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September 17, 2012 - No. 115 Opening of Second Session of 41st Parliament Parliament Needs to Stop Paying the Rich, Oppose Austerity and Increase Investments in Social Programs Opening
of
Second
Session
of
41st
Parliament Opening of Second Session of 41st Parliament Parliament Needs to Stop Paying the Rich, Oppose Austerity and Increase Investments in Social Programs
The Harper dictatorship opens the fall sitting of Parliament on Monday, September 17. On this occasion, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) denounces once again the arrogant dismissive tone Harper's control of Parliament will project. Canadians oppose with contempt Harper's executive rule by decree and omnibus bills that marginalize even members of Parliament. The propaganda organs allied with Harper speak continually of austerity for purposes of diverting attention from the program to pay the rich. Austerity is an economic condition that needs to be overcome not promoted as a cure for anything. Austerity is a condition of contraction of the economy, resulting in the suffering of the people, in particular the working class and most vulnerable with loss of livelihoods and public and social services. Politics of austerity are anti-social and a criminal scandal with one and a half million workers unemployed, tens of thousands injured and suffering inadequate assistance, pensions under assault from the financial oligarchy and many fellow Canadians living in poverty, especially children.
The degrading of public services together with the promotion of private-public partnerships has accelerated the rise to power of private interests within Parliament. Not a day goes by without talk of scandal, with lobbyists for private interests or those handed a privatized public service or asset accused of having close links with the Harper Conservative Party. Parliament Must Not Dictate to the People and RegionsThe arrogance of Harper's rule in Parliament is evidenced in his unilateral announcement to close the Vancouver Kitsilano Coast Guard Rescue Station without any discussion or input of local people and political leaders leaving fishers, recreational boaters and commercial craft to seek help when in distress from a distant station on the Fraser River. Activists, who represent a broad public opinion, call for retention of the rescue station which serves the busiest port in Canada. The Harper dictatorship is also under fire in the West and elsewhere from those who oppose his unilateral changes to environmental and assessment rules concerning major projects. Working class, social and political organizations, First Nations and others opposed to Harper's dictate to force through the proposed Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast will descend on Victoria October 22 for a mass sit-in on the front lawn of the BC Legislature. Parliament Needs to Abolish Treaties Hatched in SecrecyA pervasive atmosphere of secrecy and executive rule extends to Harper's international agreements now in preparation without any input even from most members of Parliament. These include the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and membership in the U.S. led and dominated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which calls for the elimination of Canada's traditional dairy, cheese, poultry and egg farming sectors. No meaningful discussion has occurred within Parliament on these and other important subjects such as the sudden and aggressive severing of all diplomatic relations with Iran. Parliament Needs to Support Canadian Workers
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Harper's mass firing of
almost 20,000 public service workers in a period of serious
unemployment and when the needs of the people are greatest is
irrational and destructive. The elimination of public services has led
to protests across the country. On September 15, members of the Public
Service Alliance of Canada
and their allies demonstrated across the country to denounce the Harper
cuts to public services. They discussed with Canadians how the
elimination and privatization of public services and the contracting
out of work normally done by permanent workers negatively affects the
people, economy and general interests
of society and drives down the standard of living of all except a
minority of rich.
Facing Parliament is the
resistance of Canadian auto workers to concessions demanded by the
three global auto monopolies. The Harper dictatorship has made the
private interests of the auto monopolies
a major issue with his pay-the- rich bailouts handing them billions
from the public treasury. Those same monopolies are now demanding
further concessions from Canadian auto workers, which would mean an
even greater flow of enterprise profit out of the country to foreign
owners of capital. Harper has made it
clear that he stands with the global monopolies in their campaign to
extort concessions from Canadian workers and will not hesitate to use
his political authority to pile pressure on workers as he has done with
legislated measures against Canada Post, Air Canada
and CP Rail workers.
CPC(M-L) calls on the people and members
of Parliament to hold the Harper government to account to serve the
interests of
Canadian workers and not the private interests of the monopolies.
Threats to crater auto production in Canada to extort concessions
should be declared illegal on penalty of returning all bailout money
and other measures including expropriation of company
assets.
The Harper dominated
Parliament will continue the campaign to annex Canada to the U.S.
