FINAL TWO DAYS OF 2008 BC FEDERATION OF LABOUR CONVENTION
By Roger Annis
Friday, November 28, 2008—Policy discussion yesterday began with the crisis in the forest industry. Since the election of the provincial Liberal Party government in 2001 and its re-election in 2005, 54 sawmills, paper mills and wood manufacturing plants have closed in the province. Ten thousand jobs have been lost in 2008, 20,000 since 2001.
Delegates identified three reasons for the decline in the industry. One is the sharp downturn in the U.S. housing industry. Lumber exports to the U.S. from British Columbia dropped from $7.4 billion in 2005 to $6.7 billion in 2006, and the downward trend continues.
A second reason is deregulation and commodification of the system of allocating the right to cut lumber. Previously, tree cutting rights would be allocated to companies on condition that the wood fibre be processed locally. The Liberals have loosened the “coupling” of cutting to processing. One result has been a massive increase in the export of raw logs. Another has been escalating prices of tree cutting licenses as “decoupling” makes them attractive to speculators. Forest companies holding licenses are even beginning to make their lands available for real estate exploitation.
A third reason offered for the job decline is the trade agreement signed between the U.S. and Canada in 2006 to resolve a long-standing trade dispute over competing accusations of subsidies and favourable tax regimes for the lumber industries in the respective countries.
A just-published study by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives reports that forest companies in Canada have paid some half a billion dollars in export duties since the 2006 agreement. The same companies have received $2.5 billion in duties charged and held in reserve during the lengthy trade dispute. (I would like to refer the reader to a factual, comprehensive article explaining this subject free of political bias, but I can’t find one.)
The discussion featured a lot of angry testimonies by forest workers of the devastation of their jobs and communities. What was striking was the absence of any proposal for what to do except for one—to vote for the NDP in the provincial election next May and expect that it will solve the crisis.
There is no lack of will to struggle by forest workers. In 2004 and again in 2007, forest workers waged difficult and lengthy strikes against company efforts to impose cuts in working conditions and benefits. In both cases, the strikes did not receive enough solidarity and workers lost ground.
NDP leader speaks
Carole James, leader of the provincial New Democratic Party, addressed the convention and vowed the party would “retake the province on behalf of working people” in the May, 2009 provincial election. Great expectations are building towards the election of the party in 2009 and the expectation that it will repair the extensive social damage of the past eight years.
James made two specific pledges in her speech--one, to immediately legislate a ten dollar per hour minimum wage, and two, to build 2400 units of social housing in the first year of an NDP government.
Debate on economic crisis
The convention received the document “Canadian Labour Congress Response to the Economic Crisis” that was issued in September and it discussed an emergency resolution submitted by the resolutions committee.
The resolution proposes measures to protect the hardest-hit victims of the deepening economic crisis. It does not, however, address the most egregious examples of local impact of the economic and climate crisis, including the looming financial debacle of the 2010 Winter Olympics; expansion of oil and gas production in the north of the province and planned shale gas production in the same region; and the ongoing devastation of jobs and communities in the forest industry.
Discussion under the report of the Community and Social Action Committee heard testimony from front-line workers in social services. This is always one of the great values of attending a convention of the BC Federation of Labour. One learns to appreciate the deep humanity of those who work under near-impossible conditions to provide services from a government that is cutting deeply into these same services.
Harper government wage freeze, attack on union rights
The last topic of the day on Thursday was discussion of an emergency resolution responding to the just-announced “economic update” of the federal Conservative government. The resolution calls on the three opposition parties in Canada's Parliament to vote down the measures contained in the “update”. It calls on the opposition parties to form a coalition government whose economic policy would be geared to meeting the needs and concerns facing working people in economic difficulty. The Conservative measures include a freeze of the salaries and right to strike of federal government workers for at least two years, a sell-off (read privatization) of public assets at firesale prices, and restrictions on female federal government workers fighting for pay equity.
The convention resolution was discussed for 45 minutes. One delegate from the postal workers union criticized it, saying it should include proposals for public protest action.
The vote on the resolution was near to unanimous. In a point of order following the vote, a delegate from the postal workers stated for the record that some delegates of the union voted against the resolution out of a principled opposition to any proposal for a government coalition with the Liberal Party.
Convention hears from Ottawa
This morning, it was reported to the convention that the Quebec Federation of Labour has joined the call for the three opposition parties in Parliament to vote down the Conservative government and form a coalition government to replace it.
NDP Member of Parliament Don Davies spoke to the convention in place of Jack Layton, unable to attend due to events in Ottawa. He spoke strongly on issues of trade union rights and criticized the federal government “economic update” for failing to provide stimulus to the economy and for its violations of trade union rights. He held up the course of the incoming administration of President-elect Barak Obama in the U.S. as an example to follow.
“We are going to work to bring coalition government to this country,” he said, to repeated standing ovations.
Davies gave a factual account of the scope of the financial collapse and its fallout. “We believe that markets can bring prosperity,” he said, “but they can’t do it alone.”
“We believe in strategic investment in the economy.”
Davies announced a five-point economic plan announced Thursday by NDP leader Jack Layton:
* Financial regulations to protect homeowners and consumers. * Invest in the “new energy” economy and implement a national cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
* Invest in high technology companies and in companies that are “strategic” to the economy, such as in the automobile industry. Financial support to companies will be done on condition of receiving “an equity stake and a seat at the board of director’s table.”
* Renegotiate trade deals to favour companies that operate in Canada. Similarly, subsidies and bailouts should favour companies that produce in Canada.
* “Massive investments” in infrastructure projects, including public transit and house construction. Invest in the social infrastructure—education, health care, etc.
Davies spoke for a host of other progressive measures, including a federal minimum wage, a federal law outlawing strikebreaking, and emergency action to combat the poverty and denial of rights to Indigenous peoples in Canada.
“We need a fairer and more prosperous Canada,” Davis concluded, “and with your help, the New Democratic Party will lead a fight for this.”
Roger Annis is a delegate to the BC Federation of Labour convention from the Machinists union.
DAY THREE OF 2008 BC FEDERATION OF LABOUR CONVENTION
By Roger Annis, Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Day three began with discussion of a report of the Political Action Committee. A section of the committee’s report was the Federation’s “Count Me In” campaign. Initiated several years ago, the purpose of the campaign is to stimulate political discussion among workers in workplaces and communities.
The Federation of Labour is an affiliate of the New Democratic Party. “Count Me In” is a campaign to generate support to the party. Rather, it is to raise awareness and discussion of the most important issues affecting working people. Supporters of the NDP in the labour movement are confident that a careful study of key issues will logically lead workers to vote for the NDP as the only major party that comes close to the issues that concern us.
A delegate from my union, Alistair Haythornwaite, spoke in the discussion and made some important points. He said, in part, “The Machinists union recognizes the absolute necessity of political action. Workers cannot leave this field of battle to the exclusive realm of the apologists of finance capitalism, colonialism and imperialist war.
“Workers need a democratic constitution for Canada, its nations and peoples, that sweeps aside our colonial legacy and makes sets a priority on the welfare of the population.”
Haythornwaite said it is important for unions to carry political activism into the post-election period as well. “All too often,” he explained, “we take attention off of our elected representatives once in office. We know that can lead to unfortunate consequences.”
He gave several examples of political action by union and other social activists in the Cowichan Valley region of Vancouver Island. His wife, Eden, was reelected this fall as a local school trustee.
Proportional representation
A debate was held among delegates on different proportional representation voting systems. Next May during the provincial election, there will be a plebiscite on a form of proportional representation called “Single transferable vote.” The political action committee submitted a resolution opposed to STV and in favour of a different proportional representation system that will not be on the ballot, called Mixed Member Proportional. That resolution was defeated.
An appendix to the Political Action Committee report details the merits of each system. I don’t know if this will be available online following the convention. You can read about STV on Wikipedia, including at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote
Speech by president of the Canadian Labour Congress
Ken Georgetti addressed the convention and focused his remarks on the economic crisis in Canada. He said the crisis is a result of corporate greed and, “frankly, incompetence.”
Georgetti criticized the refusal of the Canadian government to dialogue with workers and their unions. He said that workers and unions need to be part of the discussions to solve the economic crisis. He did not, however, indicate what the Congress would do if the refusal to consult unions continues.
He outlined a four-point economic plan that the CLC will campaign for:
* A federal government program for job-creating infrastructure—roads, energy refits, etc.
* Such a program must have a “Made in Canada” procurement policy.
* Significant improvement in access to unemployment insurance and job training for laid off workers.
* A pension guarantee fund to be created by the federal government and paid for by a new, financial transaction tax.
Farmworker deaths
There were few dry eyes in the house following lunch when the session opened with guest presentations by family members of victims of two horrific workplace accidents on BC farms. On March 7, 2007, three women farmworkers of Indian origin died in a traffic accident while being transported to work in an unsafe vehicle. On September 5, 2008, three workers of Vietnamese origin died from asphyxiation on a mushroom farm. Two others were permanently disabled from the same accident.
The daughter of one of the mushroom workers outlined three rights that her family wants applied for all workers—the right to refuse unsafe work, the right to necessary training to work safely, and the right to access safe working equipment. She called for a law to enshrine these rights and a public inquiry into the circumstances of the six deaths mentioned above.
The provincial government has refused the calls for a public inquiry and has refused the requests of family members that the Federation of Labour join them in any discussions with the government and its agencies.
Finally, the convention rejected a constitutional amendment that would shift the conventions of the Federation from annual to biannual.
Roger Annis is a delegate to the BC Federation of Labour convention from the Machinists union.
DAY TWO OF BC FEDERATION OF LABOUR CONVENTION
By Roger Annis
Tuesday, November 25, 2008--Two important discussions took place on the second day of the BC Federation of Labour convention.
Climate change
The first discussion was climate change. A “working group” of the federation presented a report that was followed by lengthy discussion. This session was a bare-bones beginning that will require much expansion if the federation is to truly take on the issue in all of its gravity.
The committee report is focused on support to a “cap and trade” system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It frames its position in the terms of the Western Climate Initiative, an institution bringing together provincial and state governments in central and western Canada and along the west coast of the United States. As I and another delegate pointed out in discussion, cap and trade does not automatically ensure emission reductions. Companies can actually reap considerable profit from a free-for-all cap and trade system unless it is organized to ensure that revenues would be directed back to even more emission reductions.
Furthermore, experience in Europe has shown that companies can use cap and trade to export their pollution to other countries, including by purchasing credits in dubious emission-reduction schemes in poor countries.
The committee report made no reference to the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world--the tar sands of Alberta—nor to rapidly expanding greenhouse gas-emitting projects in British Columbia. The latter include rapidly expanding oil and natural gas production in the northeast of the province, huge sales of rights to shale gas exploitation in the same region (production is still hypothetical), and methane gas exploration in the northwest that has met stiff local opposition in recent months.
The absence of reference to these issues by the committee report is hopefully a sign of work to be done and not one of blind negligence.
Young workers
The second discussion was also lengthy, on the role of young workers in the labour movement. This was a truly inspiring session. A report from a recently-constituted youth committee of the federation was delivered, followed by a discussion period in which more than a dozen young delegates took part.
The report and the contributions by young delegates to the discussion period were proof of the visionary decision by the federation in 2006 to place a priority on building a youth committee. That decision has yielded a very rapid success. The youth committee and its members are without doubt destined for great achievements.
Among the campaigns of the youth committee are:
* An ongoing campaign to win a $10 per hour minimum wage (with more and more reference to $11 per hour).
* Ongoing education campaigning in high schools to inform students of their rights as workers.
* Organizing young workers into unions.
* Expanding a “Gen U” email and telephone network to link young workers and union members.
* Holding an annual Young Worker Conference sponsored by the Federation of Labour.
