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May 3, 2012 - No. 64
One Year of the Phony Harper Majority
Harper Government's Proposal to Impose
Forced
Cheap Labour on Unemployed Workers
One
Year
of
the
Phony
Harper Majority
• Harper Government's Proposal to Impose Forced
Cheap Labour on Unemployed Workers - Pauline Easton
Stepping Up
Anti-Worker Attacks in Quebec
In the Legislature
• Unacceptable Bill on Health and Safety and
Compensation for Injured Workers
Promotion of Anti-Consciousness
• Montreal Chamber of Commerce's Promotion of
Anti-Consciousness - Normand Fournier
• Quebec Employers' Council Finds a New Pearl
- Serge Lachapelle
More Reports from May
Day Across Canada
• May First in Windsor
• Saying Loud and Clear What We Stand For in
Hamilton - Local 1005 USW
• May Day in Prince George, BC
One Year of the Phony Harper Majority
Harper Government's Proposal to Impose Forced
Cheap
Labour on Unemployed Workers
- Pauline Easton -
The Harper government's recent proposal to lower the
standard of living of all Canadian workers and impose forced labour on
unemployed workers is despicable.
 Diane Finley, Federal
Minister of Human Resources and
Skills Development Canada, travelled to Nisku, Alberta to speak to a
company called Advanced Engineering Products Ltd. She was there to
promote the Harper Government Economic Action Plan 2012, "particularly
to address the challenges of skills and
labour shortages." In fact, her aim was to promote a new government
scheme to provide private interests with cheap labour. With an innocent
enough sounding introduction, she used the occasion to facilitate the
increased exploitation of temporary migrant labour and, in the name of
providing jobs for unemployed workers, promote the Harper government's
latest outrageous scheme to tie employment insurance with a form of
forced cheap labour.
She said that we face many uncertainties "beyond our
borders," and this is because the "global economy is fragile." Even
though the economy is fragile "beyond our borders," she says Canada is
"recovering from the global recession." In other words, she seems
confused whether we are part of the global economy
or it is "beyond our borders." Based on this already incoherent
premise, her expressed concern is that "any setbacks could have an
impact on Canada."
This is typical Harper doublespeak. Canada is portrayed
as healthy while the problems are elsewhere. Then, despite this, "we"
have to protect ourselves here. The "we" means the government should
provide the rich with cheap labour and the workers should come under
the dictate of the monopolies. All of it is done in the name of the
"national interest."
Minister Finley's world is a world of the Harperites'
imagination -- not the world as it is. Her aim is not to address the
"challenges of skills and labour shortages," which could be done
readily enough. It is to hype the self-serving Harper plan to funnel
more money to the monopolies to make them competitive
within the global market under the hoax that this will lessen the
impact of the "setbacks beyond our borders."
Finley crows about meeting with "businesses to discuss
the difficulties with the labour market." Why not meet with labour as
well to discuss these difficulties? She does not say. She does tell us
that after her meetings, "Today, I return with some good news."
And what is the "good news?" Having told us that the
situation requires "us to be flexible and imaginative -- to think
outside the box," she herself is firmly stuck in the box. "I am
happy to announce that we are making changes to the Temporary Foreign
Worker Program to better respond to the necessities
of Canada's businesses and efficiently support the economic recovery.
We are reducing the paper burden and speeding up the processing time
for employers that have short-term skilled labour needs."
The efficiency measures are such that businesses will be
able to obtain the paperwork they require within ten business days.
This program is called the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (ALMO).
The cruel irony of course is that workers who lose their
jobs cannot get the paperwork they require to access training programs,
unemployment insurance and a job in ten business days! But Finley has
an answer for that as well. It goes like this.
The government is also sanctioning the payment of wages
up to 15 per cent below the average wage "so long as it can be clearly
demonstrated that the same wages are being paid to Canadian workers."
It is a straightforward scheme to lower the standard of living of
Canadian workers.
Having set the bar as low as possible, the Minister then
claims "ALMO" will "ensure further protections for temporary foreign
workers through the implementation of compliance reviews."
The Harper government's compliance reviews are of the
kind which monitor the performance of the Department of Defence and the
Prime Ministers' Office in the F-35 scandal. We can only hope the
workers' movement will rise to the occasion sooner rather than later
and impose a more suitable compliance
regime. Such a regime must be based on the standards set by union
protections, not those decreed by the Minister and her yellow union,
the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC).
