Teamsters Raid of MGEU Wrong

A statement by Darlene Dziewit
MFL President

I am disappointed and frustrated with the raiding that has occurred with Teamsters raiding the MGEU. This kind of action by the Teamsters is unethical, divisive and immoral. It is also lazy.

In Manitoba about 35 per cent of the workforce is unionized. It is far easier to raid an existing group of employees, who already have a union contract and structure in place, than it is to go out and organize some of the 65 per cent of the non-unionized workers.

And the worst part of this kind of cannibalizing is that the only winners in a raid are the employers.

The raided union loses.

The raiding union's other members lose, because their dues dollars are used to fight the battle.

The employees in the unit lose, because they are in a divided, weakened bargaining unit. Indeed, in the end the entire labour movement is weakened.

In Manitoba, unions have always respected one another. We do not capitalize on, or foster disharmony among, another union's members.

For the Teamsters to justify their raid by saying that they tried to tell the MGEU that the members at Lotteries were unhappy, and that Teamsters were asked to commit the raid by these disaffected workers, is at best disingenuous.

The CLC has a protocol for unions to use when they are approached by another union's members. The Teamsters ignored this process and, I believe, deliberately fostered the unhappiness at Lotteries.

No union ever has the full, unconditional support of every single one of its member at all times, including the Teamsters. The agreement among ethical unions not to take advantage of each other during moments of weakness is in place for precisely this reason.

We should all be interested in advancing the benefits of union membership to unorganized workers, as opposed to simply fighting among ourselves.