When they were first created, unions served a useful purpose in ensuring that employers did not take unfair advantage of their workers. However, with working conditions in Canada having greatly improved since the Great Depression, this function is no longer necessary.

Furthermore, the capacity for unions to go on strike without the companies involved hiring replacement workers is being grossly misused. Instead of attempting to improve their work environments, unions use striking to hold their employers and the public to ransom, demanding exorbitant wages while the public is powerless to resist them.

The result of these hostage actions vary based on the industry in which they occur. Teacher's strikes put our children's education in jeopardy, while also affecting parents who need to seek child-care options. Garbage strikes spread filth and illness across the cities in which they occur. Hospital and police strikes affect our health and safety. Transit strikes endanger the jobs of thousands and thousands of people who depend on it to get to work, as well as damage the economy of their region. Manufacturing and shipping strikes damage the economy as well. Airline strikes leave innocent people stranded far from home, unable to reach their loved ones or their jobs.

With that in mind, the Government of Canada needs to hold a referendum to get the official opinion of Canadians as to whether or not the right to strike should be repealed. In addition, the people of Canada should reply to this referendum with a resounding YES in order to protect their rights from the actions of greedy unions looking to line their own pockets.