 Having maliciously declared
that the wages of 15 per
cent lower than the average are now to be a new normal, the Minister
self-righteously declares: "Our Temporary Foreign Worker Program is
helping to fill the demand for skilled workers, but it must not take
jobs away from Canadians." To make sure the
message is not lost on anyone, she points out that "Here in Canada, we
have labour shortages in many regions of the country -- and yet in
other
regions, we have high unemployment."
In other words, Canada's unemployed should move to where
there are labour shortages to work for employers that have "short-term
skilled labour needs," to work for 15 percent less than the average
wage. It is very clever.
To make really sure the message is not lost on
anybody, the Minister tells us: "This is why it is critical to better
connect the EI Program with the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Businesses must recruit from the domestic workforce before hiring
temporary foreign workers." So, first she says
that "it is critical we work to help Canadians find available jobs in
their local area more quickly." Then she hastens to add: "But, where
the labour market has acute needs not easily filled by the domestic
workforce, this is when ALMO will help ease the pressure for employers."
Yes indeed. In the Harper government's world it would
seem that everyone is a comedian. Maybe she should request a new title
for her Ministry. She can then call herself Diane Finley -- Minister of
Forced Labour Camps in Alberta.
This is the great Harperite Economic Action Plan 2012,
"to better respond to the necessities of Canadian businesses and
efficiently support the economic recovery." It must be resolutely
opposed!
Stepping Up Anti-Worker Attacks in Quebec
In the Legislature
Unacceptable Bill on Health and Safety and Compensation
for Injured Workers
Montreal Association of
Injured
Workers and others protest anti-worker Bill 60 at May Day in Montreal. (McGill Daily)
On April 3, Quebec Labour Minister Lise Theriault tabled
Bill 60, An Act mainly to modernize the occupational health and
safety plan and extend its application to domestics. The bill
amends two major Quebec labour laws, An Act respecting
occupational health and safety (1979) and An Act respecting
industrial accidents and occupational
diseases (1985). These are the two Quebec laws pertaining to
occupational health and safety, care for the treatment of injuries, and
compensation for injured workers including death benefits. According to
the Montreal Association of Injured
Workers, which is firmly opposed to the Bill, the government is
expected to try to pass the bill before the National Assembly adjourns
on June 15. The government announced it is going to hold public
hearings on the bill. So far, among the unions, the Quebec Federation
of Labour has come out publicly against the
bill and is asking to be heard in these hearings.
TML calls on all workers to pay close
attention to this legislation and discuss it in the light of their
demand that the rights of all workers to safe and healthy working
conditions and to receive adequate compensation when they get injured
and for as long as they are injured, are recognized and
enforced.
In her communique dated April 3, Minister Theriault gets
off to a very wrong start by distorting the reality in Quebec regarding
the health and safety of the workers.
She says: "In the last 12 years, we have reduced the
incidence of occupational disease and accidents by 37 per cent. We must
continue with our efforts to better protect the great collective wealth
represented by our workers. I am convinced the measures being proposed
will contribute to this aim and constitute a major
breakthrough to improve the health and safety in all our workplaces."
This is not what is happening. Workers from across
Quebec report that it is not the actual number of injuries and
incidence of occupational disease that have decreased; it is the number
of these being reported by workers and the number accepted as work
related by the Workplace Health and Safety Commission
(CSST). A culture of repression and systematic challenges of
compensation claims has been imposed by the monopolies and the Quebec
government as is the case across Canada. As far as work-related
fatalities are concerned, not even the official number is decreasing
and in Quebec it remains at over 200 a year. All
this happened under the two major existing laws and indicates they are,
at the very least, inadequate for protecting workers. The Labour
Minister recognizes none of this and is only too happy to contribute to
the disinformation on this matter, so that she can present the
legislation in false colours.
For example, among other things, the bill intends to
change what it calls the governance of the CSST. The Commission's
current board of directors is comprised of equal numbers representing
unions and employers, plus a CEO. The bill changes the board's
composition to include two government-appointed
"independent members." Moreover, the board will now have to establish a
governance and ethics committee. Minister Theriault says these measures
aim at improving the board's ethical standards and making it more
efficient when it takes and implements decisions. Workers will
have a hard time understanding
how people appointed by the Charest government can be even remotely
associated with ethics! The government seems to be working toward
further destruction of the old joint employer-union health and safety
committee arrangement, in order to speed up the pace of attacks
against injured workers and present
these attacks as measures "against corruption" and for accountability
for "taxpayers' money."
Regarding the injured workers, the Minister's April
communique goes on to say:
"This whole array of measures [to put injured
workers back to work] will allow the financial
resources to be channelled towards the aim, which is a safe, quick and
long-term return to work that respects workers' needs and the
employers' concerns."
The stated aim of the current legislation on industrial
accidents and occupational diseases is not a "safe, quick and long-term
return to work."
Rather, the existing law says:
 "The object of this Act is
to provide compensation for
employment injuries and the consequences they entail for beneficiaries.
The process of compensation for employment injuries includes provision
of the necessary care for the consolidation of an injury, the physical,
social and vocational rehabilitation of a
worker who has suffered an injury, the payment of income replacement
indemnities, compensation for bodily injury and, as the case may be,
death benefits. This Act, within the limits laid down in Chapter VII,
also entitles a worker who has suffered an employment injury to return
to work."
The proposed bill does not amend this part of the Act
but shifts the emphasis to a return to work. This is both a
codification of what is already happening, with injured workers being
increasingly refused or cut off compensation under any pretext, and a
legal framework to step up the attacks against them.
This bill is another anti-worker measure. Workers'
rights to safe and healthy working conditions must be recognized and
they must be provided with adequate compensation when they are injured.
All these measures are to let employers get away with not taking up
their social responsibilities.
Promotion of
Anti-Consciousness
Montreal Chamber of Commerce's Promotion of
Anti-Consciousness
- Normand Fournier -
The Montreal Chamber of Commerce has recently made
public the results of a study it commissioned on the impact of the
Northern Plan. The study is called "Natural Resources: Leverage for the
City's Growth." The study's conclusion is that the greater Montreal
regional economy would benefit to the tune of more
than $50 billion over a period of 25 years.
The president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce was
asked by a journalist to comment on the study. Here are some of his
responses:
"The question of the transformation must be left solely
to the markets."
"Quebeckers' dream is that we exploit our resources in a
profitable way for the society and that we process them here in a
profitable way for the society. And that our companies distribute them
around the world."
"The reality is that in many cases, the viable business
model assumes that we process the natural resources close to markets."
The journalist pointed out that the most important
mining projects are developed this way with direct exportation from the
mines in raw form, with no processing in Quebec. The president
responded:
"But Quebec must be attentive to the possibilities of
processing." "In the end, the markets must decide. The biggest mistake
would be to force unprofitable processing in Quebec."
The journalist then pointed out the risk of embarking on
major resource exploitation, to the detriment of the environment or the
economic impact for Quebec, to which the Chamber's president responded:
"You ask this question as though we have a choice. It's
as though we had the choice to say to the world markets: wait for us,
we're not ready." "The reality is that at this time this is how it
works, if right now we can adjust quickly, we can reap the maximum
benefits."
"Currently the first force is not the Northern Plan's
existence, it's that there's a world-wide demand for natural resources
and we are well-equipped with natural resources."
"We could decide to block [the Northern Plan] and
strangle the economy. And we could decide to signal to the world that
we aren't open to this kind of development. We could always take the
path of absurdity."
Here we see a good example of the anti-consciousness
that reigns and which is pushed by the Montreal Chamber of Commerce.
This Chamber of Commerce that, with its 7,000 members, prides itself
for being the largest private organization in Quebec.
According to this anti-conscious outlook espoused by the
Chamber of Commerce, everything is subject to the whims of the markets
and world demand. Quebeckers' desire to exploit and process their
resources is presented as a dream that defies this "reality" of the
allegedly viable business models, no matter how unsustainable they have
proven themselves to be.
The Chamber claims it is an urgent necessity to profit
from the world
markets right now or else the opportunity to "reap the maximum
benefits" will pass us by.
But the worst is the Chamber's claim that it is simply
acting the same as others do "elsewhere in the world." As
if everything is set in stone and the aspirations of Quebeckers and the
peoples of other nations to establish new arrangements can simply be
made to disappear. Another world is
possible !
Quebec Employers' Council Finds a New Pearl
- Serge Lachapelle -
The courageous and determined struggle of the students
against increasing tuition fees and the presence of 250,000 people in
the streets of Montreal on Earth Day who proclaimed loudly: Whose
Resources? Our Resources! continue to throw the supporters of
the
anti-national and anti-social program into crisis.
The Quebec Employers' Council (QEC) has just found a new
pearl.
The new QEC President Yves-Thomas Dorval speaking at the
organizations' annual meeting said, "I was concerned
that it would be difficult to get our message out to the population,
but it's become worse with time," in reference to when he became
QEC president three years ago.
"Not long ago, all the big debates in society were
mainly held in the newspapers, on the radio and television. This media
was subject to professional and legal regulations insuring the rigour,
balance and accuracy of the information reported," Mr. Dorval added.
"The internet has brought on an explosion of social
media where the information is more personalized, but also a lot less
objective, rigorous and reliable," he said. "But a growing proportion
of the population -- particularly those 35 years and under -- are
getting their information mostly from this media. This
evolution presents a particular problem to governments and businesses
who are subject to strict communication regulations," he said.
The QEC president came to the Premier's rescue at the
Northern Plan convention.
Regarding the tuition fee increase, the QEC expressed a
limited
understanding of the students' resistance, considering them just
another group of taxpayers. However it believes the government's plan
"makes sense," especially since it accepted to improve the loans and
bursaries program. It is also enthusiastic about
the Northern Plan, a project which should create tens of thousands of
jobs for a generation while the Montreal unemployment rate is at
"catastrophic" levels.
Speaking about a pragmatic approach rather than a
dogmatic one, one learns that the QEC's mission is to convince
Quebeckers that the preservation of their quality of life depends on
the capacity to develop "wealth creation." Naturally, the creation of
wealth for the QEC means the intensification of attacks on the
creators of this wealth, that is the workers. In this regard, the QEC's
discussion around key issues is unequivocal.
These issues include the QEC's desire to reform the
Labour Code
on the use of replacement workers (scabs) in the event of a lockout or
strike. The president expressed concern that the government went too
far in favour of the unions and upset the existing balance of power
between employers and workers. But what
balance does he speak of when we know that employers have all the power
of the state behind them including the legal authority? Quebec and
British Columbia are the only provinces in Canada that have anti-scab
laws, Dorval reminds us. And he pulls out the big guns
saying, "Companies have made
it known that they would leave Quebec if they have to [deal with such
regulations.]" In other words we should put all the available resources
so that
companies can compete on the international markets with their twisted
logic that it is the businesses that create the wealth.
The QEC is also threatening to go to war against all
those practices that are an obstacle to monopoly right like the absence
of secret ballot during a union certification, strike votes which are
limited to employees of a facility rather than extended to all workers
affected or the use of union dues for other purposes
(political or otherwise) other than the strict representation of the
workers' interests in their workplaces. You have to be quite
disconnected from the real world to think that workers will allow the
QEC to meddle in their affairs.
The QEC will also focus on the outcome of future
D'Amours Committee reports on the future of supplemental pension plans.
It is very concerned that the government
has still not given rise to a new law before the end of the one-year
grace
period given to businesses. It also will monitor
Bill 60 on the modernization of the Quebec workplace health and safety
board. Employers want to considerably tighten the conditions for
maternity leave applications for pregnant women.
It will also address the issues of the reorganization of
business support, controlling the growth of payroll taxes and
employment-training in Quebec. Last month, the QEC welcomed the Quebec
and federal governments' efforts to get back to "balanced budgets" and
for better control of public spending.
What the QEC does not seem to understand is that the
working class and its allies long ago rejected this anti-national
and anti-social program. They have taken up developing a pro-social
program that recognize the rights of all.
Fight for a
Pro-Social Program!
More Reports from May Day Across Canada
May First in Windsor
In Windsor, May Day was
marked by a broad participation
of workers who are engaged in battles defending their rights. Teachers
from Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation and the Elementary
Teachers' Federation of Ontario opened the rally discussing
their resistance to the dictate of the
McGuinty government. They were joined by pensioners who denounced the
attacks of the Harper government on the older generation and students
who opposed the attacks on education. Representatives of Zellers
workers spoke out against U.S. monopoly Target's dictate, laying off
workers in Canada and forcing
them to re-apply for their jobs after it took over Zellers.
 Representatives of the
Windsor and District Labour Council, MayWorks
Windsor, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), the Windsor
Workers' Action Centre, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union,
the
Canadian Union of Public Employees,
Canadian Autoworkers Local 200 and the Windsor Peace Coalition all
brought greetings on behalf of their organizations to those
gathered and contributed to the spirit of the resistance of the working
class on May Day.
The march through downtown Windsor was led by horses,
this time on the side of the people,
brought by workers in the harness racing industry who were hit with a
surprise attack by the McGuinty government when the long-standing
profit-sharing arrangement from slot machine revenues was arbitrarily
scrapped, with no recourse for the tens of thousands who are linked to
the horse racing industry in one
way or another. The militant event ended with a social gathering where
local bands and singers contributed their talents to Windsor's
celebration of the International
Day of Working Class Solidarity.
Saying Loud and Clear What We Stand For in Hamilton
- Local 1005 USW -
May Day is marked all over the world as the day when
workers and their allies engage in actions to give voice to their
demands. Today, the major concern is their fight against the inhuman
neoliberal system which is causing havoc in their lives and turning
societies upside down. The fact that workers all over
the world speak out on the same day, expressing demands which everyone
has in common, shows the potential power of the working class movement
to turn things around and stop the dangers which lie ahead.
In Hamilton, some 200 workers from different sectors of
the economy and community members joined a contingent of members and
retirees of Local 1005 USW for a rally, march and BBQ. Delegations from
various CUPE locals, members of other steelworker locals, along with a
delegation from CAW Local
222 Retirees and members from CAW Local 504 were present.
At the rally, on behalf of Local 1005, V-P Gary Howe
outlined what has happened in the last year since Local 1005 organized
the May First rally in Ottawa to protest the Harper government's
inaction to end U.S. Steel's phony lockout and call on Canadians to
Stop Harper!
Speakers then informed about the situation facing their
particular collectives.
Professor Wayne Lewchuk and Josephine Eric from the
Migrant Workers Family Resource Centre spoke about the Harper
government's latest attacks under the guise of improving the Temporary
Foreign Workers program. They specifically addressed how this affects
domestic workers brought to Canada as migrant
workers. They introduced a domestic worker on the verge of being
deported after working in Canada for seven years. They are calling on
everyone to collect the one thousand signatures that are required to
get a hearing to stop the deportation.
Steve Weller, outgoing President of National Steel Car
Local 7135 USW, spoke briefly about their upcoming contract
negotiations. Corry Speher, the President of CUPE Local 1065, then
explained how the attacks on hospital workers are endangering the
safety of the patients at Joseph Brant Hospital.
President of Local 1005 Rolf Gerstenberger further
elaborated on the significance of taking up a program of work to change
the situation. Besides other things, Rolf expressed the outrage of
Ontario workers in the face of Premier McGuinty's political opportunism
in nominating Conservative MP Elizabeth Witmer
to head the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WSIB) in
the hopes that his party can win a by-election and end his government's
minority government status in the Legislature. Witmer is known for her
anti-social stance against injured workers, Rolf pointed out and
pledged on behalf of Local 1005
to go all out to make sure that both the Tories and Liberals are
defeated in the Kitchener-Waterloo by-election. Most importantly, he
pledged to make sure the marginalization of injured workers in Ontario
is ended and the attacks against them stop.
Rolf also pledged full support for the Ontario teachers
against attempts to impose an austerity contract on them. Teachers'
working conditions are students' learning conditions, he emphasized. He
denounced the government's refusal to negotiate and instead threaten
the teachers to succumb to his demands to "be
fair" and "share the burden." Rolf's pledge to the teachers underscored
the position of Local 1005 that no split should be permitted between
private sector and public sector workers and their unions.
After the presentations, the workers marched through
Hamilton's industrial core behind their banner Manufacturing Yes!
Nation-Wrecking No! The route went past the National Steel Car gates
and the ArcelorMittal Dofasco offices and plant. The May Day event
concluded with a BBQ and lively discussion at
the Local 1005 Union Hall.
Remarks by Rolf Gerstenberger
On behalf of Local 1005 I welcome all of
you and on behalf of all of us we send greetings to other workers
across the country also gathering on May Day to say loud and clear what
we stand for. On this day we also think about what the workers are
going through all over the world in conditions
much worse than ours. Of course, when it comes to conditions we don't
compare bad and worse or good in relation to bad. We are always told we
are lucky compared to others and this is done so we accept the
unacceptable. So we reject that. As human beings we can share
experiences on how we provide the problems
we face with solutions and unite in action to defend those who would
destroy everything we have built to date. We do not make the kind of
advances humankind has achieved by negating our humanity and accepting
the unacceptable.
The most important thing to recognize in my opinion is
that no matter what problems we face, we can do something to solve them
so long as we do not accept defeatism -- that nothing can be done
because we are powerless or that it is our duty to make the rich richer
and reduce ourselves to begging for what
belongs to us by right.
The metaphor is often used that we should get "our fair
share of the pie." Here precisely is where the problem lies. Whose pie
is it and why is someone else cutting it for us? It is our pie and we
want to be in control of how it is cut and who eats it! But of course,
nowadays governments are putting the private
interests of the monopolies above the public interest and telling
everyone to accept austerity and brutal cuts to the public sector, and
privatization of social programs.
The most recent revelation made on the anniversary of
the Harper dictatorship under the hoax that he has a majority is that
in the name of an Economic Action Plan wages of temporary foreign
workers will be reduced to 15 per cent of the average Canadian wage and
that Employment Insurance (EI) will be tied
to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program. If this means that before
hiring temporary foreign workers, unemployed workers have to agree to
work for 15 per cent less than the average Canadian wage, it is not
hard to see how the government is forcing the standard of living down
for all Canadian workers, besides
the implication of the creation of forced labour camps.
