Re: “UBCM looks out of touch,” editorial, Oct. 9.
The real elephant in municipal labour-contract negotiation is the decidedly left-wing councillors on many councils, rewarding the union and union-sympathetic staff who bankroll their election campaigns and providing the loud claque for any issue that might improve public-sector remuneration, despite their limited numbers.
The great unwashed need to get better organized to defend against the private sector steadily getting screwed with larger and larger public-sector contracts.
Municipal budgets fly just below the radar — ever notice how wage gains are always stated in percentage points, but no one ever announces what the pay rates and benefit packages will actually be?
For a reasonable well-reported comparison, just look at how the teachers and other unions have spent millions electing Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals in Ontario, in return for huge wage gains — and big contributions to their negotiating budgets.
Anyone looking at councils in Vancouver or Victoria, or the Vancouver School Board, will find closet NDPers always seeking to help their “friends” and make a political statement.
Our municipal debt is rarely reported, but has, in many cases, grown far faster than the economy as a whole.
This is the kind of elephant that will inevitably start crushing things, unless brought under control.
George Manning
Langford
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