Empire and its predatory wars with disastrous consequences for the
peoples of the world and their desire for peace and the sovereign right
to settle their own affairs
and not be exploited and attacked by the U.S. war machine and its
aggressive alliances such as NATO. CPC(M-L) denounces those in
Parliament who conciliate with the Harper annexationist and
warmongering policies and calls on them to stand with Canadians in
opposition to the Harper war agenda and make Parliament
a centre of anti-war and anti-annexation discussion and actions. First
on Parliament's agenda should be to bring Canadian troops home from
Afghanistan, pay reparations to the people of Afghanistan for all the
damage caused by Canada's participation in that predatory war,
extricate Canada from NATO and U.S.
Homeland Security, and sever all ties with the U.S. military. Banner from Public Service Alliance of Canada's September 15 National Day of Action. |
In its March 2012 budget, the Harper government announced that in the next three years it would eliminate the jobs of 19,200 public servants from the 400,000-strong public service. These cuts are being carried out behind closed doors. Civil servants are sent a letter from the Harper government, called a Workforce Adjustment notice, telling them that their job might be "affected" in the near future. Then some anonymous process decides which jobs are to be eliminated.
Some 900 federal government professionals represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) and working at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) received a Workforce Adjustment notice on September 13. This brings to over 5,200 the number of PIPSC members who have received such a notice since the tabling of the 2012 federal Budget. These 900 positions, according to the PIPSC, include nurses who use their medical knowledge to determine applicants' eligibility for Canada Pension Plan disability benefits and 886 professionals who support departmental activities across the federal government, including those of Service Canada, which administers the Employment Insurance program, Old Age Security, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, the Canada Pension Plan and child care benefits.
PSAC reported that 589 of its members who work at HRSDC and 149 who work for the RCMP also received notices during the week saying they could lose their jobs. PSAC says that since the 2012 budget, 3,478 PSAC members who work at HRSDC received a Workforce Adjustment notice threatening their jobs and that the department has told all unions representing HRSDC workers that 2,100 positions will actually be eliminated in line with the 2012 budget. This new wave of notices has brought the total number of PSAC members who have been notified that their job could be "affected" because of the 2012 budget to 18,019.
More than 1,500 Canada Employment and Immigration workers also received notices from the Harper government last week that their jobs might also be "affected" in the near future.
A major problem with the
elimination of these jobs is that they not
only weaken the services Canadians receive, but they are destroying the
public sector itself and that is the aim. While the cuts are justified
in the name of austerity or improving the services or any number of
other fraudulent diversions, neo-liberal champions are eliminating
public right and replacing it with monopoly right. This is why jobs
lost by civil servants are being turned over to private contractors who
make a killing from the contracts they are awarded while the labour
they hire is paid very low wages with no benefits. Many times it is the
skilled civil servants who are forced to take these jobs. It is one of
the
major scams of the 21st century neo-liberal nation-wrecking for which
the Harper government and others like it must be held to account.
Information has already surfaced of the private contracts awarded to replace Department of National Defence jobs such as janitors and kitchen staff cut from bases across the country.
"We are concerned about the impact of these cuts on our members and on the key services they provide Canadians," said PIPSC Vice-President Debi Daviau. "It may well be yet another step towards outsourcing public service work to the private sector, where data privacy and security are an issue. Just a few days ago, it was reported that the Department of National Defence is looking at spending $100 million on contractors to perform the work of staff who have just been let go. Why should we expect anything different this time?"
Yet another concern is the disinformation of the Harper government which arrogantly carries out its nation-wrecking agenda despite the exposure of what it is up to.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay issued a press release that PSAC was doing a "disservice to its members" by misrepresenting facts about cuts to civilian workers in the Department of National Defence. Then he diverted attention from the actions of the government by declaring that jobs are being created as a result of the government's Halifax ship-building contracts. A PSAC representative denounced the press release as government spin and asked how ship-building jobs justified cutting workers whose jobs are to make sure people get their Canada Pension Plan cheque or who help people do their income tax or provide services to veterans.
These assaults on the civil
service follow a previous round carried
out by the Chretien and Martin governments which everyone knows were
then replaced with contract jobs where the owners of temp agencies make
a killing off of lucrative government contracts while the workers
performing the civil service jobs have no security whatsoever. It
is also known that jobs which civil servants have always performed are
now given to private global consulting and accounting monopolies such
as Deloitte, Ernst and Young and KPMG, infamous for their "creative
accounting schemes" and other corruption.
It is a usurpation of the public authority by private interests. The fact that the Harper government uses its majority to carry out this neo-liberal agenda shows that the democratic institutions established in the past are no longer able to defend the public interest and that the workers, women and youth across the country have to very seriously take up the agenda to renew the democratic political process.
