As a global franchise, people from all over the world approach us for information on how to start up a business. This affords me a fantastic experience in that I speak with people from all over the world.
Last week I had a very interesting conversation with a gentleman from South Africa. This gentleman is a successful owner of two service stations and has operated them for years. At the end of October the leases for his two locations are set to expire. But instead of making efforts to renew the leases and continue on in this business, he has decided to let the leases expire, close down operations and look for another business.
Why? It's very simple: unionization.
South Africa is an extremely unionized country. Since August, the country has been crippled by a massive civil service union strike with workers demanding a wage increase of between 8.6% and 11% as well as up to $190 in housing subsidies.
And with hospital workers being a part of this group, it has gotten so bad that the South African National Defense Force has been called in to protect union workers who have been threatened with violence for defying their union's strike position. Additionally, the hospitals themselves are now serviced by military doctors who are filling in for hospital staff.
South African hospital officials are also claiming that the strike by hospital workers is responsible for up to ten deaths for lack of access to medical aid. As somebody from Toronto, that particular aspect of the strike hits particularly close to home considering our own public sector strike last year and how a man died after slow response by Toronto's EMS.
For the man I spoke with last year, he simply cannot afford to stay in business. He does make a monetary profit through his businesses. But monetary costs aren't the only expenses in life. And the cost in stress versus the monetary returns are simply too great for him to stay in business.
As he mentioned, anybody who runs a business in South Africa is subject to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) of South Africa. This governing body is designed to settle disputes between labor and management. However, as is with so many far-left governing bodies (our Human Rights Commissions, anyone?), it is really just a farcical, rubber-stamp organization where people can claim victimhood with the tribunal going through a facade of a process so they can award the complainants whatever they want.
This man told me that many business owners in South Africa spend a good portion of their year in front of the CCMA tribunals just answering for non-stop complaints. And they're not even legitimate complaints. His own final straw was when an employee of his was caught stealing from him.
The gentleman fired the thieving employee and had him charged by the police. The thief was convicted under the courts for stealing. But the thief then filed a complaint with the CCMA who ruled that the business owner's actions of firing the man were improper. The CCMA forced this business owner to rehire the thief!
This is eerily reminiscent of the wildcat labor strike at Air Canada back in 2005. At the time, Air Canada was taking action against employees who had been swiping time cards for coworkers who either showed up late, left early or didn't come into work at all. The ground crew walked off work for four hours effecting several flights and thousands of passengers. In the end, Air Canada agreed not to take punitive action against these employees so they would come back to work.
Now, this gentleman from South Africa is getting out of business. He's fed up with the bureaucracy of dealing with organizations such as the CCMA and the highly regulated, paper-pushing South African government which makes starting, operating and even ending a business an insanity inducing process. He wants something where he doesn't have to worry about carrying the deadweight of employees who don't want to work or governing bodies who are more interesting in giving workers what they want than what is right or wrong.
It is frustrating to see the attitudes of modern day unions. They claim that they are simply trying to ensure that workers get "fair" pay and conditions. But one would have to be a fool to look at modern unions and actually believe this. It is becoming increasingly clear that modern day unions want equal pay across the board, no matter the position or duties, with workers being free to do whatever they want -- even not showing up -- as long as they can come up with a decent enough excuse.
A few years ago I was debating with somebody who is pro-union whether or not workers should all get the same pay. His logic was that if somebody gets a job and puts in a full day's work, he should get the same pay and benefits as anybody else. I asked him straight-up whether he felt that they should get the same pay as the person who started the business. And he actually said that he did believe they should get the same.
Talk about a true socialist!
It amazes me how far society has come in terms of valuing people's contributions. Somebody who begrudgingly comes to work, punches in at 9 and leaves by 5 on the nose and puts in the bare minimum does not deserve to be rewarded for their efforts the same as somebody who worked hard for years, saved up enough money to build a business, took that high risk investment of starting the business and has now created opportunity for others who wouldn't have a job if it weren't for his/her actions.
The value is not the same in any regard! The business owner is the one taking the risk. The business owner is the one creating a means for others to make a living. Of course the business owner shouldn't take advantage of their workers. But it is the myth of the union mentality that the natural attitude of a business owner is to take advantage of their workers.
Why? It's very simple: that is the only justification for the existence of unions.
But what of the opposite? What about workers taking advantage of their employers? Do we have safeguards to prevent this? Not really. If a worker wants to have their time card swiped while not at work, shouldn't the owner have a say on whether to pay this person for work they never did? If a worker steals from the employer and is even found guilty by a court of law, should the business owner not have the right to keep a thief away from his business?
Union-minded people don't seem to care one bit about morality. It's about money. It always is.
As society becomes more and more aware of the expense that unions exact upon society -- both in blood and money -- it is becoming increasingly hard for society to accept their prima-donna attitudes. One need only look at this year's mayoralty race in the largely leftist city of Toronto to see that people are getting fed up with union power.
People are starting to recognize that the value for service just isn't there and that unions have taken too much control. And it isn't just a local phenomenon. One need only look at Europe's reluctance to assist Greece in the face of their massive debt burden. Greek unions simply don't care where the money is or where it comes from as long as they get what they think they're entitled to. And this hasn't sat very well across the EU. Germany most notably is sick and tired of being the engine of the EU economy while countries like Greece rest on their haunches.
Thankfully with the freedom of news sharing that the internet affords, people are more aware of what is going on in the world around them and why. And as it becomes increasingly difficult for unions and their leftist apologists in the media to argue their points for them, the public is learning the true cost of unionization. And it isn't a pretty picture.
One can only hope that the tide turns and people can build businesses without the fears of being a target for unwarranted oppression from the government and unions. I feel sorry for the gentleman in South Africa I was in talks with. To think a person would build up two businesses and then just walk away out of the frustration of union control... he brings a means to a living for these people and they run him out of town.
It's truly heartbreaking. In the end everybody loses.
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1 comment:
Well said.
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