The Ontario Federation of Labour blasted Premier Michael D. Harris' "blatant union-busting" as his Conservative Labour Ministry distributed posters for workplace bulletin boards that advise workers how to get rid of a union.

OFL Pres. Wayne Samuelson said: "Union members in Ontario are also taxpayers. I wonder how they feel about their tax dollars being spent in such a useless and petty way.

"Not only has this government used public money to promote its election platform on television and send mail to every home in the province, but now employers are being asked to do the government's dirty work and send out these anti-union materials," Samuelson said. "This is a huge waste of time and money just so the outgoing premier can have one last jab at unions. The paper recycling plants will be busier though when these nasty propaganda pieces wind up in trash bins all over the province."

Samuelson noted that the right to bargain collectively was recently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in the Dunmore v. Ontario case involving agricultural workers. The court challenge to the Ontario government was brought by the United Food and Commercial Workers.

"This recent postering campaign could easily be challenged in the courts and could be on shaky constitutional ground as well" in light of the Supreme Court decision, Samuelson said.

"The answer to this union-busting campaign is to provide posters for all the non-unionized job sites giving workers all the information they need to form or join a union," Samuelson said.

The OFL said it plans to distribute how-to-join-a-union materials for workers and their representatives to assist in organizing drives in non-union workplaces.