Hello, my name is Ray Berry and I have worked in an Old Dutch Foods plant in Alberta for over 27 years. My co-workers and I are fighting for our freedom now - against union bosses, misguided bureaucrats, a Provincial Government and an outrageous new Charter ruling.

They want us to pay union dues against our will to keep our jobs and to let unions use our dues for non-bargaining purposes such as funding political parties - but not just because the Charter allows this BUT because now they say the Charter requires it. That's why the NCC is helping us and that's why we need your help.

We make and sell great potato chips across Canada. Our plant has been unionized since 1971. Yet our very principled employer has never sold me and my fellow employees out to the union. Old Dutch Foods followed Alberta law by giving us a free choice to join the union or not AND to have a free choice to pay union dues or not.

Our employer has always tried to give its employees a choice - which is hard to do.

Old Dutch never agreed to union demands to put a clause in our collective agreement that forces us to join the union just to get or keep a job. It never agreed to a clause forcing us to pay union dues just to get or keep a job.

If, as you read this, you are thinking that 'employees who benefit from the union should pay it', then you need to know that Canada is the last country left on earth that allows these types of coercive union powers and uses of union dues. The forced membership and forced dues schemes allowed in Canada are no longer allowed in Europe, Australia and the United States.

But now the Alberta Labour Relations Board has taken away my choice. It agreed with the United Food and Commercial Workers union that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms should be re-interpreted to require all unionized workers to pay full union dues or be fired. By reading this 'right' into the Charter, they took away my choice.

Can you believe that the Charter REQUIRES me to pay dues that a union can use as it wishes just to keep my job!!

That's why 28 other Old Dutch employees have joined with me to go to court to try to overturn this Labour Board ruling for the good of all Albertans and all Canadians. We applied to be employee interveners and support the government's legal challenge.

But, in doing so, we now face an unexpected foe -- the Stelmach government. When the Attorney General filed a legal challenge to the Labour Board ruling, we believed that it was in support of our objectives.

But when we went to court last June, there was the Government's lawyer, sitting with the union's lawyer - for the whole hearing. They blindsided us with a united front arguing that our legal challenge should be terminated with one-court-ordered change to the Labour Board ruling that is of no benefit to us and it leaves the Board's twisted view of the Charter on the books.

The Stelmach government turned on us and joined with Alberta's union bosses. They both objected to our employee group being granted legal status to be a part of the legal proceedings. But, in July, the Court granted us full 'party' status over the objections of the Stelmach government and their new friends at the union hall.

But the government and the union bosses are not giving up in their quest to silence us. They are going back to court again on October 22 to try again to stop this case. So we have to go back to court in October to fight the government and the union one more time.

Now I would like to give you some more history . . .

- Late last year, the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled that forced union dues are REQUIRED by the Canadian Charter of 'Rights and Freedoms.'

This same Board also appears to have ruled that the Charter somehow allows unions to use our forced dues for political and other non-bargaining purposes. The only thing the Board didn't do is rule that the Charter forces us to join the union. But, if you have to pay the same dues as a Member, it's pretty much the same as being a Member - especially if the Charter supposedly requires that we be fired for not paying union dues.

- Unions in Alberta and Ontario have started to set-up fake front groups that get involved in politics.

Remember those negative union attack ads that the unions ran under the fake front group Albertans for Change? Five negative, grainy, black and white TV ads that attacked Premier Stelmach. Union bosses spent a couple of million dollars running these ads - and they did so without the input, let alone the permission, of the couple hundred thousand unionized Albertans whose forced union dues paid for them.
Next time it could be my money too!

None of the ads disclosed to the public who really paid for the ads. Just like the Working Families Coalition in Ontario who spent millions in the 2003 and 2007 Ontario elections attacking the Conservatives.

The NCC fought those ads in Alberta in May 2008 with a radio campaign called the Forced Dues Blues.

Thanks to the NCC we have been able to carry on our fight against the union, the Labour Board and the government. And as you can imagine that has the union bosses boiling mad.

No longer are they up against just twenty-one employees - now they have to contend with the NCC and its thousands of supporters! And I know they are also up against public opinion. A 2003 Leger poll for the Canadian LabourWatch Association showed that 73% of Canadians disagree with the ability of unions to be able to use union dues for political and other nonbargaining purposes.

Even more amazing is that same poll found that an even higher percentage - 76% of unionized Canadians disagree with the ability of unions to be able to use union dues for political and other non-bargaining purposes. Who is going to stand up for them?

The NCC also wants to run newspaper ads on our case across Canada. That is going to cost money. I am hoping we can count on your continued generosity so we can keep this important fight going.

As you consider giving, think about this: The union bosses can use forced union dues (including ours) to finance their legal costs and our taxes pay for the Government to hire its lawyers to shut us down. But we are forced to rely on voluntary contributions from people like yourself. So please send us whatever you can afford to help us keep this important fight against forced unionism going.

If we win it won't just be a victory for the workers at the Old Dutch plant in Alberta, it will also be a victory for thousands of other workers across Canada.

Yours truly,
Raymond Berry