International solidarity
The international solidarity forum of the convention took place on Tuesday evening. The guest speaker was Patsy Sorenson, director of the PAYOKE organization in Belgium that campaigns against human trafficking. Her presentation was very moving. Unlike in Canada, significant progress has been made in Belgium to combat the exploitation of women who come to that country as virtual sex slaves.
A second presentation that evening was delivered by an activist in the building trades unions. He detailed three struggles that have been waged recently in BC for the rights of temporary, foreign construction workers and the vital role that unions played in assisting those workers.
This was a very informative evening, but I nonetheless question the choice of topic. I would have preferred to see an evening devoted to one or more of the pressing foreign policy issues in Canada today, namely Canada’s role in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, the ongoing deterioration of social and economic life in Haiti under United Nations and Canadian tutelage, and the recent signing by the Canadian government of a free trade agreement with the human rights-violating government of Colombia.
Next week, The Canadian Labour Congress and other unions are holding a public forum in Vancouver on the situation in Columbia.
BC Federation of Labour Convention Opens
By Roger Annis, Monday, November 24, 2008
VANCOUVER--Just over 1,000 delegates and guests opened the annual convention of the BC Federation here today.
The full force of the collapse of world financial markets has yet to hit the province of British Columbia. But the decline of the U.S. economy and the consequences of seven long years of a right-wing government under Premier Gordon Campbell have already taken a heavy toll on working people in the province. This fact, and the prospect of a provincial election to take place in six months, lends an urgency to convention deliberations.
Capitalist assault on working people
The province’s principal industry--paper and wood products—has seen the loss of 20,000 jobs in the past two years. Poverty and homelessness have increased sharply since Campbell’s first election in 2001. The minimum wage has been frozen at $8 per hour since then. British Columbia has had the highest rate of child poverty in Canada for the past four years.
Several tens of thousands of health care workers saw their jobs privatized and their wages nearly halved by Campbell’s Liberals following a defeated strike in 2004. Health and education services have declined. British Columbia is a growing emitter of greenhouse gases, notwithstanding the government’s impressive “greenwashing.” Its claim to be “green” is entirely undeserved, but most environmental groups in the province have signed onto the claim.
The hardest hit by the Campbell government have been the original inhabitants, the several hundred thousand Indigenous people living within the provincial boundaries. The Campbell government set the tone for attacks on aboriginal rights when it staged a racist plebiscite in 2002 purportedly setting guidelines for treaty negotiations with Indigenous people. The vote passed with only one third of voters participating.
Federation President’s Speech
BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair’s delivered a featured speech that kicked off the convention. It summarized the difficult challenges facing the working class in the province. Layoffs in forestry, government cuts to health and education services, attacks on the rights of temporary foreign workers, poverty and the risible minimum wage in British Columbia-these and other important issues were addressed in the speech.
Sinclair also talked about the world economic crisis. “Capitalism is to blame,” he said when summarizing the devastating collapse of the world financial system and its consequences for the economic cycle. He returned to this theme several times. Capitalism as a system has failed.
But it seems there is an overwhelming reluctance among leaders of the labour answer to draw the appropriate conclusions from the failure of capitalism, for in the same speech, Sinclair repeated several times, that, “If the corporations don’t clean up their act and start providing jobs and sustainable economic development, then we will step in and do it for them.”
“If” they don’t start providing economic progress? Why the “if”? Their system has proven itself spectacularly incapable of running the world. So what are we waiting for?
Indigenous sovereignty and women’s rights
Two pressing social issues dominated discussion on the first day. One was women’s rights. A comprehensive report from the Federation women’s committee was presented and discussed, with the fight for affordable child care getting particular attention.
The other issue was Indigenous rights. A moving and symbolic signing ceremony was held of a “protocol of solidarity” between the Federation of Labour and organizations of Indigenous peoples in the province. (The text of the protocol will become available in the coming days.) Moving talks were delivered to delegates by Ed John of the First Nations Summit, Stewart Philip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and Shawn Atleo of the BC Assembly of First Nations.
Stephen Lewis speaks
A typically moving speech to the convention was delivered by special guest Stephen Lewis. He is an iconic, lifetime social democratic leader in Canada who has also served as a United Nations special representative on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. His speech reviewed the social and economic carnage stemming from the present crisis. Echoing Jim Sinclair, Lewis declared, “I have believed all my life that the capitalism is a wretched social and economic system.”
Speaking on the climate crisis, Lewis said, “Having carefully studied the issue, I am convinced that an environmental apocalypse is in the offing sometime between 2030 and 2050 if the world does not make the fundamental changes that are needed.”
Lewis’ talk was long on critique of the present economic order, but short on solutions. After explaining in stark and horrifying detail the terrible conditions of poverty he has observed in Africa, he said, “I honestly don’t understand how the world works and how it could produce such horrors.”
He ended his speech with a call to support non-governmental organizations such as CARE, Save the Children, and OXFAM. According to a growing number of international critics, ngo’s such as these are increasingly a part of the international system that is strangling the peoples of the Third World.
2010 Winter Olympics debacle
Apart from the crisis in the forestry industry already mentioned, the most visible consequence of the recent financial collapse is the financial debacle now surrounding the 2010 Winter Olympics that will open in just over one year in Vancouver. The Games are now shaping up to be a financial debacle that will leave taxpayers in British Columbia and Canada with a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars to pay off. (For detail, see this author’s article on the recent municipal election in Vancouver at: http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=344)
The uncomfortable reality facing the trade unions in the province is that they and their political party, the New Democratic Party, supported the bid for the Games. The unions have just completed a successful electoral campaign that brought two parties supporting the Games—Vision and the Coalition of Progressive Electors—into office in the city of Vancouver. How will the labour movement explain itself as the financing of the Games comes apart and stiffs taxpayers with an enormous bill to pay?
Some new voices
There are some 90 delegates to this convention under the age of thirty, compared to 38 at the last convention. One of those young delegates, Harsha Walia, spoke to the convention during discussion of the women’s rights reports. She is a delegate from BCGEU and a well-known activist in No One Is Illegal. She added valuable commentary to the report of the committee and received a standing ovation from delegates.
Mike Palecek, delegate from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and an editor of Fightback magazine, spoke during a resolution calling for the nationalization of the oil industry in Canada. He spoke on his recent visit to Venezuela and the experience of workers there in fighting for the nationalization of their industries by the Bolivarian government of President Hugo Chavez. He, too, received a strong ovation.
The resolution on nationalization passed overwhelmingly.
Roger Annis is a delegate to the BC Federation of Labour convention. He can be reached at [email protected].
Strike by 5,000 B.C. Grocery Workers Narrowly Averted
By Roger Annis.
VANCOUVER BC, July 10, 2008—Five thousand workers at one of British Columbia’s largest grocery chains, the Overwaitea Food Group (OFG), have ended a difficult round of collective bargaining by voting by 75 per cent in favour of a new agreement.
In late June, workers voted by 58 per cent to reject a proposed agreement recommended by their union bargaining committee. The union, United Food and Commercial Workers, then announced a strike to begin on June 28. That was blocked when the company applied for a mediation process that was compulsory, under law, for the union. A revised proposal was then mediated/negotiated and put to a second vote on July 6 and 7.
Two tier wages at issue
The workers are employed at 27 of OFG’s Save On Foods supermarkets in the greater Vancouver region of British Columbia. OFG is part of the business conglomerate of local billionaire James Pattison. Negotiations for close to 20,000 other workers at grocery chains throughout the province will now proceed, notably at Safeway, the Loblaws-owned Superstore and its budget spin-offs, and Save On stores elsewhere in British Columbia. The agreement at the OFG-owned Price Smart budget chain expires in 2010.
Save On workers set three goals for their bargaining committee—a hefty wage increase, elimination of a two-tier wage scale, and an end to the conversion of Save On stores to the lower-wage Price Smart. Among the reasons cited for rejection of the first proposal were that it gave better wage increases to higher-paid workers, it maintained the two-tier wage setup, and it offered too little protection against Price Smart conversions.
The new agreement is for five years. The two-tier pay scale, known as Grids A and B, remains in place. All current employees will receive a $1 per hour wage increase, then a fifty cent increase for each of the following four years.
The minimum rate for Grid B will immediately rise to $9.75 per hour for the most common job classification and then stay there for the life of the agreement. (“Service clerks” start at $9 per hour, but receive better social benefits than those starting at $9.75). The maximum rate for Grid B will rise from about $12 to $15.60. The number of steps to reach the top increases, to 7,080 hours. This could be reached within four years if the part-time employee works the extra hours, equivalent to full-time, that many are offered.
A new hire at $9 or $9.75 per hour moves to $10.10 after 520 hours of work.
The minimum rate for Grid A will rise in the fourth and fifth years of the agreement, from $15.20 to $15.80; the top rate will go from $22.50 to $23.70. Reaching the top rate will take a full-time employee two and a half years.
The collective agreement provides for a worker to move from Grid B to Grid A, according to seniority and job openings.
The $1 per hour increase is “off-grid”, as are the annual 50 cent increases. More modest increases are introduced to the “grid” (wage scale). As one worker commented in an e-mail forum, “I have to say that I’m just not terribly impressed by off the grid wage increases. Like signing a bonus, they really don’t do much to improve the actual contract upon which future contracts will be negotiated. If they don’t do the same thing on the next deal, those people who are a buck and a half above the grid…could essentially have their wages frozen until the next grid catches up to them.”
Concerning the future of Save On outlets, the new agreement limits to six the number of stores in B.C. that can be converted to Price Smart or an equivalent. Improvements to job security were won for workers facing store closings or conversions.
Company/government assault on grocery workers
The two-tier wage scale was imposed by the grocery chains during the late 1990’s as they launched a coordinated attack on wages and working conditions. Strikes at Safeway in British Columbia in 1996 and later in Alberta did not stop the onslaught. The doors were opened to concessions imposed on the whole industry.
As a result of the company offensive, well-paid, full time jobs went into decline, to be replaced by poorly-paid, part-time positions. Today at OFG, some 70 per cent of the jobs are Grid B.
Several workers interviewed for this article believe that the ratio of full-time jobs to part time at Save On will slowly rise because of improvements in the new agreement. The collective agreement provides for a 50-50 ratio of full to part time jobs, except for new stores. These can operate with 25 (full-time)-75 (part-time) for seven years.
A sign of how ruthless the grocery chains could be without a unionized workforce was delivered at the outset of Save On negotiations when OFG demanded the right to schedule shifts of two hours. The collective agreement sets a minimum of four hours.
Two-hour call-ins were made legal by the Liberal Party provincial government that was elected in 2001. They have become widespread in non-union, food service workplaces.
According to Andy Neufeld, spokesperson for UFCW 1518, “The collective agreements at Overwaitea and Safeway, as negotiated by UFCW and its members, have been and remain the best agreements in the retail food industry in North America.”
There is a challenge that confronts the labour movement in British Columbia through this struggle. The BC Federation of Labour has for several years campaigned for a $10 per hour minimum wage. The pattern now set in the grocery industry will leave new hires earning as little as $9 per hour five years from now, though, as mentioned, a collective agreement allows workers to break through the $10 ceiling after 520 hours of work.
Neufeld also explained, “We pushed really hard for a starting wage of $10.10. The company absolutely refused to budge on this issue.
“We, of course, support the federation of labour’s $10 per hour campaign.”
A legislated increase in the minimum wage supersedes the provisions of any collective agreement, so it’s no wonder that the provincial government has refused the demand for $10. Its corporate backers, such as Overwaitea group, are bitterly opposed.
Another irony in this struggle is the presence of Glen Clark in the inner circle of the Jim Pattison Group, the conglomerate that owns Overwaitea Food Group. Clark is Executive Vice-President. He is also a former B.C. New Democratic Party leader and premier.
Clark was offered a position by Pattison in 1999 after he was driven from the premier’s office by a police-led smear campaign conceived by the wealthy elite of the province and supported by leaders within his own party. He was later vindicated in court, but at the time of the smear campaign he chose to resign rather than fight what amounted to a coup d’etat. He has climbed the Pattison corporate ladder ever since.