Here in Hamilton we are already angry that U.S. Steel is
laying off able-bodied steelworkers when Canada's need for steel is so
great, without worrying about having them move to Alberta to work in
forced labour camps! Meanwhile, the political opportunism to stay in
power is so great at Queen's Park that McGuinty
just named Tory MP Elizabeth Witmer to head the Workplace Safety and
Insurance Board. His scheme is to skin the ox twice -- to hold a
by-election to get out of minority government status and escalate the
attacks on injured workers the Tory MP is known for when she was
Minister of Labour under Mike Harris.
Besides the crass admission that politicians can be bought, the
cynicism is beyond the pale. It must not pass. We must do our best to
make sure that neither a Liberal nor a Tory get elected in
Kitchener-Waterloo. We must show these enemies of democracy the meaning
of the rule of law and what the working people
of Ontario think of their shenanigans. Even if the by-election is not
in your riding, all Ontario workers should defend the injured workers
and not permit the attacks against them.
All of it shows the deliberate imposition of insecurity
on the people in order to funnel more and more of the assets of society
so that the rich can get richer. Their programs called Economic Action
Plans and austerity budgets are brutal, irrational, absurd.
This May Day we say loud and clear -- Enough! No Means
No! The days of making us pay so you can pay the rich are over!
Last year on May First as you know we went to Parliament
Hill. We were in the middle of our phony lockout and the country was on
the eve of the federal election. We urged other unions to support our
rally. We didn't ask them to spend all kinds of money or mobilize all
kinds of resources. We just said -- Let's
stand as one to Stop Harper! Monopoly Right No! Public Right Yes!
and this is the message we took to the steps of Parliament. Our rally
was very successful and workers from many sectors of the economy and
their unions supported us. The workers who saw the necessity for
Canadian workers to draw a line
in the sand and unite in action to deprive the monopolies of the power
they presently have over us and let the government know that its
service to monopolies is not right, stood with us then as we all stand
together today as well. This is what is needed. We have to solve this
problem of making sure the opposition
to the likes of Harper and McGuinty firmly subordinate the interests of
the private monopolies to the public interest and that the Workers'
Opposition is not divided on factional lines.
On this occasion, we say to our sisters and brothers in
the teaching profession who are abandoned to the austerity measures
that we will stand with them in the fight to preserve and improve the
system of public education. Their teaching conditions are students'
learning conditions just like the working conditions
of the hospital workers are directly linked to our health as well.
We are also here to reiterate that all Hamilton
Steelworkers are united as one, whether they work for U.S. Steel,
ArcellorMittal or any other Hamilton plant as are all workers no matter
whether they work in the private or public sector.
On this May Day, we also extend our greetings to all
steelworkers in the U.S. who go into contract negotiations this year.
The American working class is the greatest fighting force whose
struggles built that country into a modern wealthy society and they are
now being discarded like old scrap, just as we are.
It will not do, as the workers in Wisconsin and the longshoreman and
the workers throughout the U.S. are showing with their opposition to
the anti-social attacks against them.
I could say something about the inspiring fight workers
are waging everywhere but let me at least mention our brothers and
sisters in Alma, Quebec. This morning they held a May Day Rally and
started a relay to Quebec City where they will demand that the Charest
government cancel its secret deal with Rio
Tinto. The Charest government is as corrupt as the McGuinty government.
It refuses to negotiate with the students, just as McGuinty is doing
with the teachers, and it is conspiring with Rio Tinto to pay it to
produce hydro-electricity while Rio Tinto can declare the lockout a force
majeure - an event
outside its control. This is a fraud of big proportions, a government
subsidy of the lockout. Like U.S. Steel's lockout was also a fraud to
impose its dictate, so too the Rio Tinto lockout is a fraud.
This May Day we say that it is more urgent than ever to
oppose the federal and provincial governments' secret deals and
governments that do not defend the public interest, but support the
monopolies and their nation-wrecking.
This demonstration on May First is held to issue a cease
and desist order on the attacks on both the public and private sector
workers. Cease and desist the attacks on postal workers, Air Canada
workers, teachers, healthcare workers and government employees. These
are not just attacks on fellow workers; they
are attacks on the quality public services and social programs
Canadians deserve and need in a modern society. It is simply not
acceptable that the McGuinty government can threaten the teachers and
hospital workers that if they do not submit to his demands he will
legislate the new terms and conditions of work.
