I would like to respond to Tom Fletcher’s column printed on July 25. While he was pontificating about how he enjoyed working non-union when he was a young man, he mentioned that he always was envious of his friends that were on union jobs making much more money.
Which is it Tom?
Were you happy being non-union with no benefits, no pension, no apprenticeship program, or were you envious of those of us that had those things?
Then he went on with the slanderous statement of how if you wanted to get into the union all you had to do was give a business agent $500 and you would be in.
Where is the proof that anything like that ever took place?
I have been in the building trades for 40 years and I have never seen nor heard of anything like that happening.
There are some things he forgot to mention too, like the fact that when a big public project goes union, most of the money earned on that job by the workers stays right here in our province.
The local people are hired first, then when they are all employed people from other towns in B.C. are hired next, not to mention native people getting on the job training.
A non-union job on the same scope gets done mostly by people from other provinces, and that is where their wages go, to another province.
The building trades have fully qualified trades people, non-union employers take who they can get.
Who would you rather have building your schools, hospitals, dams, and bridges?
James Anderson