Union-Bashing Is on the Menu at Tim Hortons
A US firm, Positive Management Leadership, is teaching some of Canada’s leading businesses how to snuff out union organizing before it gets off the ground. Their investment in union-bashing shows how much those companies fear organized and empowered workers.
Employers, active across very different sectors, all appear happy to share resources and best practices when it comes to keeping their workplaces unorganized.
The training firm Positive Management Leadership (PML), based in South Carolina, boasts some of Canada’s biggest companies among its clients, including household names like Canadian Tire, Staples, Best Buy, and juggernaut fast-food coffee purveyor, Tim Hortons.
PML offers them advice and support in one important task: keeping out trade unions. During a 2019 anti-union conference in Toronto, Honda Canada representative John Moulding credited PML president Terry Dunn with helping keep his company “union-free.”
A close look at PML’s client base and the gushing testimonials they offer for its training programs tells us a lot about the anti-union mentality that holds sway in corporate Canada. But it also shows us that these companies are deeply worried about the potential power of their workers.
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