Union Dues During a Strike
It has come to our attention that there is some confusion over how union dues work in the event of a strike.
We have an Essential Services Agreement (ESA) that dictates minimum staffing levels that must be maintained during a strike. Anyone who is scheduled to work under the ESA will be paid normally by the employer but will have an extra 30% union dues deducted. This extra 30% union dues will help compensate workers on the picket line and help spread the pain of a strike more evenly amongst our members. Paramedics who are scheduled to work by the union will pay this extra 30% union dues and take home the rest of their pay.
If someone shows up to work when they are not supposed to. That would be considered scabbing and the union would fine that worker 100% of their wages that day.
SHOWING UP AS A DESIGNATED ESSENTIAL SERVICE WORKER IS NOT CONSIDERED SCABBING AND WILL NOT RESULT IN LOSING 100% OF YOUR PAY.
In fact, because our union is in charge of scheduling during a strike, it will be impossible to scab. Even if someone wanted to scab, our union just wouldn't add them to the schedule. AHS completely forfeited their ability to hire scabs when they insisted that HSAA schedule during a strike. In other words, don't even worry about scabbing. It's impossible.
If that makes sense to you then you can stop reading here. If you want more information then keep reading.
We know that we all hate seeing money get deducted from our paycheques. So the instinctual reaction to hearing about paying 30% union dues is one of outrage. However consider these points:
- The way a strike usually works is union members receive 0% of their paycheque from the employer and they pay 0% union dues on that paycheque. Would you rather pay 30% of a full paycheque or 0% of no paycheque? We are actually very lucky that some of our members will be deemed essential and able to keep working. Making 70% of your normal pay while on strike is unheard of in the history of the labour movement. We sound very out of touch when we complain of paying 30% union dues on a normal paycheque while on strike when most striking workers receive no paycheque from their employer.
- Paramedics are not the only essential workers in our union. This 30% union dues rule is not targeted at paramedics and there will be thousands of other members of our union also going to work as essential workers and paying 30% union dues. Any suggestion that the 30% union dues are disproportionately unfair to paramedics is false. We will also be able to cycle people through being essential, so if the strike drags on then most people should get a few shifts to make 70% of their usual pay.
- Keep in mind that those on the picket line are giving up their paycheques to pressure AHS to give in to our collective demands. Those on the picket line will only be making $15/hr plus a portion of the 30% union dues. It wouldn't be fair to have some people making minimum wage and others making full paycheques while we are involved in collective struggle.
- Unions are not businesses and do not make profit. Union dues are always spent in a way to advance the interests of the members of a union. Any suggestion that increasing union dues is a money grab from the union to increase profits is false.
- Strikes suck for workers and employers. Once a strike happens, it becomes a game of who can last longer. It's a common tactic of employers to try to starve out workers by letting their strike fund run out so they need to come back to the table to accept the employers terms. Because we have essential workers it puts us in a great strategic position to prevent ourselves from being starved out. But it only works if those who are reporting to work help contribute to keep the strike going. The 30% union dues rule gives us a strong negotiating position because it shows the employer that we will continuously be helping our fellow union members who have walked off the job. We should really be embracing the 30% union dues rule.
Lastly, we are going to give some tough love. We have been listening to a lot of criticism for the last 3 years about how paramedics were "screwed over" on the last contract and our union should have voted no to the wage increase that we got. The reality is that AHS doesn't give a damn about whether we have a contract or not. They are perfectly happy to make an offer and leave it sitting there. We don't live in a fantasy land where we sit on our throne and AHS keeps bringing us better and better offers until we see one that we like. The next step when you vote no to an offer is to raise the stakes for the employer. The only way we can do that as workers is to go on strike. We can't have our cake and eat it to. We can't act tough about voting no and refusing a poor wage increase but also refuse to go on strike. HSAA has heard the members loud and clear since the last contract. We want a good pay raise. Our union has listened and has refused to present us with a tentative agreement because they haven't been offered anything that they think is worthy of our consideration. But we are now getting close to entering the next phase where we get called up to join the fight and pressure AHS to give us what we want. This is the exact opportunity that paramedics claim they wanted with the last contract. Well here it is folks, we are as close as we have ever been to hitting AHS where it hurts to bring them to their knees and give us what we want. If anyone is letting the prospect of 30% union dues or strike pay deter them from being willing to strike, then you don't want that pay raise as bad as you thought you did. And that's fine, it's a personal decision that everyone has the right to make. But if we vote no to going on strike and accept a mediocre offer then we don't want to hear any more complaining about being "forced to accept a bad contract".
Further Information can be found at:
