After meeting with his staff late into the night, Canada’s Minister of Employment Jason Kenney tweeted “Good thing they’re not unionized!” just after midnight Tuesday morning (November 19).
About a half hour later it was deleted and the sentence about unionization removed:
Just wrapped-up a meeting with several staff members, at midnight. #beststaffever
— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) November 19, 2013
But the tweet was noticed and re-tweeted by people who accused the minister of being “an uncaring boss” and of “union bashing.” The tweet made headlines in a few Canadian papers.
Jason Kenney is an influential cabinet minister in the ruling Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Metro News reports that Jerry Dias, the president of Canada’s largest private sector union Unifor, said Kenney’s comments were “arrogant” and inappropriate given that roughly one in three Canadians belongs to a union.
“He should be apologizing,” Dias said. “He just insulted 10 million Canadians. He just insulted the entire middle class.”
Wonder how the #CPC feels about #unions? Check it: "Good thing they're not unionized!" says @KenneyJason http://t.co/UMajddbows #canlab
— Unifor Canada (@UniforTheUnion) November 19, 2013
The Twitter account of Canada’s largest public sector union CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) wrote: “Unionized staff work til 12am all the time- but bosses don’t usually brag about it on twitter.” And its Alberta provincial section offered to help the minister’s staff:
Message to @kenneyjason 's staff: Call us, we can help. 1.877.YES.CUPE pic.twitter.com/R5ISa64mKi #cupe #yyc #canlab #cdnpoli
— CUPE Alberta Region (@CupeAB) November 19, 2013
More information:
Metro News – Employment Minister Jason Kenney tweets, then deletes, anti-union comment – here
Postmedia News – Employment minister Jason Kenney deletes anti-union tweet – here
Huffington Post Canada – Jason Kenney Tweets Anti-Union Joke, Deletes It – here
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