Roger Annis is a trade union member in Vancouver and a co-editor of Socialist Voice.
CLC Convention Highlights the Challenges Facing the Labour Movement in Canada
The following article appears on the websites of Socialist Voice (www.socialistvoice.ca) and the Socialist Project (www.socialistproject.ca).
By Roger Annis. The triennial convention of the Canadian Labour Congress held in Toronto from May 26 to 30, 2008 revealed the positive changes that have edged their way into the labour movement in recent years. It also showed the weighty obstacles that stand in the way of the organization’s transformation into a more militant, fighting force on behalf of the working class.
On the positive side, a number of resolutions reflected the social rights work and spirit of solidarity on important issues by Congress affiliates, union activists and social movements that overlap with the labour movement. Chief among these was a resolution opposing Canada’s participation in the imperialist war of aggression in Afghanistan. It was adopted by a large majority of delegates and it calls for an end to that war and the immediate withdrawal of Canadian soldiers. (The resolution and the debate surrounding it can be read on this author’s blogsite).
The CLC’s support to women’s rights was symbolized by a ceremony presenting a lifetime humanitarian award to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a pioneer in the struggle for women’s right to abortion. Important women’s rights resolutions were adopted, such as one in favour of a universal, affordable childcare program in Canada. The CLC and its affiliates have campaigned on this issue.
Notwithstanding feeble policy resolutions (more on this later), the convention devoted a lot of time to discussion on the urgent climate change crisis and to the harsh social and economic conditions facing Indigenous peoples in Canada. It examined the unique challenges facing unions as the number of part-time and “temporary” jobs grows, while hundreds of thousands of “temporary” workers from other countries, allowed into Canada to work in low-paid jobs, are deprived of legal citizenship rights, including the right to join trade unions. The convention was marked by frank debate on these issues.
Other examples of progressive resolutions and sympathies among the 1,700 delegates and dozens of affiliates of the Congress gathered in Toronto could be cited. But this would describe only a part of what the convention revealed and potentially misdirect those seeking a program to lead the labour movement forward. The overarching conclusion to draw from the convention is the growing gap between worsening economic, social and political conditions faced by workers today in Canada and the world, on the one hand, and the still-limited will and capacity of trade unions to fight for effective improvements in these conditions.
An action plan for change
The convention adopted an Action Plan on its final day that was prepared by the newly elected executive council of the CLC. It reads, “The CLC will mobilize the affiliates, federations and labour councils to lead a broad, diverse and inclusive movement for social change.”
The document highlights five areas of attention—renewing and expanding trade union membership and unity; fighting for women’s equality; defending and expanding public services; fighting for jobs and environmental protection; and opposing the war in Afghanistan, including by building solidarity with the peoples of that country. It concludes, “…let us commit ourselves to continue to work in solidarity to achieve our goals and build a society that meets the needs of working people and their families.”
The Action Plan does not describe how the Congress could mobilize its members to achieve these goals. It says the Congress will devote resources and attention to supporting the New Democratic Party in federal and provincial elections. In Quebec, the picture gets muddier because the plan says the CLC will support the “political choices of unions in Quebec.” Those choices happen to be support for two parties—the Bloc québécois federally and the Parti québécois provincially—that have neither meaningful ties nor accountability to the unions.
The NDP in power has been a disappointment to workers. It has attacked social programs and workers rights, such as in British Columbia and Ontario during the 1990s. The NDP governments in those provinces demobilized and discouraged the working class, leaving it vulnerable to even harsher attacks by the governments that succeeded them. The same pattern has just repeated itself in Saskatchewan.
If the NDP today is unable to inspire and mobilize workers to elect it to office, it’s because it doesn’t want to challenge the domination of the capitalists and the laws of their market system over economic and social life.
Two examples, among many that could be cited, illustrate the Action Plan’s shortcomings. One, the tar sands projects in northern Alberta are responsible for some of the worst environmental and humanitarian destruction on the planet. But the CLC and the NDP fail to fight for the one thing that could end the destruction—a planned and orderly shutdown of the entire project and a massive reorientation of the Canadian economy away from reliance on fossil fuels and towards sustainable energy production. This necessarily requires proposals to secure alternative training and employment for workers in the tar sands, including for the workers from abroad who have earned the right to stay in Canada if they so wish. Such a reorientation of the Canadian economy would require a head-on battle with the oil companies, not to mention leaving NAFTA.
Two, the Indigenous peoples in Canada are engaged in unprecedented struggles against calamitous social and economic conditions. These struggles illustrate, and are demanding, forms of political sovereignty. The federal and provincial governments have responded by criminalizing their causes and arresting or threatening their most outspoken leaders. The CLC convention featured guest speakers that delivered powerful and moving condemnations of Canadian government policy. Policy discussions on Indigenous rights issues were informed. But the convention did not take a stand in support of the most important of the current battles, such as the sovereignty struggles of the Haudenosaunee peoples in southwest and southeast Ontario (Six Nations and Tyendinaga, respectively), and the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) people in northwest Ontario.
More generally, the Action Program fails to project a struggle for a radically different society, one based on social justice and respect for the natural environment.
Labour needs an authoritative voice
One of the challenges facing the labour movement today is unity. In the years after its foundation in 1956, the Canadian Labour Congress was a central voice of the unions and the working class in Canada. In 1961, it co-founded the New Democratic Party with the goal of fighting for a government that would represent workers’ interests. The prospects for a new, progressive party of the working class looked good in the early years of the NDP, including in Quebec. This made the role of a unified labour central like the CLC all the more relevant.
Today, the labour movement speaks with many voices. The autonomy accorded to the CLC affiliate in Quebec, the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ), is a progressive development over the past several decades that reflects a recognition of the national rights of the Quebecois people. But it does not follow that there should be two distinct trade union movements in Canada with little common purpose. That is what has evolved, by default. It was quite a surprise to this observer to see how limited was participation at the CLC convention by delegates from Quebec. Less than ten percent of reports and contributions to this year’s CLC convention were in the French language. Despite the formal availability of translation services, it was, for all intents and purposes, an English-language convention.
Many CLC affiliates have evolved to become mini-labour centrals of their own. Unions such as steelworkers and autoworkers, to choose only two examples, include members from every walk of life. Industrial unions are organizing non-industrial workers under the pressure of the decline of employment and union membership in their respective industries or an inability to convince unorganized, industrial workers of the value of union membership. It’s wrong if this gets in the way of having a recognized voice of the entire labour movement.
Organizing efforts would be much more effective if they were part of a common plan of action by the labour movement as a whole to create or support existing unions in those unorganized sectors.
Trade union independence
A recent and disturbing trend in the union movement has seen some unions engage in sweetheart deals with companies in search of the almighty dues dollar. The CAW’s deal with Magna Corporation earlier this year comes to mind. So too the attempt by the Steelworkers to gain representation at the Dofasco steelmaker in Hamilton (see Socialist Project, February 3, 2008 and July 3, 2008).
In the retail grocery business, the United Food and Commercial Workers union has received automatic representation in the spin-off budget stores of the major grocery chains, on condition of accepting lower-wage collective agreements. This stems from the pressure on the retail industry of the non-union Wal-Mart juggernaut. The low wages and poor conditions contained in these agreements dampens workers’ desire at Wal-Mart or other unorganized companies to join unions. How can the labour movement inspire Wal-Mart workers to join the UFCW? What can be done to win better conditions in the retail grocery sector?
Left currents within the CLC
Organized left forces at the CLC convention were weak, given the opening to radical thought and action that otherwise characterized convention proceedings.
A left caucus of delegates came together on the eve of the convention to discuss a published program issued by activists in the labour council in Toronto and elsewhere in the country. Titled “An Action Agenda,” it posited a need to struggle, “To Build Labour Power in the 21st Century” (www.labouraction.ca). Some 150 delegates met for an initial discussion of this program and had a positive exchange of ideas. But there were no follow-up meetings of this character to assess and direct a fight for the ideas of the program on the convention floor. And when it came time to elect a new executive council of the CLC, the caucus presented no candidates. The outgoing executive was re-elected by acclamation.
The Action Agenda said that three things were needed in order to win labour power in the 21st century: “grass-roots mobilization in both the workplace and the community”; commitment by CLC affiliates to “provide the leadership and resources necessary to build and sustain long-term campaigns”; and “the ability to combine formal electoral organizing with the building of popular movements.” This falls well short of a description of what “labour power” would look like, and how it could be achieved.
“Labour power” must ultimately mean “government power.” To create a society of social justice, working people — our social movements, trade unions and political parties — must take government power out of the control of the capitalists and wield it to lead a transformation of society, out of the dog-eat-dog world of capitalism and into socialism.
How can workers in Canada move towards such a goal? Are parties such as the NDP or the Bloc and Parti québécois a help or a hindrance along this road? What lessons can be drawn from countries such as Cuba and Venezuela, whose people are fighting a life and death struggle for socialism today? Such questions are not addressed in the Action Agenda, nor were they featured in the caucus discussions.
A recent step towards labour power in Canada was the formation in 2006 of a new, progressive part of the left in Quebec, Québec solidaire. Although it is not clear whether this new party will continue in a positive direction, the lessons of its first two years nonetheless warrant serious discussion. Unfortunately, members of the party were not in attendance at the CLC convention — or, if they were, their presence was unknown to delegates.
Can workers/unions win political power in Canada?
So what kind of political program is needed today in the labour movement in Canada? Here are some ideas offered in the hope that the discussion begun in Toronto will continue and deepen.
The CLC convention was an important gathering point for ideas and action proposals. The desire for a more combative labour movement, expressed by so many delegates, is a hopeful sign for the future.
Roger Annis was a delegate to the 2008 Canadian Labour Congress convention.
Day Five of the CLC convention
By Roger Annis, Thursday, May 29, 2008
Political action
Day number five opened with the presentation and discussion of a ten-point political action policy paper. The paper reaffirms the CLC’s support to the New Democratic Party and it speaks of other forms of political action to achieve legislative change for improved labour legislation, women’s rights, and Indigenous peoples’ rights. It reads:
“In this time of increased corporate power, hostile media, anti-labour politicians and governments, our affiliates must continue to build labour’s political activism and heighten efforts to influence the broader community. The Congress and affiliates must increase the desire of union members and their families to be part of something that engages them and ultimately creates a more equitable and just Canada.”
The profound attacks on peoples’ rights that mark the new (read, same old) world of globalization, the “war on terrorism” and environmental calamity require new and far more activist strategies to not only hold onto the accomplishments of the past but move forward to a radically new vision of government and society. I believe that the submitted policy paper falls short of this challenge.
In the debate on the paper, a delegate from the CUPW spoke to the political divisions within the labour movement today. The CAW, one of the largest affiliates of the CLC, supports “strategic voting” in support of the Liberal Party. In Quebec, the CLC’s affiliate, the Quebec Federation of Labour, supports the Bloc Quebecois federally.
The delegate also spoke to failings of the New Democratic Party to defend trade union rights. For example two New Democratic Party provincial governments, in Manitobaand Saskatchewan, refuse to implement anti-scab legislation. Rolf Gerstenberger of Steelworkers local 1005 in Hamiltonspoke to the same problem. He said he was in favour of the policy paper but faces a problem. His local union holds weekly discussion meetings on “how can workers and trade unions gain more power” in society. Participation at the meetings varies from 50 members to several hundred. But a dilemma has been introduced into these discussions—a “crime against workers” was committed during the recent strike of transit workers in Torontowhen they were ordered by a unanimous vote in the Ontario legislature to end the strike. The NDP voted for the legislation. He said the vote shows that workers and unions have no reliable representatives in the Ontario legislature.
A significant new political party of the left was founded in Quebec in 2006, Quebec solidaire, but it has no presence at the convention. No delegate from Quebec spoke in the debate on the political action policy paper.