Finance Minister's Thinly Veiled Threats
Against Auto Workers
Under the Harper dictatorship, the opening and closing of Parliament have become occasions to launch new shock-and-awe assaults on the working class and people of the country. These assaults serve to destabilize the polity and disinform them about the government's agenda to pay-the-rich and further destroy the public authority and institutions.
When Parliament opens on September 17, the current contract of autoworkers also expires with the Big Three auto monopolies, Chrysler, General Motors and Ford. In an interview with the Globe and Mail on September 14, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stated:
"I am very concerned about the labour dispute in the auto sector. This is very worrisome, because this is a sector that is massively important, not just for Ontario, but for other regions of the country.
"I know the presidents of the companies, and I know Ken Lewenza, the head of the union. I encourage all of them to come to an agreement as quickly as possible. This is not the time to have these kinds of disputes, because of the seriousness of the global economic situation."
Flaherty's statements are
not out of concern for the
health of the economy or how to resolve the impact of the "global
economic situation" in a manner which favours Canadian working people,
including autoworkers and their communities such as in his own Oshawa
riding. His comments can only be understood if taken in the context
of the Harper government's interventions in the labour disputes at
Canada Post, Air Canada and CP
Rail where back-to-work legislation or the threat of back-to-work
legislation ruled in favour of private interests. Furthermore, the
government's callous disregard for the
closures of Electro-Motive Diesel in London, Ontario and the Aveos
aircraft maintenance facilities across the country, under the hoax that
they were about "private
business decisions" outside the government's
purview, also saw these disputes settled in favour of private
interests. In this vein, Flaherty did not have a word to say about
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne's threats to wreck Canada's economy by
moving production to the United States if autoworkers don't give in to
Chrysler's demands for two-tier wages and profit-stealing/sharing
schemes. Instead, his remarks in the Globe
and Mail interview can only
be seen as a veiled threat against the autoworkers to submit to
monopoly dictate for concessions before the government intervenes to
attack their right to resist and organize. Flaherty's statement on the
auto negotiations is a sign that the Harper dictatorship is already
throwing its weight behind Chrysler-Fiat CEO Sergio
Marchionne and the other heads of the auto monopolies. The implicit
threat is that if the union leaders do not hear the message, the
government is prepared to introduce legislation in the Parliament and
declare any opposition of workers in vital sectors of the economy a
threat to "national security."
These threats from the government and Chrysler come after fleecing the autoworkers and their communities of billions of dollars! Furthermore, Flaherty will not say a peep because he was the handmaiden of the monopolies in those deals, ensuring that the full weight of the Canadian state was used to extort concessions from the autoworkers to pay the monopolies during the economic crisis of 2009. He is gearing up for more of the same today.
Flaherty's remarks also reveal the direction the Harper government is taking in the coming session of Parliament and the importance for the Workers' Opposition to build its independent politics so that the public interest can be defended. It is as if the Harper dictatorship is preparing to use its majority to declare any resistance by workers to their exploitation in key sectors of the economy a threat to the economy so as to outlaw resistance of any kind in the name of national security. All its disinformation on the occasion of Parliament's opening about the "global economic situation" is to prevent any discussion on what causes it and how to resolve it instead of adopting measures which pay the rich and further exacerbate it. The criminalization of workers' resistance and organization has become the latest target of attack. This includes using private members' bills to destroy unions, specifically Bill C-377, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (requirements for labour organizations).
These threats are unacceptable! Attempts to extort concessions are mafia activity which should be prosecuted under criminal law. Instead, the heads of corporations, governments and their media fill the airwaves with such threats as if they are the most normal thing in the world. No to the mafia activity of those who have usurped the public authority for the gain of private interests! Stand with autoworkers against the attempt to extort what belongs to them by right!
National Day of Action to Defend Public Services and Oppose Austerity Agenda
Ottawa, September 15, 2012
On September 15, the Public Service Alliance of Canada
(PSAC) organized events and actions across the country to oppose the
Harper government's so-called austerity agenda in defence of the
important public services its members provide. These public sector
workers have been under attack by the Harper government as part of its
neo-liberal agenda to privatize services and dismantle public
institutions and leave everyone to fend for themselves. Massive job
cuts have taken place across the country and the government is
threatening more. These institutions represent the public interest,
which the monopolies that the Harper government serves view as an
impediment to their narrow private interests. The importance of the Day
of Action was underscored by a September 13 notice served to 1,500
people working at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada warning
them that their jobs could be in jeopardy.
