Labour takes a wrong turn

According to Statistics Canada, the rate of union membership has fallen from 37.6 per cent in 1981 to 28.8 per cent in 2014. The decrease is especially pronounced among men, where it has dropped from more than 42 per cent in 1981, to 27 per cent in 2014. Given the challenge of recruiting and keeping members, it might seem wise that unions would do their best to present a responsible face to the public.

That would be news to the International Association of Fire Fighters ( IAFF) and its affiliates in Ontario. The union is in the midst of a campaign to clear its ranks of “two- hatters,” full- time firefighters who moonlight on the side with small- town volunteer forces. In the most recent example, the Brampton, Ont., branch of the IAFF has told its members that if they don’t give up volunteer firefighting — which they do on their own time — in the small town of Caledon, Ont., they could be fined or ejected from the union.

Towns such as Caledon depend on volunteer firefighters because they can’t afford the cost of a fully staffed, salaried force that is on call 24 hours a day. The population simply isn’t big enough to warrant, or pay for, the number of firefighters required for the size of the region.

Caledon is not an outlier in this regard. Many rural and remote areas across North America rely on volunteer firefighting to extend fire protection to their communities. Indeed, volunteer firefighting is a tradition that goes back at least as far as the 1700s, when Benjamin Franklin formed the Union Fire company, a volunteer brigade, in Philadelphia.

But the Brampton IAFF branch apparently i sn’ t much interested in history. Its position is that union members who do off- duty volunteer work are violating their oath of service. “The people who are violating or allegedly violating that oath are knowingly breaking the rules,” Rob Hyndman, president of the Ontario Professional Firefighter Association, told the Caledon Enterprise. “You’ve agreed to the rules, you are potentially knowing you are violating those rules and someone is holding you to account.”

Oaths can easily be changed, of course, and it may surprise Canadians that an association allegedly dedicated to saving lives and property would subordinate those concerns to the higher priority of a union pledge. Local officials, and some union members, suspect the real motive is to frighten off volunteers in hopes the town will be forced to hire paid firefighters in their place. It may also be a test of Ontario’s Bill 109, which became law last year and introduced measures related to unfair labour practices and association memberships.

The union’s position is cynical and simplistic. Municipalities exist under constant cost pressures as it is. Smaller centres turn to volunteers precisely because there isn’t enough demand for firefighting to justify more salaried positions. If the unions succeed in driving away volunteers — as they appear to be doing — the result is likely to be less reliable firefighting coverage, and therefore more danger of injury and property damage for the people who live in the area — not to mention less opportunity for dedicated residents to give back to their communities.

The association has been fighting the two-hatter issue for years. The battle died down for a time after two volunteers refused to help put out a fire in a small town near Stratford, Ont., for fear of being sanctioned by the union. Most municipalities have collective agreements with their firefighting unions that make it difficult to keep their jobs if they’ve been thrown out of t he union.

The volunteers have attracted considerable support. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario decried the union’s pressure tactics. Caledon’s acting fire chief issued a statement supporting the volunteers, while the town’s mayor has accused the union of creating a crisis where none existed. The Enterprise reports that fire halls have covered over helmet name plates to protect the identity of two- hatters from their own union.

The dispute is yet another example of unions having lost their way. Where once organized labour focused on the health, safety and basic well- being of workers, too often they now place their members’ salaries and employment perks above the health, safety and basic wellbeing of entire communities. It also demonstrates anew the need for municipal governments to rethink collective agreements that essentially bind them to employing only union members, at the very least for emergency services such as firefighting. This would be a victory for small communities and for the autonomy of the professional emergency workers who care about them.