Laws should be passed to limit the power of unions and reduce their ability to abuse their power and cause further extensive damage to the national interest; preventing them from interfering with Australia’s democratic system along with the banning of union funds to support political parties.

My observation of the large, powerful unions in Australia has seen me note they’re perhaps the greatest threat to the economic prosperity of our nation.

And I make no apologies for my observations of what is abundantly clear to anyone not biased towards unions.

My issues are many:

1. Large unions have abused the democratic political process in Australia continually, for their own self-interests.

For example, the union factions provide funding and support to the Labor party in such a way they dictate to Labor their policies, who their leader is, and who is pre-selected to run for parliament.

2. The fact a so-called democracy is determined by a group of secretive union secretaries privately meeting in Chinese restaurants to decide who will run for which seat, and even who they’ll dictate to the Australian people will be our Prime Minister (it was the unions who removed our elected Prime Minister, Rudd, in favour of an un-elected individual, Gillard).

This rampant abuse or our so-called democracy should cause concern for all Australians, including union members.

3. On top of this, unions are rife with fraud and dodgy deals, doing whatever it takes to maintain power.

There’s plenty of evidence, such as the Craig Thompson affair: union member’s funds being abused and union members being taken for a ride.

4. Add to that, unions always tend to act in their predicable self-interest.

That is they demand wage rises, whether industry or businesses can afford it.

They’re also largely responsible for the uncompetitive, high labour costs in Australia, which threaten the very future of Australia’s economic prosperity.

And they’re almost solely responsible for Australia’s poor productivity, growth and inefficiencies, another major threat to our future economic prosperity.

5. This is before we even mention their efforts to effectively destroy the mining boom in Australia.

Paul Howes, a leading union official, attacked the government for allowing 1,700 foreign workers to help build Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill mine, despite it creating 8,000 jobs for Australians if it proceeds.

I’ve recently posted an article on my blog regarding this. Click here to read it now.

It’s hard to argue against the fact that unions have way too much power in Australia, are abusing the democratic process and risk our future economic prosperity.

This is why we need stringent laws to prevent unions and anyone else abusing our political process.

A law that will prevent unions from providing support to political parties, so they can’t abuse their power.

Laws to prevent them defrauding their own union members.

Laws preventing them from being able to unduly influence our democratic process and remove an elected Prime Minister ever again.

Some may argue that unions also do some good.

And it’s true.

At times in the past they’ve secured worker’s rights and protected workers from abuse by big business.

So at times they’ve played a valuable role, when kept in check.

However now we have laws that protect worker’s rights in Australia, which begs the argument… why do we still need unions?

Sure, in the 19th Century unions were needed to stop factory workers being exploited.

But let’s face it, those days are long gone.

With laws to protect workers in place, along with the social responsibility standards companies are expected to have, union roles are diminishing (this would also explain their rapidly declining memberships and the distrust many ex-union members have toward once powerful unions).

It’s also apparent to successful companies that people are their greatest asset and need to be treated well and looked after.

For instance in my group of companies I don’t need unions to dictate to me to protect worker’s rights.

We pay award wages, and often above

We provide free massages for our staff

Offer cash incentives and performance bonuses

Many get flown overseas for conferences

They get free, ongoing access to valuable education and training

We’re even providing a free gymnasium for staff members in our Melbourne head office

In fact we call them team members, not staff

None of this is a result of unions. It’s a result of what I call “compassionate capitalism”.

Capitalist entrepreneurs with a social conscience but also self-interest, knowing that if you look after your team it will lead to greater customer satisfaction and greater financial success.

So I don’t see any valid counter argument that unions need more power, nor any argument that they should be allowed to abuse the democratic process with secret meetings in Chinese restaurants, dictating to Australians who our Prime Minister is.

I see only valid arguments for unions’ power to be kept in check. Just like any other minority group in Australia who tries to manipulate and abuse our democratic process and threaten our entire economic prosperity with deeply flawed socialist ideology by ego-driven, power hungry union leaders who wish to throw their weight around.

Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. http://www.jamiemcintyre.com

Author Bio: Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Category: Legal
Keywords: 21st century, Articles, Australia, Blog, democracy, gillard, political parties, power, rinehart