Address from Australia
The convention heard an address via video link from the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sharan Burrow. She is also the president of the
newly-created unitary international labour federation, the International Trade Union Confederation. She gave a summary of the campaign that Australian unions waged last year to defeat the ultra-reactionary government of John Howard and elect the Labour Party back into office.
I was in Australia during that election campaign and wrote a comprehensive article on it. You can read that at http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=220.
Speech by NDP Leader Jack Layton
Following a vote in favour of the paper on political action, Jack Layton, federal leader of the New Democratic Party, addressed the convention. His speech
outlined the key social rights that he said the NDP supports and fights for—public health care, radically-improved employment insurance, universal, quality day care.
His speech spent some time on Indigenous people’s rights. Like Phil Fontaine earlier in the week, he spoke movingly in favour of necessary improvements to social rights but made no mention of current confrontations over political sovereignty and criminalization of political rights struggles between Indigenous activists and supporters and provincial and federal governments.
Layton spoke of the growing job losses in manufacturing in Canada. He said the answer to this crisis is for the federal government to devise
industry-specific plans that use public money to support companies in financial difficulty.
Layton touched on environmental challenges. He called for “slowing down” Alberta Tar Sands projects and said that private investment in new alternative energy industries was a big part of the solution to job losses.
Apart from a brief reference to human rights violations in Colombia, there was no mention in Layton’s speech of international affairs.
Afghanistan resolution
Prior to lunch, the World Committee presented its second and final report. A composite resolution on Afghanistan was presented that reads as follows:
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) will demand of all political parties in our Parliament to take steps immediately to end the military occupation in Afghanistan and to implement the disengagement of Canadian forces and to bring home our Canadian soldiers from the illegal war in Afghanistan. The CLC will assist affiliates to educate and mobilize their membership to oppose the Canadian military intervention in Afghanistan. The CLC will continue to work with partners in the Canadian Peace Alliance to educate Canadians about the war. The CLC will build solidarity with Afghani workers, social justice and women’s organizations.
Because Canadians have a proud history of committing our Armed Forces to the role of peacekeepers dating back to the end of World War 2.
Because there are no clear objectives, accomplishments or benefits for Canadians in this war in which dozens of young Canadians and hundreds of innocent Afghan citizens are being killed.
Because our young soldiers are dying in a war in Afghanistanin the role of invading army with no mandate from Canadian citizens. Because the Harper government’s military intervention in Afghanistanis not contributing to establishing peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
Because the Canadian government’s military campaign is based on supporting American political, economic and military interests rather than on contributing to establishing peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
Because the Canadian government’s military campaign is based on supporting American political, economic and military interests rather than on contributing to peace in the region.
Because the actions of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization occupation is increasing the violence in Afghanistan.
Because the massive amounts of money spent on the military in Afghanistanwould best be used for funding health care, education, job creation and social services.
Because the labour movement has always been at the center of any struggle for peace and justice.
The first speaker was a leader of the Union of National Defence Employees, an affiliate of the PSAC. The union’s delegates would support the resolution; it became clear, which is a significant and welcome shift in position from this union. He expressed the union’s concern that a withdrawal from Afghanistanbe carried out in a manner that protects the safety and security of its Canadian troops and civilian personnel.
A young delegate of the Steelworkers in Toronto made a hard-hitting contribution condemning the predatory character of Canadian foreign policy. She spoke in defence of the Palestinian people and against the oppressor Israeli government.
Dave Coles of the CEP (paperworkers) union condemned what he called an illegal occupation of Afghanistan by Canada and other big powers.
Another UNDE member spoke in support of the resolution but made a vigorous defence of the Canadian military role in Afghanistan. Her daughter is
presently engaged in Afghanistan. “I encourage you to support the military, support my daughter,” she concluded, to considerable applause.
Dave Bleakney of CUPW detailed the “war crimes” and destruction of Afghanistan being perpetrated by Canadaand the rest of the foreign
occupation. He also spoke of the degrading of democratic rights in the countries of the occupying forces in the name of the“war of terrorism.” The resolution was adopted overwhelmingly.
Next, a resolution was presented calling on Canada to increase its contribution to foreign aid to .7% of Gross National Product. I spoke and summarized the record of failure and betrayal of Canadian “aid” and intervention towards the peoples of Afghanistan, Haiti and Palestine. I said that international solidarity in the unions should be focused on supporting the capacity of trade unions and other popular organizations of oppressed peoples to struggle for political power and sovereignty.
National Day of Indigenous Protest
During the lunch break, several hundred delegates joined a march of app. 1000 people through the streets of Torontoto mark the National Day of Indigenous
Protest and affirm Indigenous political sovereignty. Among the many banners and contingents on the march was one from the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium in eastern Ontario. They are united with the Ardoch-Algonquin people in opposing a proposed uranium mine project.
Expanding union membership
In the afternoon, Robert Hickey of Queen’s University gave a special presentation on the fight to expand trade union membership. He reported that union membership in Canadahas grown by 660,000 in the last ten years. But during that same time, union density has dropped from 33.7% to 31.5% of the salaried work force.
Hickey sounded a warning that the worsening of labour laws and deterioration of the economic situation would cause declining union membership if we do not make a sharp and fundamental turn in organizing efforts. For example, union density in manufacturing and forestry has fallen to 23% of the workforce. Since the 1980’s, the average number of new, union certifications per year has fallen by almost 50%.
Hickey reported that his research has found three elements that are common to successful organizing drives:
Providing the necessary resources to organizers, including experienced staff who share experiences with targeted workers, eg women, youth and workers of minority nationalities.
Having a committee inside of the targeted workplace.
Establishing benchmarks by which to measure success and failure.
Three other features that Hickey identified were--bringing new leaders into the unions; providing real and meaningful support to organizing drives; and integrate organizing work into all of our activity.
A policy paper was introduced and approved following a lengthy and informed discussion, entitled “Organizing: Growth and strength.” One delegate spoke against the paper, saying it was not bold enough.
One of the successful union organizing drives in recent times has been the creation and growth of the UNITE union in New Zealand. I wrote an article on this inspiring story in October 2007 that you can read at http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=228.
Lengthy discussion continued on resolutions for the right of unions to organize and strike. Sid Ryan of CUPE Ontario made an impassioned speech saying that bold action was needed to defend the right to strike. It was reported to the convention that unions in Saskatchewan are facing threats by the new Saskatchewan Party government to severely limit the right to strike. Ryan argued that unions in that province should begin to prepare strike
action to oppose the legislation.
FINAL DAY OF THE CLC CONVENTION
Friday May 30, 2008
By Roger Annis, Delegate of IAM Local 11
Participation at the convention is down by app. one half on this final day of the convention.
Vancouver’s safe injection site
The day opened with a resolution to support the continued operation of the Insight safe-injection drug site in Vancouver, the only one in the country. The resolution took on added urgency because Minister of Health Tony Clement announced yesterday that the federal government would appeal a British Columbia court decision earlier this week that said users of the site warranted protection from Canada’s drug laws under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that guarantees “Life, liberty and security of the person.” The decision gave the government one year to redraft Canada’s drug laws so as to provide legal protection to Insight and other such centers that may open
Delegates expressed a lot of anger against the government decision and several told very moving and emotional personal stories of why services as Insight for drug addicts are so important.
More international resolutions
Two international resolutions were debated and approved in support of human rights in Burma and Colombia. Debate included comments on the political situation in Colombia from a number of delegates who have recently traveled there. Unfortunately, few convention delegates would have heard from the trade union leader from Colombia who was an invited guest to the convention, Luis Hernan Correa Miranda, First Vice-President of the Unitary Workers Central (CUT).
I was fortunate to attend a small gathering of international guests where Miranda spoke. He offered opinion on the civil war and the role of the FARC that I found very informative.
Palestine at the CLC convention
Manawell Abdul Al, member of the executive of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), was in Toronto during the CLC convention as a guest of Labour for Palestine. He is a keynote speaker at the L4P conference to begin this evening. He spoke with Paul Chery of the CTH of Haiti at a parallel international solidarity forum two days ago.
Manawell is a member of the executive committee of the PGFTU. Unfortunately, he was not offered a guest delegate status at the CLC, though a request was made. Manawell is a strong supporter of the PGFTU position on boycott of Israeli apartheid. The CLC has refused to address the 2005 call by Palestinian workers, trade unions and grassroots organizations for boycott of Israeli apartheid. Two CLC affiliates have supported this call—the Ontario division of CUPE, and more recently the national convention of the Canadian Union of Postal workers.
CLC Action Plan
A one-hour session of the convention was devoted to a discussion of a four-page “CLC Action Plan Convention 2008.” The convention voted to make this session a “working committee,” meaning a session in which the Executive Council solicits and receives commentary on the plan and incorporate it into a final version. The document was a very brief summary of resolutions adopted at the convention.
This was the session of the convention where the most number of delegates spoke. Most speakers argued that the action plan should be strengthened to make it a more militant and activist plan. One delegate from CUPE, Rafeef Ziavah, called on the convention to support the appeal of Palestinian unions for a boycott of the Israeli apartheid regime.
Can workers/unions win political power in Canada?
I did not have the opportunity to speak in the discussion on the action plan. Line-ups at the microphones were too long by the time I tried. Had I been quicker on my feet I would have said three things:
* The CLC needs an international policy that supports trade unions and popular movements fighting for social justice. We should recognize the predatory character of the Canadian government and ruling class and their international allies. Our union movement should advance an independent, working class foreign policy that combats the illusion that the military forces of Canada, the U.S. and their allies could be a positive force in the world. Aid and liberation to oppressed peoples and countries will come through solidarity action, especially from governments such as Cuba and Venezuela who have proven in real life their commitments to freedom and social justice for all.
* The CLC needs to become a fighting trade union central that uses the methods of alliances and mass mobilization to achieve our goals. Some CLC components are becoming such trade unions, but it’s an uneven process. Many delegates throughout the convention said the trade union movement should be paying a leading role in creating a broader social movement for change, and they expressed frustration that this is not happening as fast as it should.
* Finally, unions and working people need to fight for a government that will lead the fight for a society of social justice. The New Democratic Party was founded in 1961 for just that purpose. The CLC was at the center of the founding of the NDP and remains central to the party today. But the NDP has never risen above minority status in the federal Parliament. There are two big reasons why.
One, the party’s program and action orientation is timid. The party fails to challenge the control by corporations over the government and society. It does not consistently stand for trade union and working class rights.
Two, the absence of a meaningful political alliance with the Quebec labour movement condemns the NDP to minority status in the federal Parliament. While it’s not excluded that the NDP could become the future labour party of Quebecois working people, this seems highly unlikely. Most Quebecois workers do not support the NDP because it has failed to recognize their historical status as a nation and it does not have policy that follows from that reality.
In Quebec, the trade union movement supports the Bloc quebecois that, while supporting the occasional issue of trade union rights such as anti-scab legislation, is in no way a labour party such as the NDP or left progressive party such as Quebec solidaire.
The new Quebec solidaire party offers some hope and prospect for the development of a progressive labour party. It recently won some 10% of the vote in a provincial by-election in the Hull/Gatineau region. But the party does not contest federal elections.
Two additional complications for the NDP today are its timid program on the environmental crisis that barely distinguishes it from the Green Party, and it refusal to champion the growing struggles for political sovereignty by the Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Convention adjournment
The convention adjourned at 11:45 am, earlier than planned because so many delegates had left that the required quorum (delegate attendance) was lost.
By Roger Annis
Friday, November 28, 2008—Policy discussion yesterday began with the crisis in the forest industry. Since the election of the provincial Liberal Party government in 2001 and its re-election in 2005, 54 sawmills, paper mills and wood manufacturing plants have closed in the province. Ten thousand jobs have been lost in 2008, 20,000 since 2001.
Delegates identified three reasons for the decline in the industry. One is the sharp downturn in the U.S. housing industry. Lumber exports to the U.S. from British Columbia dropped from $7.4 billion in 2005 to $6.7 billion in 2006, and the downward trend continues.