Government abuse of the collective rights of workers to bargain in good
faith for wages, benefits, pensions and working conditions acceptable
to their peers, such as the Ontario government's criminalization of TTC
workers' right to strike last year, and Harper's attack on the postal
workers and the Air Canada workers,
and Mayor Ford's privatization of public services is not only
disrespectful of public workers but is also an assault on the right to
quality public services and by extension, on the very conception of
society and nation-building. It is nation-wrecking.
Local 1005 USW says that the situation will not change
on its own; something must be done to change it. On this May First we
call on everyone to demand that governments must uphold public right,
not monopoly "right"; the government must provide the rights of
workers, seniors and youth with proper guarantees.
Experience shows that unless workers directly fight for a program that
favours them, things become worse. Any misguided idea that those who
are not our peers and do not have to live with our working conditions,
wages and pensions will "give us a break" and guarantee our security is
a delusion we should put to
rest.
Stand as One in
Defence of the Rights of All!
Take Up the Work to Change the Situation!
May Day in Prince George, BC
May Day 2012 in Prince George BC was marked with a
dinner and gathering of 120 workers and students organized and hosted
by the May Day Organizing Committee, which is made up of volunteers who
belong to a variety of trade unions and community organizations in the
region.
This year's event took place in an atmosphere of both
sadness and determination, only a few days after a catastrophic
explosion at the Lakeland Mill in Prince George. Two workers lost their
lives and many others were injured. All were members of the United
Steelworkers' Local 1-424, one of the sponsoring
organizations of May Day in the city.
Dawn Hemingway, a university professor and well-known
local community activist, chaired the event.
The proceedings began with a welcome from Chief Dominic
Frederick of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, upon whose traditional
territory the city of Prince George sits. It was followed by a minute
of silence and reflection for those workers who had been killed and
injured in both the Lakeland Mills explosion
and a similar explosion several months before at Babine Forest Products
in Burns Lake, a nearby community.
The first speaker was Frank Everitt, president of Local
1-424, who honoured the memory of the workers who had fallen, and
praised the exceptional bravery and presence of mind of the mill
workers, supervisors and First Responders who, often at great peril to
their own lives, got the injured to safety. He noted
that it was quite revealing that even among the workers who were badly
injured, their first thoughts were about other workers rather than
themselves. Frank spoke of the selflessness and concern for others as
quite remarkable, and representing the spirit of May Day -- all for one
and one for all. He also spoke about
the long and continuous struggle that forestry workers have had to wage
for better working conditions and a better society, a struggle also at
the heart of May Day.
Peter Ewart from the May Day Organizing Committee spoke
next, commenting that today we live in a world where "things" have a
priority over human beings. Such "things" include profit, capital,
multinational corporations, banks, barrels of oil, F-35 jets, and so
on, and many crimes and infamies are being carried
out in their names, including too many workplace injuries. He noted
that today we are being bombarded with the narrow, selfish and
ego-centric views of the billionaires and financiers, and that it was
critical for workers to have their own thinking and outlook based on
the public interest. "Even though it seems at
times that our view and outlook is like a small flame in the midst of
darkness," he said, "if we nurture our point of view, fight for it,
stick to it, and grow it, it will eventually light up our country and
the world."
The next speaker was Matt Pearce, president of the
Prince George & District Teachers Association, who talked of the
determined struggle teachers have been waging against a provincial
government that has mounted an all out attack against teachers and
is "tearing apart" public education in the province with the
anti-labour Bill 22 and other measures. He pointed out that the attacks
on the bargaining rights of public sector workers like teachers is a
prelude to attacks on workers in the private sector. But he also made
very clear that, despite all the threats of heavy fines, teachers "are
not going to stay down" and will assert
themselves in the coming months. "We are public sector employees who
have both rights and responsibilities, including the right to a
collective bargaining process," he said. "However, the government views
us as public "servants" with responsibility but no rights. This is a
designation that teachers refuse to accept.
Other speakers during the course of the night included
representatives from the Canadian Union of Public Employees; North
Central Labour Council; Pulp, Paper & Woodworkers Local 9;
Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 812; Faculty Association of the
College of New Caledonia; the College of New Caledonia Student Union;
Health Sciences Association;
BC Forum; and Hospital Employees Union.
All the speakers commented on how the attacks against
their sectors were being stepped up from all levels of government and
the corporate sector, as well as the need to resist these attacks.
During the course of the evening, the May Day Singers
led participants in rousing renditions of songs about workers'
struggles and concluded the evening with a singing of The
Internationale.
Remarks by Peter Ewart, May Day Organizing Committee
Sisters and brothers, workers are special human beings.
