UNIONS
AND POLITICS

Unions don't exist in a vacuum. Our strength and ability to service our members is affected by the general climate around us. This climate includes:

• Rights which affect unions as organizations: the right of unions to exist, to organize without harassment, to strike, to bargain over the issues that affect us (as opposed, for example, to facing government wage controls).

• Legislated standards and social programs which can reinforce collective bargaining goals: national medicare, health and safety legislation, equal pay and affirmative action, pensions and pension indexation, voluntary overtime, plant closure legislation, unemployment insurance, fair taxation.

• Economic policy which affects our potential gains and our potential power. A strong economy lays the base for more wealth to share. Full employment gives us the confidence and power to take on the corporations, while high levels of unemployment undermine us. Free trade threatens our jobs while managed trade makes possible job guarantees.

Affecting this general climate around us is "politics".

Our lives obviously extend beyond the workplace. We are citizens and members of communities, and so care about the liveability of our cities, the pollution of our environment, the schools our children attend, the availability and standards for childcare, the parks and facilities available for sports and entertainment.

And we care about social equality within our communities and within our country: about the disabled, about discrimination, about the lives of the aged, about poverty and homelessness.

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