A second reason is deregulation and commodification of the system of allocating the right to cut lumber. Previously, tree cutting rights would be allocated to companies on condition that the wood fibre be processed locally. The Liberals have loosened the “coupling” of cutting to processing. One result has been a massive increase in the export of raw logs. Another has been escalating prices of tree cutting licenses as “decoupling” makes them attractive to speculators. Forest companies holding licenses are even beginning to make their lands available for real estate exploitation.
A third reason offered for the job decline is the trade agreement signed between the U.S. and Canada in 2006 to resolve a long-standing trade dispute over competing accusations of subsidies and favourable tax regimes for the lumber industries in the respective countries.
A just-published study by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives reports that forest companies in Canada have paid some half a billion dollars in export duties since the 2006 agreement. The same companies have received $2.5 billion in duties charged and held in reserve during the lengthy trade dispute. (I would like to refer the reader to a factual, comprehensive article explaining this subject free of political bias, but I can’t find one.)
The discussion featured a lot of angry testimonies by forest workers of the devastation of their jobs and communities. What was striking was the absence of any proposal for what to do except for one—to vote for the NDP in the provincial election next May and expect that it will solve the crisis.
There is no lack of will to struggle by forest workers. In 2004 and again in 2007, forest workers waged difficult and lengthy strikes against company efforts to impose cuts in working conditions and benefits. In both cases, the strikes did not receive enough solidarity and workers lost ground.
NDP leader speaks
Carole James, leader of the provincial New Democratic Party, addressed the convention and vowed the party would “retake the province on behalf of working people” in the May, 2009 provincial election. Great expectations are building towards the election of the party in 2009 and the expectation that it will repair the extensive social damage of the past eight years.
James made two specific pledges in her speech--one, to immediately legislate a ten dollar per hour minimum wage, and two, to build 2400 units of social housing in the first year of an NDP government.
Debate on economic crisis
The convention received the document “Canadian Labour Congress Response to the Economic Crisis” that was issued in September and it discussed an emergency resolution submitted by the resolutions committee.
The resolution proposes measures to protect the hardest-hit victims of the deepening economic crisis. It does not, however, address the most egregious examples of local impact of the economic and climate crisis, including the looming financial debacle of the 2010 Winter Olympics; expansion of oil and gas production in the north of the province and planned shale gas production in the same region; and the ongoing devastation of jobs and communities in the forest industry.
Discussion under the report of the Community and Social Action Committee heard testimony from front-line workers in social services. This is always one of the great values of attending a convention of the BC Federation of Labour. One learns to appreciate the deep humanity of those who work under near-impossible conditions to provide services from a government that is cutting deeply into these same services.
Harper government wage freeze, attack on union rights
The last topic of the day on Thursday was discussion of an emergency resolution responding to the just-announced “economic update” of the federal Conservative government. The resolution calls on the three opposition parties in Canada's Parliament to vote down the measures contained in the “update”. It calls on the opposition parties to form a coalition government whose economic policy would be geared to meeting the needs and concerns facing working people in economic difficulty. The Conservative measures include a freeze of the salaries and right to strike of federal government workers for at least two years, a sell-off (read privatization) of public assets at firesale prices, and restrictions on female federal government workers fighting for pay equity.
The convention resolution was discussed for 45 minutes. One delegate from the postal workers union criticized it, saying it should include proposals for public protest action.
The vote on the resolution was near to unanimous. In a point of order following the vote, a delegate from the postal workers stated for the record that some delegates of the union voted against the resolution out of a principled opposition to any proposal for a government coalition with the Liberal Party.
Convention hears from Ottawa
This morning, it was reported to the convention that the Quebec Federation of Labour has joined the call for the three opposition parties in Parliament to vote down the Conservative government and form a coalition government to replace it.
NDP Member of Parliament Don Davies spoke to the convention in place of Jack Layton, unable to attend due to events in Ottawa. He spoke strongly on issues of trade union rights and criticized the federal government “economic update” for failing to provide stimulus to the economy and for its violations of trade union rights. He held up the course of the incoming administration of President-elect Barak Obama in the U.S. as an example to follow.
“We are going to work to bring coalition government to this country,” he said, to repeated standing ovations.
Davies gave a factual account of the scope of the financial collapse and its fallout. “We believe that markets can bring prosperity,” he said, “but they can’t do it alone.”
“We believe in strategic investment in the economy.”
Davies announced a five-point economic plan announced Thursday by NDP leader Jack Layton:
* Financial regulations to protect homeowners and consumers. * Invest in the “new energy” economy and implement a national cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
* Invest in high technology companies and in companies that are “strategic” to the economy, such as in the automobile industry. Financial support to companies will be done on condition of receiving “an equity stake and a seat at the board of director’s table.”
* Renegotiate trade deals to favour companies that operate in Canada. Similarly, subsidies and bailouts should favour companies that produce in Canada.
* “Massive investments” in infrastructure projects, including public transit and house construction. Invest in the social infrastructure—education, health care, etc.
Davies spoke for a host of other progressive measures, including a federal minimum wage, a federal law outlawing strikebreaking, and emergency action to combat the poverty and denial of rights to Indigenous peoples in Canada.
“We need a fairer and more prosperous Canada,” Davis concluded, “and with your help, the New Democratic Party will lead a fight for this.”
Roger Annis is a delegate to the BC Federation of Labour convention from the Machinists union.
DAY THREE OF 2008 BC FEDERATION OF LABOUR CONVENTION
By Roger Annis, Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Day three began with discussion of a report of the Political Action Committee. A section of the committee’s report was the Federation’s “Count Me In” campaign. Initiated several years ago, the purpose of the campaign is to stimulate political discussion among workers in workplaces and communities.
The Federation of Labour is an affiliate of the New Democratic Party. “Count Me In” is a campaign to generate support to the party. Rather, it is to raise awareness and discussion of the most important issues affecting working people. Supporters of the NDP in the labour movement are confident that a careful study of key issues will logically lead workers to vote for the NDP as the only major party that comes close to the issues that concern us.
A delegate from my union, Alistair Haythornwaite, spoke in the discussion and made some important points. He said, in part, “The Machinists union recognizes the absolute necessity of political action. Workers cannot leave this field of battle to the exclusive realm of the apologists of finance capitalism, colonialism and imperialist war.
“Workers need a democratic constitution for Canada, its nations and peoples, that sweeps aside our colonial legacy and makes sets a priority on the welfare of the population.”
Haythornwaite said it is important for unions to carry political activism into the post-election period as well. “All too often,” he explained, “we take attention off of our elected representatives once in office. We know that can lead to unfortunate consequences.”
He gave several examples of political action by union and other social activists in the Cowichan Valley region of Vancouver Island. His wife, Eden, was reelected this fall as a local school trustee.
Proportional representation
A debate was held among delegates on different proportional representation voting systems. Next May during the provincial election, there will be a plebiscite on a form of proportional representation called “Single transferable vote.” The political action committee submitted a resolution opposed to STV and in favour of a different proportional representation system that will not be on the ballot, called Mixed Member Proportional. That resolution was defeated.
An appendix to the Political Action Committee report details the merits of each system. I don’t know if this will be available online following the convention. You can read about STV on Wikipedia, including at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote
Speech by president of the Canadian Labour Congress
Ken Georgetti addressed the convention and focused his remarks on the economic crisis in Canada. He said the crisis is a result of corporate greed and, “frankly, incompetence.”
Georgetti criticized the refusal of the Canadian government to dialogue with workers and their unions. He said that workers and unions need to be part of the discussions to solve the economic crisis. He did not, however, indicate what the Congress would do if the refusal to consult unions continues.
He outlined a four-point economic plan that the CLC will campaign for:
* A federal government program for job-creating infrastructure—roads, energy refits, etc.
* Such a program must have a “Made in Canada” procurement policy.
* Significant improvement in access to unemployment insurance and job training for laid off workers.
* A pension guarantee fund to be created by the federal government and paid for by a new, financial transaction tax.
Farmworker deaths
There were few dry eyes in the house following lunch when the session opened with guest presentations by family members of victims of two horrific workplace accidents on BC farms. On March 7, 2007, three women farmworkers of Indian origin died in a traffic accident while being transported to work in an unsafe vehicle. On September 5, 2008, three workers of Vietnamese origin died from asphyxiation on a mushroom farm. Two others were permanently disabled from the same accident.
The daughter of one of the mushroom workers outlined three rights that her family wants applied for all workers—the right to refuse unsafe work, the right to necessary training to work safely, and the right to access safe working equipment. She called for a law to enshrine these rights and a public inquiry into the circumstances of the six deaths mentioned above.
The provincial government has refused the calls for a public inquiry and has refused the requests of family members that the Federation of Labour join them in any discussions with the government and its agencies.
Finally, the convention rejected a constitutional amendment that would shift the conventions of the Federation from annual to biannual.
Roger Annis is a delegate to the BC Federation of Labour convention from the Machinists union.
DAY TWO OF BC FEDERATION OF LABOUR CONVENTION
By Roger Annis
Tuesday, November 25, 2008--Two important discussions took place on the second day of the BC Federation of Labour convention.
Climate change
The first discussion was climate change. A “working group” of the federation presented a report that was followed by lengthy discussion. This session was a bare-bones beginning that will require much expansion if the federation is to truly take on the issue in all of its gravity.
The committee report is focused on support to a “cap and trade” system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It frames its position in the terms of the Western Climate Initiative, an institution bringing together provincial and state governments in central and western Canada and along the west coast of the United States. As I and another delegate pointed out in discussion, cap and trade does not automatically ensure emission reductions. Companies can actually reap considerable profit from a free-for-all cap and trade system unless it is organized to ensure that revenues would be directed back to even more emission reductions.
Furthermore, experience in Europe has shown that companies can use cap and trade to export their pollution to other countries, including by purchasing credits in dubious emission-reduction schemes in poor countries.
The committee report made no reference to the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world--the tar sands of Alberta—nor to rapidly expanding greenhouse gas-emitting projects in British Columbia. The latter include rapidly expanding oil and natural gas production in the northeast of the province, huge sales of rights to shale gas exploitation in the same region (production is still hypothetical), and methane gas exploration in the northwest that has met stiff local opposition in recent months.
The absence of reference to these issues by the committee report is hopefully a sign of work to be done and not one of blind negligence.
Young workers
The second discussion was also lengthy, on the role of young workers in the labour movement. This was a truly inspiring session. A report from a recently-constituted youth committee of the federation was delivered, followed by a discussion period in which more than a dozen young delegates took part.
The report and the contributions by young delegates to the discussion period were proof of the visionary decision by the federation in 2006 to place a priority on building a youth committee. That decision has yielded a very rapid success. The youth committee and its members are without doubt destined for great achievements.
Among the campaigns of the youth committee are:
* An ongoing campaign to win a $10 per hour minimum wage (with more and more reference to $11 per hour).
* Ongoing education campaigning in high schools to inform students of their rights as workers.
* Organizing young workers into unions.
* Expanding a “Gen U” email and telephone network to link young workers and union members.
* Holding an annual Young Worker Conference sponsored by the Federation of Labour.
International solidarity
The international solidarity forum of the convention took place on Tuesday evening. The guest speaker was Patsy Sorenson, director of the PAYOKE organization in Belgium that campaigns against human trafficking. Her presentation was very moving. Unlike in Canada, significant progress has been made in Belgium to combat the exploitation of women who come to that country as virtual sex slaves.
A second presentation that evening was delivered by an activist in the building trades unions. He detailed three struggles that have been waged recently in BC for the rights of temporary, foreign construction workers and the vital role that unions played in assisting those workers.
This was a very informative evening, but I nonetheless question the choice of topic. I would have preferred to see an evening devoted to one or more of the pressing foreign policy issues in Canada today, namely Canada’s role in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, the ongoing deterioration of social and economic life in Haiti under United Nations and Canadian tutelage, and the recent signing by the Canadian government of a free trade agreement with the human rights-violating government of Colombia.
Next week, The Canadian Labour Congress and other unions are holding a public forum in Vancouver on the situation in Columbia.
BC Federation of Labour Convention Opens
By Roger Annis, Monday, November 24, 2008
VANCOUVER--Just over 1,000 delegates and guests opened the annual convention of the BC Federation here today.
The full force of the collapse of world financial markets has yet to hit the province of British Columbia. But the decline of the U.S. economy and the consequences of seven long years of a right-wing government under Premier Gordon Campbell have already taken a heavy toll on working people in the province. This fact, and the prospect of a provincial election to take place in six months, lends an urgency to convention deliberations.
Capitalist assault on working people
The province’s principal industry--paper and wood products—has seen the loss of 20,000 jobs in the past two years. Poverty and homelessness have increased sharply since Campbell’s first election in 2001. The minimum wage has been frozen at $8 per hour since then. British Columbia has had the highest rate of child poverty in Canada for the past four years.
Several tens of thousands of health care workers saw their jobs privatized and their wages nearly halved by Campbell’s Liberals following a defeated strike in 2004. Health and education services have declined. British Columbia is a growing emitter of greenhouse gases, notwithstanding the government’s impressive “greenwashing.” Its claim to be “green” is entirely undeserved, but most environmental groups in the province have signed onto the claim.
The hardest hit by the Campbell government have been the original inhabitants, the several hundred thousand Indigenous people living within the provincial boundaries. The Campbell government set the tone for attacks on aboriginal rights when it staged a racist plebiscite in 2002 purportedly setting guidelines for treaty negotiations with Indigenous people. The vote passed with only one third of voters participating.
Federation President’s Speech
BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair’s delivered a featured speech that kicked off the convention. It summarized the difficult challenges facing the working class in the province. Layoffs in forestry, government cuts to health and education services, attacks on the rights of temporary foreign workers, poverty and the risible minimum wage in British Columbia-these and other important issues were addressed in the speech.
Sinclair also talked about the world economic crisis. “Capitalism is to blame,” he said when summarizing the devastating collapse of the world financial system and its consequences for the economic cycle. He returned to this theme several times. Capitalism as a system has failed.
But it seems there is an overwhelming reluctance among leaders of the labour answer to draw the appropriate conclusions from the failure of capitalism, for in the same speech, Sinclair repeated several times, that, “If the corporations don’t clean up their act and start providing jobs and sustainable economic development, then we will step in and do it for them.”
“If” they don’t start providing economic progress? Why the “if”? Their system has proven itself spectacularly incapable of running the world. So what are we waiting for?
Indigenous sovereignty and women’s rights
Two pressing social issues dominated discussion on the first day. One was women’s rights. A comprehensive report from the Federation women’s committee was presented and discussed, with the fight for affordable child care getting particular attention.
The other issue was Indigenous rights. A moving and symbolic signing ceremony was held of a “protocol of solidarity” between the Federation of Labour and organizations of Indigenous peoples in the province. (The text of the protocol will become available in the coming days.) Moving talks were delivered to delegates by Ed John of the First Nations Summit, Stewart Philip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and Shawn Atleo of the BC Assembly of First Nations.
Stephen Lewis speaks
A typically moving speech to the convention was delivered by special guest Stephen Lewis. He is an iconic, lifetime social democratic leader in Canada who has also served as a United Nations special representative on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. His speech reviewed the social and economic carnage stemming from the present crisis. Echoing Jim Sinclair, Lewis declared, “I have believed all my life that the capitalism is a wretched social and economic system.”
Speaking on the climate crisis, Lewis said, “Having carefully studied the issue, I am convinced that an environmental apocalypse is in the offing sometime between 2030 and 2050 if the world does not make the fundamental changes that are needed.”
Lewis’ talk was long on critique of the present economic order, but short on solutions. After explaining in stark and horrifying detail the terrible conditions of poverty he has observed in Africa, he said, “I honestly don’t understand how the world works and how it could produce such horrors.”
He ended his speech with a call to support non-governmental organizations such as CARE, Save the Children, and OXFAM. According to a growing number of international critics, ngo’s such as these are increasingly a part of the international system that is strangling the peoples of the Third World.
2010 Winter Olympics debacle
Apart from the crisis in the forestry industry already mentioned, the most visible consequence of the recent financial collapse is the financial debacle now surrounding the 2010 Winter Olympics that will open in just over one year in Vancouver. The Games are now shaping up to be a financial debacle that will leave taxpayers in British Columbia and Canada with a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars to pay off. (For detail, see this author’s article on the recent municipal election in Vancouver at: http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=344)
The uncomfortable reality facing the trade unions in the province is that they and their political party, the New Democratic Party, supported the bid for the Games. The unions have just completed a successful electoral campaign that brought two parties supporting the Games—Vision and the Coalition of Progressive Electors—into office in the city of Vancouver. How will the labour movement explain itself as the financing of the Games comes apart and stiffs taxpayers with an enormous bill to pay?
Some new voices
There are some 90 delegates to this convention under the age of thirty, compared to 38 at the last convention. One of those young delegates, Harsha Walia, spoke to the convention during discussion of the women’s rights reports. She is a delegate from BCGEU and a well-known activist in No One Is Illegal. She added valuable commentary to the report of the committee and received a standing ovation from delegates.
Mike Palecek, delegate from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and an editor of Fightback magazine, spoke during a resolution calling for the nationalization of the oil industry in Canada. He spoke on his recent visit to Venezuela and the experience of workers there in fighting for the nationalization of their industries by the Bolivarian government of President Hugo Chavez. He, too, received a strong ovation.
The resolution on nationalization passed overwhelmingly.
Roger Annis is a delegate to the BC Federation of Labour convention. He can be reached at [email protected].
Strike by 5,000 B.C. Grocery Workers Narrowly Averted
By Roger Annis.
VANCOUVER BC, July 10, 2008—Five thousand workers at one of British Columbia’s largest grocery chains, the Overwaitea Food Group (OFG), have ended a difficult round of collective bargaining by voting by 75 per cent in favour of a new agreement.
In late June, workers voted by 58 per cent to reject a proposed agreement recommended by their union bargaining committee. The union, United Food and Commercial Workers, then announced a strike to begin on June 28. That was blocked when the company applied for a mediation process that was compulsory, under law, for the union. A revised proposal was then mediated/negotiated and put to a second vote on July 6 and 7.
Two tier wages at issue
The workers are employed at 27 of OFG’s Save On Foods supermarkets in the greater Vancouver region of British Columbia. OFG is part of the business conglomerate of local billionaire James Pattison. Negotiations for close to 20,000 other workers at grocery chains throughout the province will now proceed, notably at Safeway, the Loblaws-owned Superstore and its budget spin-offs, and Save On stores elsewhere in British Columbia. The agreement at the OFG-owned Price Smart budget chain expires in 2010.
Save On workers set three goals for their bargaining committee—a hefty wage increase, elimination of a two-tier wage scale, and an end to the conversion of Save On stores to the lower-wage Price Smart. Among the reasons cited for rejection of the first proposal were that it gave better wage increases to higher-paid workers, it maintained the two-tier wage setup, and it offered too little protection against Price Smart conversions.
The new agreement is for five years. The two-tier pay scale, known as Grids A and B, remains in place. All current employees will receive a $1 per hour wage increase, then a fifty cent increase for each of the following four years.
The minimum rate for Grid B will immediately rise to $9.75 per hour for the most common job classification and then stay there for the life of the agreement. (“Service clerks” start at $9 per hour, but receive better social benefits than those starting at $9.75). The maximum rate for Grid B will rise from about $12 to $15.60. The number of steps to reach the top increases, to 7,080 hours. This could be reached within four years if the part-time employee works the extra hours, equivalent to full-time, that many are offered.
A new hire at $9 or $9.75 per hour moves to $10.10 after 520 hours of work.
The minimum rate for Grid A will rise in the fourth and fifth years of the agreement, from $15.20 to $15.80; the top rate will go from $22.50 to $23.70. Reaching the top rate will take a full-time employee two and a half years.
The collective agreement provides for a worker to move from Grid B to Grid A, according to seniority and job openings.
The $1 per hour increase is “off-grid”, as are the annual 50 cent increases. More modest increases are introduced to the “grid” (wage scale). As one worker commented in an e-mail forum, “I have to say that I’m just not terribly impressed by off the grid wage increases. Like signing a bonus, they really don’t do much to improve the actual contract upon which future contracts will be negotiated. If they don’t do the same thing on the next deal, those people who are a buck and a half above the grid…could essentially have their wages frozen until the next grid catches up to them.”
Concerning the future of Save On outlets, the new agreement limits to six the number of stores in B.C. that can be converted to Price Smart or an equivalent. Improvements to job security were won for workers facing store closings or conversions.
Company/government assault on grocery workers
The two-tier wage scale was imposed by the grocery chains during the late 1990’s as they launched a coordinated attack on wages and working conditions. Strikes at Safeway in British Columbia in 1996 and later in Alberta did not stop the onslaught. The doors were opened to concessions imposed on the whole industry.
As a result of the company offensive, well-paid, full time jobs went into decline, to be replaced by poorly-paid, part-time positions. Today at OFG, some 70 per cent of the jobs are Grid B.
Several workers interviewed for this article believe that the ratio of full-time jobs to part time at Save On will slowly rise because of improvements in the new agreement. The collective agreement provides for a 50-50 ratio of full to part time jobs, except for new stores. These can operate with 25 (full-time)-75 (part-time) for seven years.
A sign of how ruthless the grocery chains could be without a unionized workforce was delivered at the outset of Save On negotiations when OFG demanded the right to schedule shifts of two hours. The collective agreement sets a minimum of four hours.
Two-hour call-ins were made legal by the Liberal Party provincial government that was elected in 2001. They have become widespread in non-union, food service workplaces.
According to Andy Neufeld, spokesperson for UFCW 1518, “The collective agreements at Overwaitea and Safeway, as negotiated by UFCW and its members, have been and remain the best agreements in the retail food industry in North America.”
There is a challenge that confronts the labour movement in British Columbia through this struggle. The BC Federation of Labour has for several years campaigned for a $10 per hour minimum wage. The pattern now set in the grocery industry will leave new hires earning as little as $9 per hour five years from now, though, as mentioned, a collective agreement allows workers to break through the $10 ceiling after 520 hours of work.
Neufeld also explained, “We pushed really hard for a starting wage of $10.10. The company absolutely refused to budge on this issue.
“We, of course, support the federation of labour’s $10 per hour campaign.”
A legislated increase in the minimum wage supersedes the provisions of any collective agreement, so it’s no wonder that the provincial government has refused the demand for $10. Its corporate backers, such as Overwaitea group, are bitterly opposed.
Another irony in this struggle is the presence of Glen Clark in the inner circle of the Jim Pattison Group, the conglomerate that owns Overwaitea Food Group. Clark is Executive Vice-President. He is also a former B.C. New Democratic Party leader and premier.
Clark was offered a position by Pattison in 1999 after he was driven from the premier’s office by a police-led smear campaign conceived by the wealthy elite of the province and supported by leaders within his own party. He was later vindicated in court, but at the time of the smear campaign he chose to resign rather than fight what amounted to a coup d’etat. He has climbed the Pattison corporate ladder ever since.
Roger Annis is a trade union member in Vancouver and a co-editor of Socialist Voice.
CLC Convention Highlights the Challenges Facing the Labour Movement in Canada
The following article appears on the websites of Socialist Voice (www.socialistvoice.ca) and the Socialist Project (www.socialistproject.ca).
By Roger Annis. The triennial convention of the Canadian Labour Congress held in Toronto from May 26 to 30, 2008 revealed the positive changes that have edged their way into the labour movement in recent years. It also showed the weighty obstacles that stand in the way of the organization’s transformation into a more militant, fighting force on behalf of the working class.
On the positive side, a number of resolutions reflected the social rights work and spirit of solidarity on important issues by Congress affiliates, union activists and social movements that overlap with the labour movement. Chief among these was a resolution opposing Canada’s participation in the imperialist war of aggression in Afghanistan. It was adopted by a large majority of delegates and it calls for an end to that war and the immediate withdrawal of Canadian soldiers. (The resolution and the debate surrounding it can be read on this author’s blogsite).
The CLC’s support to women’s rights was symbolized by a ceremony presenting a lifetime humanitarian award to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a pioneer in the struggle for women’s right to abortion. Important women’s rights resolutions were adopted, such as one in favour of a universal, affordable childcare program in Canada. The CLC and its affiliates have campaigned on this issue.
Notwithstanding feeble policy resolutions (more on this later), the convention devoted a lot of time to discussion on the urgent climate change crisis and to the harsh social and economic conditions facing Indigenous peoples in Canada. It examined the unique challenges facing unions as the number of part-time and “temporary” jobs grows, while hundreds of thousands of “temporary” workers from other countries, allowed into Canada to work in low-paid jobs, are deprived of legal citizenship rights, including the right to join trade unions. The convention was marked by frank debate on these issues.
Other examples of progressive resolutions and sympathies among the 1,700 delegates and dozens of affiliates of the Congress gathered in Toronto could be cited. But this would describe only a part of what the convention revealed and potentially misdirect those seeking a program to lead the labour movement forward. The overarching conclusion to draw from the convention is the growing gap between worsening economic, social and political conditions faced by workers today in Canada and the world, on the one hand, and the still-limited will and capacity of trade unions to fight for effective improvements in these conditions.
An action plan for change
The convention adopted an Action Plan on its final day that was prepared by the newly elected executive council of the CLC. It reads, “The CLC will mobilize the affiliates, federations and labour councils to lead a broad, diverse and inclusive movement for social change.”
The document highlights five areas of attention—renewing and expanding trade union membership and unity; fighting for women’s equality; defending and expanding public services; fighting for jobs and environmental protection; and opposing the war in Afghanistan, including by building solidarity with the peoples of that country. It concludes, “…let us commit ourselves to continue to work in solidarity to achieve our goals and build a society that meets the needs of working people and their families.”
The Action Plan does not describe how the Congress could mobilize its members to achieve these goals. It says the Congress will devote resources and attention to supporting the New Democratic Party in federal and provincial elections. In Quebec, the picture gets muddier because the plan says the CLC will support the “political choices of unions in Quebec.” Those choices happen to be support for two parties—the Bloc québécois federally and the Parti québécois provincially—that have neither meaningful ties nor accountability to the unions.
The NDP in power has been a disappointment to workers. It has attacked social programs and workers rights, such as in British Columbia and Ontario during the 1990s. The NDP governments in those provinces demobilized and discouraged the working class, leaving it vulnerable to even harsher attacks by the governments that succeeded them. The same pattern has just repeated itself in Saskatchewan.
If the NDP today is unable to inspire and mobilize workers to elect it to office, it’s because it doesn’t want to challenge the domination of the capitalists and the laws of their market system over economic and social life.
Two examples, among many that could be cited, illustrate the Action Plan’s shortcomings. One, the tar sands projects in northern Alberta are responsible for some of the worst environmental and humanitarian destruction on the planet. But the CLC and the NDP fail to fight for the one thing that could end the destruction—a planned and orderly shutdown of the entire project and a massive reorientation of the Canadian economy away from reliance on fossil fuels and towards sustainable energy production. This necessarily requires proposals to secure alternative training and employment for workers in the tar sands, including for the workers from abroad who have earned the right to stay in Canada if they so wish. Such a reorientation of the Canadian economy would require a head-on battle with the oil companies, not to mention leaving NAFTA.
Two, the Indigenous peoples in Canada are engaged in unprecedented struggles against calamitous social and economic conditions. These struggles illustrate, and are demanding, forms of political sovereignty. The federal and provincial governments have responded by criminalizing their causes and arresting or threatening their most outspoken leaders. The CLC convention featured guest speakers that delivered powerful and moving condemnations of Canadian government policy. Policy discussions on Indigenous rights issues were informed. But the convention did not take a stand in support of the most important of the current battles, such as the sovereignty struggles of the Haudenosaunee peoples in southwest and southeast Ontario (Six Nations and Tyendinaga, respectively), and the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) people in northwest Ontario.
More generally, the Action Program fails to project a struggle for a radically different society, one based on social justice and respect for the natural environment.
Labour needs an authoritative voice
One of the challenges facing the labour movement today is unity. In the years after its foundation in 1956, the Canadian Labour Congress was a central voice of the unions and the working class in Canada. In 1961, it co-founded the New Democratic Party with the goal of fighting for a government that would represent workers’ interests. The prospects for a new, progressive party of the working class looked good in the early years of the NDP, including in Quebec. This made the role of a unified labour central like the CLC all the more relevant.
Today, the labour movement speaks with many voices. The autonomy accorded to the CLC affiliate in Quebec, the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ), is a progressive development over the past several decades that reflects a recognition of the national rights of the Quebecois people. But it does not follow that there should be two distinct trade union movements in Canada with little common purpose. That is what has evolved, by default. It was quite a surprise to this observer to see how limited was participation at the CLC convention by delegates from Quebec. Less than ten percent of reports and contributions to this year’s CLC convention were in the French language. Despite the formal availability of translation services, it was, for all intents and purposes, an English-language convention.
Many CLC affiliates have evolved to become mini-labour centrals of their own. Unions such as steelworkers and autoworkers, to choose only two examples, include members from every walk of life. Industrial unions are organizing non-industrial workers under the pressure of the decline of employment and union membership in their respective industries or an inability to convince unorganized, industrial workers of the value of union membership. It’s wrong if this gets in the way of having a recognized voice of the entire labour movement.
Organizing efforts would be much more effective if they were part of a common plan of action by the labour movement as a whole to create or support existing unions in those unorganized sectors.
Trade union independence
A recent and disturbing trend in the union movement has seen some unions engage in sweetheart deals with companies in search of the almighty dues dollar. The CAW’s deal with Magna Corporation earlier this year comes to mind. So too the attempt by the Steelworkers to gain representation at the Dofasco steelmaker in Hamilton (see Socialist Project, February 3, 2008 and July 3, 2008).
In the retail grocery business, the United Food and Commercial Workers union has received automatic representation in the spin-off budget stores of the major grocery chains, on condition of accepting lower-wage collective agreements. This stems from the pressure on the retail industry of the non-union Wal-Mart juggernaut. The low wages and poor conditions contained in these agreements dampens workers’ desire at Wal-Mart or other unorganized companies to join unions. How can the labour movement inspire Wal-Mart workers to join the UFCW? What can be done to win better conditions in the retail grocery sector?
Left currents within the CLC
Organized left forces at the CLC convention were weak, given the opening to radical thought and action that otherwise characterized convention proceedings.
A left caucus of delegates came together on the eve of the convention to discuss a published program issued by activists in the labour council in Toronto and elsewhere in the country. Titled “An Action Agenda,” it posited a need to struggle, “To Build Labour Power in the 21st Century” (www.labouraction.ca). Some 150 delegates met for an initial discussion of this program and had a positive exchange of ideas. But there were no follow-up meetings of this character to assess and direct a fight for the ideas of the program on the convention floor. And when it came time to elect a new executive council of the CLC, the caucus presented no candidates. The outgoing executive was re-elected by acclamation.
The Action Agenda said that three things were needed in order to win labour power in the 21st century: “grass-roots mobilization in both the workplace and the community”; commitment by CLC affiliates to “provide the leadership and resources necessary to build and sustain long-term campaigns”; and “the ability to combine formal electoral organizing with the building of popular movements.” This falls well short of a description of what “labour power” would look like, and how it could be achieved.
“Labour power” must ultimately mean “government power.” To create a society of social justice, working people — our social movements, trade unions and political parties — must take government power out of the control of the capitalists and wield it to lead a transformation of society, out of the dog-eat-dog world of capitalism and into socialism.
How can workers in Canada move towards such a goal? Are parties such as the NDP or the Bloc and Parti québécois a help or a hindrance along this road? What lessons can be drawn from countries such as Cuba and Venezuela, whose people are fighting a life and death struggle for socialism today? Such questions are not addressed in the Action Agenda, nor were they featured in the caucus discussions.
A recent step towards labour power in Canada was the formation in 2006 of a new, progressive part of the left in Quebec, Québec solidaire. Although it is not clear whether this new party will continue in a positive direction, the lessons of its first two years nonetheless warrant serious discussion. Unfortunately, members of the party were not in attendance at the CLC convention — or, if they were, their presence was unknown to delegates.
Can workers/unions win political power in Canada?
So what kind of political program is needed today in the labour movement in Canada? Here are some ideas offered in the hope that the discussion begun in Toronto will continue and deepen.
- The CLC and the labour movement need a forceful policy of international solidaritythat supports trade unions and popular movements fighting for social justice. Unions in Canada must offer meaningful solidarity to peoples in countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia that are fighting for new societies, and to peoples in Haiti, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan who are suffering directly the consequences of imperialist war and occupation. The Canadian government and ruling class are a predatory force in the world. For that reason, the union movement should reject the illusion that Canada and its armed forces, as presently constituted, can be a “peacekeeping” force in the world.
- The CLC needs to base its action plan on a strategy of unity and mass mobilization. There is a vast, untapped reserve of strength and creativity among the millions of working people (unionized and non-union wage earners, students and youth, farmers, the unemployed, Indigenous peoples etc.) that the unions must find ways to reach and mobilize.
- The sovereignty struggles of Indigenous peoples are growing in importance and must be actively supported by the union movement. The CLC should bring the weight of its affiliates to bear to fight against the criminalization of the Indigenous rights movements by federal and provincial governments.
- Finally, unions and working people need to fight for a government that will join the worldwide struggle for social justice.
The CLC convention was an important gathering point for ideas and action proposals. The desire for a more combative labour movement, expressed by so many delegates, is a hopeful sign for the future.
Roger Annis was a delegate to the 2008 Canadian Labour Congress convention.
Day Five of the CLC convention
By Roger Annis, Thursday, May 29, 2008
Political action
Day number five opened with the presentation and discussion of a ten-point political action policy paper. The paper reaffirms the CLC’s support to the New Democratic Party and it speaks of other forms of political action to achieve legislative change for improved labour legislation, women’s rights, and Indigenous peoples’ rights. It reads:
“In this time of increased corporate power, hostile media, anti-labour politicians and governments, our affiliates must continue to build labour’s political activism and heighten efforts to influence the broader community. The Congress and affiliates must increase the desire of union members and their families to be part of something that engages them and ultimately creates a more equitable and just Canada.”
The profound attacks on peoples’ rights that mark the new (read, same old) world of globalization, the “war on terrorism” and environmental calamity require new and far more activist strategies to not only hold onto the accomplishments of the past but move forward to a radically new vision of government and society. I believe that the submitted policy paper falls short of this challenge.
In the debate on the paper, a delegate from the CUPW spoke to the political divisions within the labour movement today. The CAW, one of the largest affiliates of the CLC, supports “strategic voting” in support of the Liberal Party. In Quebec, the CLC’s affiliate, the Quebec Federation of Labour, supports the Bloc Quebecois federally.
The delegate also spoke to failings of the New Democratic Party to defend trade union rights. For example two New Democratic Party provincial governments, in Manitobaand Saskatchewan, refuse to implement anti-scab legislation. Rolf Gerstenberger of Steelworkers local 1005 in Hamiltonspoke to the same problem. He said he was in favour of the policy paper but faces a problem. His local union holds weekly discussion meetings on “how can workers and trade unions gain more power” in society. Participation at the meetings varies from 50 members to several hundred. But a dilemma has been introduced into these discussions—a “crime against workers” was committed during the recent strike of transit workers in Torontowhen they were ordered by a unanimous vote in the Ontario legislature to end the strike. The NDP voted for the legislation. He said the vote shows that workers and unions have no reliable representatives in the Ontario legislature.
