The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) local 183 has commissioned a poll which it says shows its members have rejected the Liberal Party in favor of the PC Party and NDP in the upcoming provincial election.
LiUNA asserts that labour law changes — known as Schedule 14 — passed during the budget in March was key in swaying its members away from the Liberals. The union argues Schedule 14 strips thousands of concrete form workers of collective agreement and bargaining rights they’ve had since 1970, making it favourable for members to jump ship to the Carpenter’s Union.
“We were of the view that anecdotal information about the Liberals not doing as well in this election as people expected should be supported by some research,” the Toronto Sun quoted LiUNA lawyer Sean McFarling as saying.
“For our 50,000 members across the GTA, we want to be able to say there’s alternatives here and that in light of what the Liberal party has done to us and our membership, it’s time to take a serious look at those alternatives.”
On its website, the union makes it clear that it wants nothing to do with the Liberals.
It’s not like we didn’t warn them.
As all our members know, LIUNA and its leadership worked for many months to stop Schedule 14 – to stop Kathleen Wynne and Steven Del Duca from destroying labour relation peace in Ontario. To stop them from pushing through changes that would hurt the LIUNA family – and Ontarians, too.
We told Wynne and Del Duca there’d be a price to pay.
They didn’t listen. They jammed through schedule 14 under the cover of the provincial budget to favour their Carpenter cronies.
And, as the Campaign Research poll below shows, the Wynne Liberals are paying a price. They’ve been pushing unpopular policies – and schedule 14 was one of those unpopular policies.
This startling poll, commissioned by LIUNA, shows Wynne and Del Duca in a free fall in the Greater Toronto Area. And the GTA is where we have thousands of members and member families.
LIUNA warned them. They didn’t listen.