How CUPE turned me against first contract legislation

I might have been in favor of the NDP Government's first-contract legislation if I hadn't seen what the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) did to a progressive non-profit organization in New Glasgow this fall. Founded in 1968 by volunteers and family members, New Glasgow's Summer Street Industries supplies a variety of vocational services to 150 intellectually handicapped men and women in New Glasgow. It enjoys a stellar reputation for caring and respectful treatment of the people it assists. If the Dexter Government's first contract legislation had been in force this year, those very qualities would have been sabotaged, perhaps fatally. The...