Powerful labor union tramples on citizens' rights

Oh my God! Did I just write that?

Yes I did. If you've followed the Falling Downs blog at all you know we're totally pro-labor here. Or pro-labour if you happen to be reading this in England or Canada.

So I'm feeling more than a little conflicted. Looking on the bright side, maybe that title will get me some funding from the Koch brothers or the American Enterprise Institute. I'm like Newt; I'll take the money wherever it comes from.

But it's true, and it's happening not an hour's drive from here, in Port Elgin, Ontario.

The CAW wants to put up an industrial scale wind turbine at their "education center" in Port Elgin. Many years ago Bob White took the Canadian auto workers out of the UAW and birthed the CAW. I have nothing but respect for Bob White and the CAW, but they've failed to test the wind on this one.

Alternative energy is a great idea, but given the present state of technology it can't exist in the Ontario market without massive government subsidies. These subsidies run rampant in Ontario, and the CAW has organized the workers in a few foreign owned branch plants that assemble components for both solar and wind technology. So I can see the thinking of the union guys; let's support policies that keep our membership employed.

Unfortunately, the industrial scale wind turbine developments that have been sprouting up all over the province in the last ten years have pissed off a lot of people. Generally, the closer you are to a wind farm the more pissed off you'll be. And the CAW wind turbine is pretty much in the middle of a small vacation community where people go to get away from it all.

They're not happy with the proposed CAW wind turbine.

So I hope my union friends figure out which way the wind is blowing. You can bulldoze over the objections of the locals and put up your windmill, as a show of support for a government policy that might keep a few of your members employed in the short term, but is doomed to failure in the long run.

Or you can do the right thing, be a good neighbor in the community, and scrap that wind turbine.