Actions took place in more than 30 cities in all of PSAC's seven regions across the country under the theme "We Are Affected." The actions were varied in their forms, from rallies and marches to information kiosks and BBQs. One of the main aims of the actions was to increase the awareness on how these cuts are destroying the services people depend on, jeopardizing their health, safety and security. In their call for the Day of Action, organizers explained that what is being slashed are services which provide, among other things, food inspection, old age security, employment insurance, health care for First Nations, environmental protection, search and rescue operations on the oceans and rivers and transportation safety. They also pointed out the damage done to the economy when public service workers lose their jobs. Premier Harper and his Finance Minister Jim Flaherty are on record for callously saying that they are just cutting some "back office" operations, that the cuts are just "common sense" (Ontarians in particular will remember the Mike Harris anti-social "Common Sense Revolution") and will actually improve the delivery of the services.
The workers and people are very aware that the
neo-liberal agenda is not limited to the federal government. Actions
across the country included the participation of public sector workers
from the provincial and municipal levels, as well as postal workers and
others.
The lives and well-being of Canadians are what are at stake with the ruthless cuts of the Harper government to programs and jobs and across the country. PSAC members and other public sector workers made clear on September 15 their determination to fight for public services and their jobs and called on everyone to support them.
National Capital Region
Hundreds of public sector workers and their supporters gathered at Confederation Park in Ottawa for the September 15 Day of Action event which featured literature tables, live music, theatre, amongst other activities. At the event, a union representative told TML that the situation is seriously affecting workers' health because of the work overload and the constant insecurity hanging over everyone's head. She pointed out that women are particularly affected by the cutbacks as more than half of public sector workers are women, representing 84 per cent of administrative staff in federal workplaces, meaning, as a PSAC brochure points out, that job cuts in the federal public sector will disproportionately impact women. She also pointed out that this Day of Action was just the beginning of other actions the union will organize to counter this brutal attack on the rights of civil servants as well as the rights of the population as a whole.
Atlantic Region
In New Brunswick, PSAC members held protests in Saint John, Fredericton, Miramichi and Bouctouche.
In Nova Scotia, PSAC members rallied in front of Defence Minister Peter MacKay's constituency offices in New Glasgow and Antigonish, as well as in Halifax to protest the across the board cuts to public services and the cuts of civilian workers in the Department of National Defence.
In Summerside, PEI, a 10-metre long petition was presented for people to sign to express their opposition to federal government cuts.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, actions took place in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and St. John's. Already last year the federal government closed down the Marine Rescue Centre in St. John's to the outrage of people across the Atlantic provinces.
St. John's, Newfoundland; Antigonish, Nova Scotia -- riding of Defence Minister Peter McKay.
Quebec
In Quebec, actions included a banner which read "Stephen Harper Hates Us" pulled behind an airplane.
In Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, a community gathering was held in support of Ste. Anne's Hospital for veterans. Meanwhile overhead, PSAC flew a banner pulled behind an airplane which read "Stephen Harper Hates Us." A similar airborne action held recently in Ottawa was grounded on the basis of spurious security concerns even though the plane towing the banner was in conformity with all safety regulations.
Ontario
The actions in Ontario coincided with the fight
undertaken by Ontario teachers against the provincial government's
attacks on their rights and the education system, also in the name of
"austerity." Events were held in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Kingston and
Toronto.
In Toronto, PSAC organized a mock trial to expose and denounce the
crimes of the leading politicians of the neo-liberal offensive --
Stephen Harper, Dalton McGuinty, Tim Hudak and the hooligan Rob Ford.
PSAC's Toronto action was supported by the Canadian
Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Ontario Federation of Labour and
the Toronto and York Region Labour Council. As well as PSAC and CUPE
workers, delegations of workers from the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers (CUPW), the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of
Canada
and members of other unions participated in the event. First Nations,
organizations of national minorities
and women's organizations as well as community groups and anti-poverty
organizations also took part.
Between 200-300 people jammed into a moot courtroom set up outside the
Toronto Courthouse on University Avenue. An indictment was read
denouncing the leading
neo-liberal politicians for the harm they are inflicting on working
people, for their trampling of workers' rights and for their
nation-wrecking. Worker delegates and representatives of the other
organizations in attendance were all called on to give evidence.
Debbie Willet of the PSAC Area Council reported on the
19,200 public service job cuts the Harper government has planned for
the next few years and the drastic impact these job cuts will have on
the services people need. CUPW representative Cathy Kennedy spoke about
the trampling of postal workers' rights by Harper and his Labour
Minister Lisa Raitt.
