PG Man Seeks Position with BC Fed
Prince George, B.C. – You could say 36 year old Aaron Ekman was born into the union movement.
“I was on my first picket line at four years old in Terrace during a public sector strike in the 1980’s when the Socreds were in power and I’ve been on quite a few picket lines since then.”
Aaron Ekman
And Ekman, who’s running for the position of Secretary-Treasurer with the BC Federation of Labour at their annual convention in Vancouver this week, says his passion for the union movement today has never been stronger.
“Unions are more relevant today than they’ve ever been. We’ve got a higher rate of income inequality than ever before or at least since the 1920’s and the start of the Great Depression.”
He blames that on declining union membership pointing out that BC tops the list of provinces in the country with the number of anti-union laws that have been passed or been tweaked since 1982 (39).
“So when those kind of laws get passed it makes it very difficult to organize.”
If elected he says his goal will be to try and “turn that ship around.” Right now Ekman is running unopposed for the position but says any of the 2,500 delegates could come forward and challenge him by the time ballots are cast later this week.
He says the possibility of facing a challenger this late in the game doesn’t make him nervous.
“I’m nervous about the future if we don’t focus on organizing and start turning around declining union density. Growing income inequality also makes me nervous.”
The vote is scheduled to place on Thursday.
Comments
I didn’t realize that being on a high number of picket lines was a bragging point to be proud of. Huh
Good luck.
This guy for all intents and purposes wants to retire at 36. The only muscles used in his working(?) life if he gets the position,can’t call it a job, are the few required to flap his jaw.
So where is this income inequality. Between Union and Non-Union jobs.?
What is he saying??? Is he going to try and get all non union jobs to pay the high rates presently paid to Unions??
What will he use as a standard of measure?? Longshoremen??? Pulp Mill workers?? Teachers???
Perhaps he should take a good look at the jobs in the retail industry. Most pay minimum wage, and usually you cant get more than 20 hours per week. Is this the area that he will tackle??
Orrrrrr. Is he just making noises??
No offence, but I would seriously question a parent who would bring a child to a picket line at 4 years old. Borderline negligence in my opinion. A labour dispute is no place for an innocent child.
Good luck young Mr. Ekman. It’s like trying to get elected to mediocrity, but whatever blows your hair back. You’re quite wrong though, unions couldn’t be more irrelevant, in fact they’re an anachronism in their current form, dying a slow death. Completely impotent, much like their over-bloated members. All they do any more is protect and breed apathy and ineptitude.
Income inequity will not be fixed by unions. The people who should be working towards its correction though should be those at the top of the income scale, because they stand to lose the most if the system collapses. These people will be hunted and gutted by the hungry masses and their wealth will become worthless.
Palopu, I agree 100%!
We have a public sector, a TAXPAYER FUNDED public, that currently receives on average 130 to 140 percent of the wages and benefits paid to comparable workers in the private sector! In spite of this, the Unions continue to tell public sector workers that they deserve more, more, more and dare I say more!!
To you Aaron Ekman (as I am sure that you will read these posts), it’s high time for a complete review and rationalization of our bloated, under worked and over paid pubic sector. from the very top to the very bottom!
Aaron, what have you ever done to earn a living? Have you ever operated a business? Have you ever dealt with layoffs? Have you ever dealt with struggling to meet payroll for your employees? Have you lived with the implications of a rising or declining economy! I highly doubt it!
Or Aaron, are you just on the fast track to become as pathetic as Jim Sinclair??
There is this Aaron Ekman who has been Member of Canadian Labour Congress since 1978 for 35 years, according to his public profile. Their photo look very similar. Is he the same guy? He was hardly 1 year old in 1978 then?!
That Aaron Ekman has studied international relations in Okanagan college between 2000-03 , while being the President of Okanagan University College Students’ Association in 2001-2002. Later Director of BC Federation of Labour (2006 – 2008) and President of North Central Labour Council of British Columbia (2009 – 2012). His main job has been Regional Coordinator of B.C. Government and Services Employees’ Union (2009–2014) for 6 years in Prince George BC, besides being a video game pundit on a blog since 2005.
Wow, what a hard worker Aaron Ekman has been!!
A labour disputes is the perfect place to bring a four-year-old child. strikes are master classes in hearing demands for justice articulated, and who holds the power to deny those claims, I wish Eric the best of luck with his candidacy.
Such a bunch of bloody whiners!
What really confuses me is that I hear so many complaints about middle class workers getting paid a living wage. What is wrong with people getting a good salary? What is wrong with having money to buy your Christmas turkey rather than having to go to the Sally Ann to receive a special meal. And many of those at the Sally Ann are workers from low paying jobs, not lazy bums as many would like to believe.
Those in retail have a very difficult time organizing so they have someone with power representing them.We have seen time and time again people being fired, intimidated and harassed if they do try to organize.
On the other hand, no one ever complains about the subsidies given to some of the big corporations (oil and gas is a good example) and all the profits they take out of our country (much of it earned from our resources.)
I will check back later to see if someone can explain this to me.
I agree that Sinclair has produced more whine than the Okanagan and this n00b Ekman appears to be cut from the same cloth. Never had a real job in their life.
viv
A store clerk is a low skill job and should be paid accordingly. An arguement can be made to raise the minimum wage another buck but any more and it would just set off a chain reaction raising prices of everything meaning those making minimum wage are no further ahead.
As for bringing in unions one has to look no further than the grocery stores to see that there are few if any full time clerks anymore. The reason- they priced themselves out of the market as they were getting paid about the same as a teacher or a tradesman to find and scan the bar code on a can of beans.
