“Good thing they’re not unionized!”: Jason Kenney’s early morning misfire

If Canadians needed any more proof of the Conservative government’s attitude towards organized labour, look no further than Jason Kenney’s early morning misfire on Twitter on Tuesday.

It took 38 minutes for Canada’s employment minister to delete his anti-labour rant (left), and repost it without his offside comment (right). Can you spot the difference?

Too bad the minister of employment can’t delete how he actually feels about organized labour. It’s also bad news for Canadians that the sentiment is shared by the Conservative government, as it gets behindtwo bills designed to attack collective bargaining rights.

The same push is behind a series of new party policies,  adopted a few weeks ago at the Conservative convention in Calgary. They’re all about union busting and cobbling the ability of unions to fight for fair wages, good pensions and strong public services that benefit everyone.

As Rafael Gomez, an associate professor of employment relations at the University of Toronto,explained in the Globe and Mail as part of its series on income inequality, “The relative decline in private sector unionization is the biggest institutional factor behind the rise in inequality.”

Maybe Kenney can tweet out that line as a mea culpa. Minister Kenney, if you’re reading this, we’ve even prepared it for you to make it easy. Click here so we can make this better.