A significant new political party of the left was founded in Quebec in 2006, Quebec solidaire, but it has no presence at the convention. No delegate from Quebec spoke in the debate on the political action policy paper.
Address from Australia
The convention heard an address via video link from the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sharan Burrow. She is also the president of the
newly-created unitary international labour federation, the International Trade Union Confederation. She gave a summary of the campaign that Australian unions waged last year to defeat the ultra-reactionary government of John Howard and elect the Labour Party back into office.
I was in Australia during that election campaign and wrote a comprehensive article on it. You can read that at http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=220.
Speech by NDP Leader Jack Layton
Following a vote in favour of the paper on political action, Jack Layton, federal leader of the New Democratic Party, addressed the convention. His speech
outlined the key social rights that he said the NDP supports and fights for—public health care, radically-improved employment insurance, universal, quality day care.
His speech spent some time on Indigenous people’s rights. Like Phil Fontaine earlier in the week, he spoke movingly in favour of necessary improvements to social rights but made no mention of current confrontations over political sovereignty and criminalization of political rights struggles between Indigenous activists and supporters and provincial and federal governments.
Layton spoke of the growing job losses in manufacturing in Canada. He said the answer to this crisis is for the federal government to devise
industry-specific plans that use public money to support companies in financial difficulty.
Layton touched on environmental challenges. He called for “slowing down” Alberta Tar Sands projects and said that private investment in new alternative energy industries was a big part of the solution to job losses.
Apart from a brief reference to human rights violations in Colombia, there was no mention in Layton’s speech of international affairs.
Afghanistan resolution
Prior to lunch, the World Committee presented its second and final report. A composite resolution on Afghanistan was presented that reads as follows:
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) will demand of all political parties in our Parliament to take steps immediately to end the military occupation in Afghanistan and to implement the disengagement of Canadian forces and to bring home our Canadian soldiers from the illegal war in Afghanistan. The CLC will assist affiliates to educate and mobilize their membership to oppose the Canadian military intervention in Afghanistan. The CLC will continue to work with partners in the Canadian Peace Alliance to educate Canadians about the war. The CLC will build solidarity with Afghani workers, social justice and women’s organizations.
Because Canadians have a proud history of committing our Armed Forces to the role of peacekeepers dating back to the end of World War 2.
Because there are no clear objectives, accomplishments or benefits for Canadians in this war in which dozens of young Canadians and hundreds of innocent Afghan citizens are being killed.
Because our young soldiers are dying in a war in Afghanistanin the role of invading army with no mandate from Canadian citizens. Because the Harper government’s military intervention in Afghanistanis not contributing to establishing peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
Because the Canadian government’s military campaign is based on supporting American political, economic and military interests rather than on contributing to establishing peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
Because the Canadian government’s military campaign is based on supporting American political, economic and military interests rather than on contributing to peace in the region.
Because the actions of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization occupation is increasing the violence in Afghanistan.
Because the massive amounts of money spent on the military in Afghanistanwould best be used for funding health care, education, job creation and social services.
Because the labour movement has always been at the center of any struggle for peace and justice.
The first speaker was a leader of the Union of National Defence Employees, an affiliate of the PSAC. The union’s delegates would support the resolution; it became clear, which is a significant and welcome shift in position from this union. He expressed the union’s concern that a withdrawal from Afghanistanbe carried out in a manner that protects the safety and security of its Canadian troops and civilian personnel.
A young delegate of the Steelworkers in Toronto made a hard-hitting contribution condemning the predatory character of Canadian foreign policy. She spoke in defence of the Palestinian people and against the oppressor Israeli government.
Dave Coles of the CEP (paperworkers) union condemned what he called an illegal occupation of Afghanistan by Canada and other big powers.
Another UNDE member spoke in support of the resolution but made a vigorous defence of the Canadian military role in Afghanistan. Her daughter is
presently engaged in Afghanistan. “I encourage you to support the military, support my daughter,” she concluded, to considerable applause.
Dave Bleakney of CUPW detailed the “war crimes” and destruction of Afghanistan being perpetrated by Canadaand the rest of the foreign
occupation. He also spoke of the degrading of democratic rights in the countries of the occupying forces in the name of the“war of terrorism.” The resolution was adopted overwhelmingly.
Next, a resolution was presented calling on Canada to increase its contribution to foreign aid to .7% of Gross National Product. I spoke and summarized the record of failure and betrayal of Canadian “aid” and intervention towards the peoples of Afghanistan, Haiti and Palestine. I said that international solidarity in the unions should be focused on supporting the capacity of trade unions and other popular organizations of oppressed peoples to struggle for political power and sovereignty.
National Day of Indigenous Protest
During the lunch break, several hundred delegates joined a march of app. 1000 people through the streets of Torontoto mark the National Day of Indigenous
Protest and affirm Indigenous political sovereignty. Among the many banners and contingents on the march was one from the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium in eastern Ontario. They are united with the Ardoch-Algonquin people in opposing a proposed uranium mine project.
Expanding union membership
In the afternoon, Robert Hickey of Queen’s University gave a special presentation on the fight to expand trade union membership. He reported that union membership in Canadahas grown by 660,000 in the last ten years. But during that same time, union density has dropped from 33.7% to 31.5% of the salaried work force.
Hickey sounded a warning that the worsening of labour laws and deterioration of the economic situation would cause declining union membership if we do not make a sharp and fundamental turn in organizing efforts. For example, union density in manufacturing and forestry has fallen to 23% of the workforce. Since the 1980’s, the average number of new, union certifications per year has fallen by almost 50%.
Hickey reported that his research has found three elements that are common to successful organizing drives:
Providing the necessary resources to organizers, including experienced staff who share experiences with targeted workers, eg women, youth and workers of minority nationalities.
Having a committee inside of the targeted workplace.
Establishing benchmarks by which to measure success and failure.
Three other features that Hickey identified were--bringing new leaders into the unions; providing real and meaningful support to organizing drives; and integrate organizing work into all of our activity.
A policy paper was introduced and approved following a lengthy and informed discussion, entitled “Organizing: Growth and strength.” One delegate spoke against the paper, saying it was not bold enough.
One of the successful union organizing drives in recent times has been the creation and growth of the UNITE union in New Zealand. I wrote an article on this inspiring story in October 2007 that you can read at http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=228.
Lengthy discussion continued on resolutions for the right of unions to organize and strike. Sid Ryan of CUPE Ontario made an impassioned speech saying that bold action was needed to defend the right to strike. It was reported to the convention that unions in Saskatchewan are facing threats by the new Saskatchewan Party government to severely limit the right to strike. Ryan argued that unions in that province should begin to prepare strike
action to oppose the legislation.
FINAL DAY OF THE CLC CONVENTION
Friday May 30, 2008
By Roger Annis, Delegate of IAM Local 11
Participation at the convention is down by app. one half on this final day of the convention.
Vancouver’s safe injection site
The day opened with a resolution to support the continued operation of the Insight safe-injection drug site in Vancouver, the only one in the country. The resolution took on added urgency because Minister of Health Tony Clement announced yesterday that the federal government would appeal a British Columbia court decision earlier this week that said users of the site warranted protection from Canada’s drug laws under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that guarantees “Life, liberty and security of the person.” The decision gave the government one year to redraft Canada’s drug laws so as to provide legal protection to Insight and other such centers that may open
Delegates expressed a lot of anger against the government decision and several told very moving and emotional personal stories of why services as Insight for drug addicts are so important.
More international resolutions
Two international resolutions were debated and approved in support of human rights in Burma and Colombia. Debate included comments on the political situation in Colombia from a number of delegates who have recently traveled there. Unfortunately, few convention delegates would have heard from the trade union leader from Colombia who was an invited guest to the convention, Luis Hernan Correa Miranda, First Vice-President of the Unitary Workers Central (CUT).
I was fortunate to attend a small gathering of international guests where Miranda spoke. He offered opinion on the civil war and the role of the FARC that I found very informative.
Palestine at the CLC convention
Manawell Abdul Al, member of the executive of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), was in Toronto during the CLC convention as a guest of Labour for Palestine. He is a keynote speaker at the L4P conference to begin this evening. He spoke with Paul Chery of the CTH of Haiti at a parallel international solidarity forum two days ago.
Manawell is a member of the executive committee of the PGFTU. Unfortunately, he was not offered a guest delegate status at the CLC, though a request was made. Manawell is a strong supporter of the PGFTU position on boycott of Israeli apartheid. The CLC has refused to address the 2005 call by Palestinian workers, trade unions and grassroots organizations for boycott of Israeli apartheid. Two CLC affiliates have supported this call—the Ontario division of CUPE, and more recently the national convention of the Canadian Union of Postal workers.
CLC Action Plan
A one-hour session of the convention was devoted to a discussion of a four-page “CLC Action Plan Convention 2008.” The convention voted to make this session a “working committee,” meaning a session in which the Executive Council solicits and receives commentary on the plan and incorporate it into a final version. The document was a very brief summary of resolutions adopted at the convention.
This was the session of the convention where the most number of delegates spoke. Most speakers argued that the action plan should be strengthened to make it a more militant and activist plan. One delegate from CUPE, Rafeef Ziavah, called on the convention to support the appeal of Palestinian unions for a boycott of the Israeli apartheid regime.
Can workers/unions win political power in Canada?
I did not have the opportunity to speak in the discussion on the action plan. Line-ups at the microphones were too long by the time I tried. Had I been quicker on my feet I would have said three things:
* The CLC needs an international policy that supports trade unions and popular movements fighting for social justice. We should recognize the predatory character of the Canadian government and ruling class and their international allies. Our union movement should advance an independent, working class foreign policy that combats the illusion that the military forces of Canada, the U.S. and their allies could be a positive force in the world. Aid and liberation to oppressed peoples and countries will come through solidarity action, especially from governments such as Cuba and Venezuela who have proven in real life their commitments to freedom and social justice for all.
* The CLC needs to become a fighting trade union central that uses the methods of alliances and mass mobilization to achieve our goals. Some CLC components are becoming such trade unions, but it’s an uneven process. Many delegates throughout the convention said the trade union movement should be paying a leading role in creating a broader social movement for change, and they expressed frustration that this is not happening as fast as it should.
* Finally, unions and working people need to fight for a government that will lead the fight for a society of social justice. The New Democratic Party was founded in 1961 for just that purpose. The CLC was at the center of the founding of the NDP and remains central to the party today. But the NDP has never risen above minority status in the federal Parliament. There are two big reasons why.
One, the party’s program and action orientation is timid. The party fails to challenge the control by corporations over the government and society. It does not consistently stand for trade union and working class rights.
Two, the absence of a meaningful political alliance with the Quebec labour movement condemns the NDP to minority status in the federal Parliament. While it’s not excluded that the NDP could become the future labour party of Quebecois working people, this seems highly unlikely. Most Quebecois workers do not support the NDP because it has failed to recognize their historical status as a nation and it does not have policy that follows from that reality.
In Quebec, the trade union movement supports the Bloc quebecois that, while supporting the occasional issue of trade union rights such as anti-scab legislation, is in no way a labour party such as the NDP or left progressive party such as Quebec solidaire.
The new Quebec solidaire party offers some hope and prospect for the development of a progressive labour party. It recently won some 10% of the vote in a provincial by-election in the Hull/Gatineau region. But the party does not contest federal elections.
Two additional complications for the NDP today are its timid program on the environmental crisis that barely distinguishes it from the Green Party, and it refusal to champion the growing struggles for political sovereignty by the Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Convention adjournment
The convention adjourned at 11:45 am, earlier than planned because so many delegates had left that the required quorum (delegate attendance) was lost.