If people don’t like being stuck in low paying jobs upgrade their skills so they can get a higher paying job. The university and CNC offer evening courses and the school district has various options to complte high school if necessary.
viv–Well said. sparrow the problem is that not everyone has the finances to upgrade their skills and another thing the government flooded Canada with TFWs which has forced the labour rates down. Everyone deserves a living wage. Many US states are moving to $15.00 hr now.
These people will be hunted and gutted by the hungry masses and their wealth will become worthless
You finaly said something that we can understand Sien Nommie.
Aaron, what have you ever done to earn a living? Have you ever operated a business? Have you ever dealt with layoffs? Have you ever dealt with struggling to meet payroll for your employees? Have you lived with the implications of a rising or declining economy! I highly doubt it!
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What a bunch of whiners. Have you ever worked in industry where people die every year. Have you ever invested your profit to expand ? Have you ever frozen your ass working out doors? Where has your profit gone? A vacation in the Bahamas?
You have an owner that takes the profits from five hamburger joints and pays the employees a minimum wage. They probably buy shares in big foreign oil with the cash.
What a joke have you ever herd of a grocery store clerk getting the same wages as tradesman. Yeah our friend Jimmy Pattison destroyed the union in his grocery store by reorganising his corporation. Here’s am prime example how employees are being exploited by a grocery chain .
They are all people that live and breath the same air as you do. And they do work that is needs to be done by someone. There are many who can not afford a better education. And try for an apprenticeship good luck.
If it wasn’t for the unions Prince George would just be another unknown place at the junction of the Nechako and Fraser River.
Cheers
“the problem is that not everyone has the finances to upgrade their skills”
I believe there is no cost involved for an adult student to obtain a high school diploma. As for higher levels of education there are bursaries and schlolarships available some of which have only a few applicants so if a person has a decent grade point average would stand a pretty good chance of getting one. A person could work extra hours and save that money for education or even take out a loan. If you want to get ahead sometimes it takes short term sacrifice for long term gain.
Entry level workers should be paid entry level wages.
Retired 02
Hey Kimmy you might want to do a little research on what the full time grocery clerks were hauling in when Safeway and Overwaitea started buying them out a number of years ago. To paraphrase what you said the other day-get your facts straight before flapping your gums:)
A business owner risks his own money and works countless hours to make it a success, if he makes a few bucks doing it I say Good On Him! and any holiday he takes is well deserved Just because he makes a profit you think he should pay some pimply faced kid $20 an hour to spit on your onion rings? Get real!
Get real Sparrow Those two bit business owners are not the problem. For you to defend the grocery stores is unreal. They ripp us off at every opportunity they get.. I’ve known people with a better knowledge of the business community then you will ever have. Your just someone’s gopher
Cheers
Okay – we’ve gone back and forth on who deserves more money and who doesn’t. For sure educated people deserve more than unskilled workers but everyone in Canada should have a living wage. Everyone, regardless of their socio economic position.
But, no one yet has explained why we always look at the poor rather than the rich when we talk about money and wages. When the big companies (including Jimmy Patterson) make billions of dollars from products they sell that are worth half of that price to people barely making enough to buy food – no one thinks anything of it.
The oil industry, according to I believe it is Nobel winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, collect $764 per person in Canada as a subsidy and yet still make billions upon billions in profits.
Working Canadians are selling a product – their labour and until we value that labour, we will continue to drop in our standard of living.
I do like hearing/reading everyone’s comments though. Some make me think a lot.
It’s interesting to read the various posts.
I was cruising the internet the other day and was looking up the Three Stooges…. no not inspired by some of the posters here, but rather a conversation about how they were exploited by their studio. They would have been much better off to have been in a union.
Just check out President of Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohen to see how they and others were treated.
It makes me think that the union bashers have no understanding of human nature or are quite ignorant of the way working people were treated in past decades.
viv
Let’s say a person is working for minimum wage at the blue vest store. He keeps his ears open and learns that there is a position opening in the warehouse that pays $15/hr but it requires forklift training and a Transportatation of Dangerous Goods ticket. No sweat the DTG can be had in one evening and forklift after a few weeks. So he now makes 15 bucks but the entry level wage suddenly jumps to 15 so he now wants 17 and the person making 17 wants 20 etc etc…. To pay for the raises the prices rise and the entry level is back at the start line wanting $17 wash rinse repeat
An entry level position is meant to be the first rung on the ladder not a career. If a person wants to stand over a till, a grill or a shovel it should be with the understanding that low skills equate to low wages.
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Retired 02
” I’ve known people with a better knowledge of the business community” The 6 year old with the lemonade stand down the street does not count as a legit business owner……yet.
Retired 02 asks:
“Have you ever worked in industry where people die every year. Have you ever invested your profit to expand ? Have you ever frozen your ass working out doors? Where has your profit gone? A vacation in the Bahamas?”
Thanks for asking, Retired 02!
Yes, I have worked in an industry where people die every year!
Yes, I have invested my profit to expand!
Yes, most definitely yes, I have frozen my ass off working out doors?
Where has my profit gone? A vacation in the Bahamas?? Nope, no vacation to the Bahamas yes! Maybe it has something to do with never ending rising costs for licence fees, liability and other insurance fees/costs, rising energy costs, the list goes on and on and on! Oh and we must not forget about taxes, lots and lots and lots of taxes, many being used to pay the wages and benefits packages of overpaid and underworked public sector workers!!
Retired 02, if you even had a fraction of a clue, you might be considered dangerous! Go do something useful for a change, like leaving this site and finding one in Abbotsford. I’m sure that all of your wonderful new neighbours would be thrilled to have you vast array of knowledge at their beck and call!
Cheers!!!
oops, no vacation to the Bahamas YET!!
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