Robert Fulford: How unions stifle privatization

Robert Fulford: How unions stifle privatization

There's really not much to add to Mr. Fulford's excellent essay on unions except one thing - Unions really do make the bed that they lie in.

Mr. Fulford is absolutely right that the public sector can't move fast enough, can't truly compete with the private sector in any business, simply because the private sector is always more engaged because it has a dog in the hunt. Someone in the private sector has invested their own money in the business being run, and so will be faster and more responsive when a good, possibly risky, idea comes along. With the public sector, it's more about covering my butt first before engaging in a risk that may not pay off. Then, with the unions, it's about extracting every single drop of blood that they can out of whatever enterprise they are in (see: General Motors bankruptcy, Chrysler bankruptcy).

I agree with Mr. Fulford that there comes a time when an anachronistic government owned monopoly needs to step out of the way and let the private sector move in - that time is usually when the private sector steps in and commits resources to competing with the government. I have no doubt that Canada Post is at one of those points now.