When a union member of the federal civil service gets "fired," he or she is not escorted out of the building with their possessions in a box, and the look of humiliation on their faces.

And nor will there be smoke rising above Staples as their resumes burn through the toner cartridges in hopes of getting a job before the bank repo's the house.

No, that only happens in the private sector.

In the public sector, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has a disproportionate grasp on the job controls, and it works them like a master.

As Canada's largest civil service union, it has a list of all job openings in the offing and, while the wait may occasionally be long, a person "fired" from pushing paper in one department rarely has a problem being given a job pushing paper in another.

Attrition in the federal civil service is responsible for more job cuts than pink slips doled out at the orders of any elected government.

Ask for some honesty from the NDP's Nycole Turmel, the former Bloc Quebecois-Quebec Solidaire member now serving as Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, who was recently PSAC's grand poobah.

And then watch her dodge the truth.

Nonetheless, every time the federal government announces job cuts -- and it is about time the Harper government brought down the axe after overgrowing the civil service by 33.000 bodies in the last five years -- the union, along with all the left-wing whingers in the media, begin warning of the coming of the apocalypse.

Make any cut to Environment Canada, however, and the rhetoric from the left is immediately ramped up to such epic proportion that the end of the world would appear to be nigh.

The moment it was announced, for example, that Environment Canada would have to shake 776 employees -- including 470 PSACers -- the union claimed it would lead to Canada's drinking water turning into swill, our ecosystems imploding, and our communities being poisoned by toxic waste.

And it expected Canadians to swallow this hyperbole, or face the prospect of every toilet in the country backing up in unison.

Time to flush out the truth.