meanwhile, taxpayers will also continue to pay their benefits and pay into their pensions, too. Ontario is the only jurisdiction in the world the opposition knows of which keeps paying even convicted police officers this way. No wonder the police union is so tight with the Liberals.


The first thing I thought of when I heard of the OPP suspensions was, is this the same police force conducting four corruption investigations into Ontario’s Liberal government? And since it is, how can we trust those investigations as being impartial?

Some in the Toronto media are finally asking if Premier Kathleen Wynne and the OPP are “too close for comfort” – which is a little late, given the political support the force and its union provided to the premier during the last election.

How convenient for the premier that the police force investigating her and her cabinet not only supported her politically, but have nominees running for her party. No wonder the social media is alive with calls for the RCMP to take over all OPP investigations of the current government.

The Wynne government, for those who like to read the box scores, is being investigated by the OPP for: alleged bribery in the Sudbury byelection; a $700-million mess at the Ornge air ambulance service; and the alleged destruction of emails related to two cancelled gas power plants worth than $1.1 billion.

But back to Bill C-377. Watson says the OPP fraud probe “is more evidence that rank and file union members and the public have no idea what union leadership is up to” with their money. “People have legitimate questions about how they manage all their money.”

Bill C-377, a private member’s bill from Vancouver-area MP Russ Hiebert once given little chance of passing, would require that unions report every transaction over $5,000. Pretty simple, and pretty basic “transparency,” a word oft-used by the left these days.

“The members need it and they’re not going to get it from union leadership,” says Watson, a former Chrysler line worker in Windsor and former member of CAW Local 444, now Unifor.

There is no love lost between the two because Watson is not shy about stating the obvious, where his former brothers and sisters can’t for fear of retribution.

The kind of union transparency proposed under C-377 would probably have raised red flags for members for the OPPA long before any RCMP investigation became necessary, Watson believes.

The bill would also lay bare much of the political spending carried out by unions with little or no knowledge of their membership – such as the coast-to-coast protests this weekend over another proposed Conservative government law, the anti-terrorism Bill C-51. The bill is popular with voters, hated by labour.

Watson fumed all weekend as he watched the news coverage of the C-51 protests, each of which featured the flags of Unifor and other major unions. “They’re flying people in from all over the country for those protests – and who’s paying for it?”

“They’re spending money on everything from beachfront property to political protests. The Senate needs to get onto passing 377 – we’ve got to shed the light on this sort of stuff.” He’s right.

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/opinion/va ... ncy-needed
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Unions should show us their books

Postby Thomas » Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:25 pm

In most developed countries, unions must disclose their financial dealings to prevent corruption. Canada is an exception.

Move along. Nothing to see here.”

That was the refrain trumpeted by an endless parade of union leaders appearing before House of Commons and Senate committees reviewing Bill C-377, which would bring basic standards of financial transparency to Canada’s unions. Much of the developed world already has such legislation, the Canadian version of which would require public posting of things like annual financial statements and expenditures over $5,000 that are not related to collective bargaining.

Union leaders objected, essentially asking Parliamentarians to trust them, despite the fact that similar legislation in other countries has identified widespread financial mismanagement. In Australia, for example, it got so bad that the government called a public inquiry, the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption. Union financial disclosure laws in the U.S. led to over 900 criminal convictions for inappropriate and fraudulent activity between 2001 and 2008, according to the Office of Labor Management Standards.

Nothing like that could happen here, union leaders told Parliament. Not even the tales of close ties and questionable financial deals between some of Quebec’s unions and organized crime groups coming out of the Charbonneau Commission were enough to prompt an admission that perhaps some degree of public oversight of union finances is merited.

However, what would those same union leaders say today following revelations that three top executives of the union representing Ontario Provincial Police officers are under investigation for theft, breach of trust, fraud and laundering the proceeds of crime? This is not just any union, nor are these executives just any union members. This is the union representing police officers and the individuals under investigation are themselves senior officers.

The allegations involve payments to mystery consulting companies, a condo purchase in the Bahamas and $100,000 wired to the Cayman Islands. Does anyone think this type of thing would have taken place if these expenditures had to be disclosed publicly, as would be required under Bill C-377?

Full credit goes to the whistleblowers within the union that alerted the authorities to these dealings. However, union members and the general public should not have to rely on whistleblowers to get this information.

Unions have a de facto taxing power over their members which brings in billions annually

Cases like this are the result of a broken system. Union leaders currently have a de facto taxing power over their members which brings in billions of dollars annually, but comes with no requirements to publicly disclose how that money is spent. There is no incentive for sound financial management when your transactions can be conducted in complete secrecy.

Is the fact that police officers allegedly abused this system enough to make union leaders now admit change is needed?

Bill C-377 remains before the Senate, after being passed by the House of Commons in December 2012. When it is next reviewed by committee, Senators must ask tough questions of the union leaders who in the past have claimed there is no need for financial transparency. If the public trust invested in union leaders was shaken by the revelations from the Charbonneau Commission, it is completely shattered by those coming out of the Ontario Provincial Police Association.

It is time for Canada to join the rest of the developed world and fix a broken system that allows this to happen, and after these latest revelations, union leaders should be embracing that change.

http://business.financialpost.com/2015/ ... eir-books/
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