Hey, it’s time for another weekly reflection. This week in class we looked into different social programs, the bill of rights, and more. One thing that I found very interesting was when we learned about Canadian Unions. Before we learned about this, I had no idea what a union was. I’ve heard of teacher’s unions before but I never knew of any other ones.
A union is a group formed by people with a common interest or purpose. For example, a labour union is an organization that acts as an intermediary between the members and the businesses that employs them. Labour unions give workers the power to negotiate more favourable conditions.
One of the unions that I learned about in class is a union called CUPE. CUPE is a labour union that protects worker’s wages, benefits, and pensions. It is also one of Canada’s largest labour unions. CUPE has reached 680,000 workers nationwide and represents workers in every province. This shows the power of a Union and what can happen when a group of people come together.
After learning about all of this, I wanted to know how unions affect me. Right now, I am unemployed so there are no labour unions that I can join. However, my father is a doctor and my mother is a social worker. After doing some research, I have learned that there are unions for doctors in Canada. The Canadian Medical Association or CMA is an organization that advocates national health and medical matters.
For me, I want too study computer science in university. Because of that, I may become a programmer or software developer in the future. After looking into this, I found out that there aren’t any software unions. This is because neither the workers or the management see a need for collective representation which I thought was interesting.
There are unions for almost everyone who is employed. Unions can be a very smart and strong thing to be a part of because they can protect you if you run into certain problems with your occupation depending on your union. Now that I’ve learned about unions, I suggest that you look at unions that may fit with your occupation.
