To the Editor,
I was shocked to hear that the NDP and its leader, Adrian Dix, is planning to eliminate secret ballots for union certification if the NDP are elected to form government in this province after the next election.
It gives us a glimpse into the kind of scary policies the NDP have in mind for us, policies they’ve been doing everything they can to hide from the public.
Secret ballots are the cornerstone of democracy, and despotism, bullying and intimidation thrive in the absence of secret ballots, regardless of whether it’s in a union hall or a Third World dictatorship.
The only ones who will benefit from a union hall show-of-hands vote are labour union bosses, not the rank and file members.
This is the same backward policy step the NDP took when it was elected to government back in 1991, and it’s as much of a slap in the face to democracy, and fundamentally undemocratic, now as it was back then.
It also shows us who is pulling the NDP’s strings and who will really be in charge if it is elected to form government in this province.
The people of this province deserve a straight and open answer from Dix and the NDP on this question, and we deserve that answer now.
Waking up on the day after the election to discover that the B.C. Federation of Labour is running the province again as it did in the 1990s is a thought almost too scary to consider.
Matthew Enns
Vancouver