Among those speaking for Ontario public sector workers was Fred Hahn,
President of CUPE Ontario. Hahn said that the McGuinty government is
attempting to use shock-and-awe tactics to take $18 billion out of
health, education and other social programs in Ontario. After talking
about the Charter challenge
education workers and teachers have launched against the McGuinty-Hudak
anti-worker legislation Bill 115, Hahn concluded, "But courts are not
enough. We have to organize to take back our rights. We have to
mobilize people in every city and town in the province!"
A People's Court in Toronto puts Prime Minister Harper, Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor Rob Ford on trial for attacks on public sector workers and teachers, their rights and defence organizations, and public services.
Prairie Region
Winnipeg
In Winnipeg, an event was held in Memorial Park where PSAC National President Robyn Benson and other community and labour activists spoke. Everyone was asked to sign a 100-foot banner expressing the effect of the loss of public services on the community.
In Saskatchewan, events were held in Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Regina.
In Alberta, a Family Day was held in Calgary and Edmonton. In Lethbridge, PSAC members distributed "We Are All Affected" postcards in the community.
Also on September 15 in Calgary, more than 500 members of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers marched to and rallied in front of Stephen Harper's Calgary constituency office to deliver a message that the government's "Tough on Crime" policies are failing correctional officers and Canadians.
"Canadians need to know how the Harper policies will affect them," said Pierre Mallette, the National President of the union. What happens inside our facilities tends to follow on the outside. Gangs and violence becomes a way of life for inmates. We are moving away from a system of rehabilitation to an American system of warehousing prisoners that will have long-term consequences."
Kevin Grabowsky, the union's Regional President for the Prairies pointed out, "The government is locking up more inmates in fewer prisons while giving us less resources to rehabilitate them. This is a recipe for disaster... We have requested to sit down with the government to find a solution but so far we have heard nothing." The correctional officers followed their rally with a canvas of Harper's riding of Calgary-Southwest, knocking on more than 10,000 doors to raise their issue and asking voters to sign a letter and contact him.
Saskatoon; Edmonton
British Columbia
President of the BC Federation of Labour Jim Sinclair addresses rally against the closure of the Kitsilano Coast Guard Base in Vancouver, September 15, 2012. A 24-hour protest at the site was one of the actions organized by public sector workers in Vancouver that day.
Events were held across the province in Naramata, Courtenay, Prince George, Abbotsford, Surrey, Vancouver, Nanaimo and Victoria.
In Vancouver, the Day of Action coincided with a 24-hour
sit-in at the Kitsilano Coast Guard Base which has been slated for
closure next spring. The sit-in began Friday afternoon. On Saturday
afternoon, organizers said no one from the government
or coast guard management had responded to their invitation to visit
the base to hear their
concerns. Organizers said that another occupation will take place if
their request for a meeting is not met. The Vancouver base is the
busiest in Canada and responds to more than 350 calls a year.
In Courtenay, a rally was held near the office of North Island Conservative MP John Duncan. Most of the workers who joined the rally and the picnic that followed were public sector workers, both federal and provincial, including Canada Post workers, as well as provincial health care workers.
Tom Hopkins, a member of the
PSAC Component of the Union of
Environment Workers, was the emcee for the rally and began by welcoming
everyone and briefly outlining some of the cuts that are taking place.
Mike Scott, a member of the BC Government and Service Employees Union
brought a message of support from BC government workers who are
fighting to regain wages lost over the last
two years of government imposed zero-per cent wage increases. Kassandra
Dycke, the
NDP candidate for Comox Valley for the 2013 provincial election, who
works at the Comox Military Family Resource Centre associated with CFB
Comox which provides services to military families, also spoke. She
described some
of the consequences of the cuts to the services the centre provides.
Anne
Davis spoke on behalf of the Campbell River Courtenay and District
Labour Council in support of the demands of the PSAC workers for
protection of their jobs and the services that they provide. Allan
Hughes, Regional Director of CAW Local 2182, Coast Guard Marine
Communications
Officers, outlined the federal government's cuts to marine safety which
will
affect everyone from sports fishers to ferries and tankers. He
explained that several attempts to discuss with John Duncan the danger
of these cuts --
specifically the closure of the Comox Coast Guard Centre -- have
failed as Duncan has refused to meet.
Northern Region
Yellowknife
In Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, a Family Day event was organized for the community by public sector workers. In Whitehorse, Yukon Territory a mural was unveiled. It is called "Defending Quality Public Services" and was painted by artists at the Youth for Today's youth-at-risk program.
(Photos: PSAC, TML)
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