We are the majority of the population. And through our labour, we
create the wealth of the society.
With our labour, we run the gears and wheels of
industry; we operate the hospitals, schools, and social services; we
drive the buses, trucks and trains of our transportation system. We run
the communication systems, cook and prepare food, and provide the
clerical and retail services. Indeed, along with the different
professions, we do just about everything.
It is living, breathing workers who carry out all of
these crucial functions, who make this society run. And we are human
beings, each and every one of us.
Given our role, given our contribution, our interests
and needs should be at the centre of what society is all about. But
that is not the case. Far from it.
If it were, we would not see the terrible carnage of
workplace injuries and death in our forest industry and other
industries.
We would not see the constant attacks on our wages,
benefits and pensions.
We would not see unemployment, poverty and a host of
other problems.
We would not see teachers and other sectors of workers
being treated like second class citizens without bargaining rights.
Indeed, we are living in a world where "things" have
more of a priority over human beings.
By that I mean "things" like profit, capital,
multi-national corporations, banks, and even barrels of oil, F-35
fighter jets, and so on.
This is a world where things dominate, where the human
factor, and especially that of workers and the public interest, is put
in the shade. These things like profit, capital, and the monopoly
corporation take on a god-like, all powerful quality, as if we are all
to bow down before them.
And what crimes and infamies are done in the name of
these things.
Workers regularly lose their health, lose their hands
and limbs, and even their lives. All in the name of that thing called
"profit".
When plants and mills shut down, the globalist
monopolies come first and workers and communities come last. When
financial crisis hits, the big banks come first, while senior citizens
have the eligibility age for their pensions raised and thousands of
federal workers have their jobs slashed.
Things like barrels of oil and bitumen take priority
over the safety of our communities and environment. These same barrels
of oil could create hundreds of thousands of jobs for workers and
communities if they were processed and refined here. But instead they
are shipped overseas.
And the same is true with raw log exports.
In other parts of the world, countries, like Iraq and
Libya, are actually invaded and bombed, their human population
devastated -- all in the name of that thing called a barrel of oil.
Today, we think of our four brothers who have lost their
lives, and the hundreds of other sisters and brothers who lose their
lives every year. Each and every one was a wonderful living, breathing
human being, deeply connected with and part of our society.
As John Donne, the great English poet of the 17th
Century, once wrote:
No man is an island
Entire of itself
Each is a part of the continent
A part of the main
Each man's death diminishes me
For I am involved in mankind
Sisters and brothers, these days there is huge pressure
on us to see the world upside down, to adopt the view point of the
millionaires and billionaires, of the global financiers and tycoons, to
be confined by their terms of references, their priorities, their
faulty logic.
During the period of slavery, the slave system was safe
as long as the slaves were kept confined in the same mind-set and
outlook as the slave-owners. But once the slaves acquired, through long
struggle, the consciousness that they were not chattels, they were not
someone's property, but rather living human
beings with rights, the slave system was finished.
The globalist billionaires and financiers of today, and
the politicians in their service, are very aware of this and they go to
great lengths to attack our consciousness and thinking:
- To confuse us with their irrational arguments,
- To pressure us to give up our own point of view,
- To accept their outlook in which we are nothing more
than a cost of production,
- That things like their profit have a higher priority
than our health and safety and our wellbeing,
That the interest of the monopoly and multinational must
come first before workers and the community.
From our point of view as workers, things are not the
centre of our consciousness, or thinking, or the centre of our
priorities, but rather it is human beings and the public interest.
This is not to say that there is no role for things per
se. There is very much a need, but things like multinational
corporations and banks and barrels of oil should serve the public
interest, and especially the producers, and not the other way around.
A worker- and people-centred outlook is crucial for us
to
analyze what is happening in politics, economics, and every other
sphere of life. The Business Council of BC and the BC Liberal
government have their point of view on health and safety. But we have
our own thinking and our own consciousness, and
it is different from theirs, just as we have our own thinking on the
value of the bargaining rights of our sisters and brothers who are
teachers and hospital workers.
And we are proud that we have our own view and our own
thinking.
Brothers and sisters, it is crucial for us, as workers,
to have, besides our thinking, our own program, aims, and vision for
society that is based, as first principle, on the public interest.
These days, we are being bombarded with the narrow,
selfish, ego-centric and destructive views and outlook of the
billionaires and the financiers.
At times, it seems as if our view is like a small flame
in the midst of darkness. But if we nurture our point of view, fight
for it, stick to it, and grow it, it will eventually light up our
country and the world.
That to me is the message of May Day, International
Workers' Day.
Read The Marxist-Leninist
Daily
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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