What do unions do? We're sort of creating an artificial line here on a workplace committee. When a worker has a grievance, there are different routes they can take, but one of course is to go to the health and safety committee, if not to a job steward for a different process. At the end of the day, when you're cutting off the workplace committee from the worker,...the worker is already feeling sexual harassment, mental illness or whatever, as well as isolated and alone. Nobody is speaking for them. Nobody has their voice.
When we're involved as a union, it's not just that we're there; it's what we do: everything from ensuring that the person receives all the benefits, support, and help professionals that they have to having them feel that somebody's on their side; somebody's working for them. Throughout the entire process, whether it's unemployment insurance, Canada Pension Plan, or early retirement, you're going to get a pit bull like me coming to see you, knocking on your door, saying “We're serving you”, all of those are services that unions provide to members. When you say “artificially”...because I agree that if for privacy reasons a person chooses not to, that's fine. But to say in law that we're going to cut what a union does to protect membership, to me is just wrong.