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March 7, 2019
Ontario
Workers
and Youth Oppose
Ford Government's Offensive
Anti-Worker
Bill
66 at Second Reading
PDF
Protest against Bill 66 outside Environment Minister Rod Phillips
Ajax
constituency office,
January 12, 2019.
Alcoa/Rio
Tinto's
Manipulation
of
"Force
Majeure"
to Achieve Its
Anti-Worker Aims
• Workers Demand Legault Government
Make
Alcoa/Rio Tinto Meet Its Commitments on Energy Contract
-
Pierre Chénier
• Locked-Out ABI Workers to Discuss
and Vote on
Offer
Quebec
Construction
Workers Defend Safety Standards
• Workers Call for Release of Report
on Crane
Operator Safety
Our Security
Lies in
the Fight for the Rights of All
• Coalition of Migrant Care Worker
Groups and
Allies Continue the Landed Status Now! Campaign - Peggy
Morton
Federal Public
Service
• Day of Action Holds Government to
Account for
Phoenix Pay System
Ontario Workers and Youth Oppose
Ford
Government's Offensive
The Ford government's Bill 66, the Restoring
Ontario's Competitiveness Act, 2019,
is now at second reading in the Legislature. Following this, the
bill
will go to committee for article-by-article study and possible
amendments. Bill 66 is an omnibus bill that amends 18 pieces of
legislation concerning labour, environment, child care,
agriculture, education and more. Its stated aim is to eliminate
red
tape for businesses to allegedly restore Ontario's
competitiveness.[1]
 During
second reading, MPPs of the ruling Progressive Conservative Party
are
repeating in unison the neo-liberal mantra of the Ford government
in
denial of the experience of working people in Ontario. They argue
that
red tape has "business owners filling out paper work instead of
growing
their businesses."
Clearly these MPPs did not read the 14,000 word
omnibus
bill but
were given a sales pitch designed to suppress any discussion,
especially on the human cost of the "job-killing red tape"
campaign of
the Ford government. One aspect of the sales pitch endlessly
repeated
is that the manufacturing sector in Ontario has shrunk by 300,000
jobs
since 2002, allegedly because Ontario-based businesses are caught
up
doing paper work instead of growing their enterprises. Also
repeated is
that Ontario has 380,000 regulations, said to be the highest
number in
the country, which roughly equates to the number of manufacturing
jobs
lost. Facts do not matter in this trite way of speaking devoid of
analysis and scientific argument.
Several major plant closures and plant
downsizings in
Ontario have
occurred in recent years and none has been attributed to red tape
and
paperwork by those who own and control those facilities: not
Heinz,
Kellogg, Caterpillar, U.S. Steel or GM's announcement regarding
the
closure of its Oshawa plant.
The destruction of manufacturing in Ontario can
be
broadly
attributed to the inherent contradiction between the socialized
economy
and its ownership and control by competing private interests.
Those
competing private interests block the socialized economy from
fulfilling its economic potential for extended reproduction to
guarantee the rights
and well-being of Canadians.
Foreign control, mainly from the U.S.,
exacerbates this
unresolved
contradiction in the Ontario economy. The competing oligarchs in
control possess economic and political power to do whatever they
want
regardless of harm to the human factor and economy. The
well-being of
the oligarchs and their global operations are all that matter and
all
that is discussed as important.
The nonsense of the red tape of 380,000
regulations
causing the
loss of 300,000 manufacturing jobs is thrown around as hyperbole
in the
Legislature to eliminate discussion and the development of public
opinion as to what are the real problems facing the Ontario
economy and
the dangerous measures included in Bill 66.
To give an example, Conservative MPPs spoke about
the
provisions in Bill 66 to abrogate the Toxics Reduction Act
by
the end of 2021. One Conservative MPP said:
"I want to turn to Schedule 5 of the bill, which
is the
government's intent to wind down the Toxics Reduction Act
by
the end of 2021. As it currently stands, the Toxics Reduction
Act
requires companies to report usage and identify ways of reducing
their
use. It's one of the biggest paper tigers in government and it
takes a
lot
of paper, Mr. Speaker.
 "The
sole accomplishment of the Act over its nine years as a statute
has
been to generate more paper and more people who process that
paper. All
this work is already being done through the federal Chemicals
Management Plan. The only difference is that the federal
government's
plan actually requires companies to do something about the
usage of harmful chemicals. The federal plan is robust, it's
science-based, and every other province but Ontario relies on it.
Creating unnecessary duplication does nothing to protect
Ontario's
health or safety, or the economy."
People knowledgeable of the Ontario Toxics
Reduction Act say
that it does not cover the same range of issues as the federal
program.
The claim of the Ford government is raised as a diversion so that
it
appears the elimination of the Toxics Reduction Act would
be
of
no significance and matter little that companies would not
have to report their use of toxic materials to an Ontario public
authority. People dispute this assertion saying it amounts to
company
self-regulation in an area of great concern.
The Ford government uses a convenient
self-serving
argument that
the Act might as well be scrapped because detachment of the
previous
Liberal governments left the Act as a matter of reporting or red
tape.
Ontario has known devastating tragedies such as the mass mercury
poisoning of Grassy Narrows First Nation that dates back to the
1960s and still continues. To reduce the issue of toxic use for
private
gain by taking it out of the hands of a public authority and
reducing
it to ridding companies of paper work and red tape is nothing
short of
criminal. It reveals once again how powerful private interests
have
seized control of governments at all levels. Amendments to the
Clean Water Act by Bill 66
would
see the conditions created for another tragedy
like the one that took place in Walkerton in 2000.
Schedule 10 may be the most controversial
schedule of
Bill 66. The
opposition was so swift and massive the government says it will
be
withdrawn yet at this point still remains in the bill. The Ford
cabinet
says schedule 10 will be withdrawn at committee level. This means
that
it could actually be amended instead of being withdrawn, or
moved to other parts of the bill.
Schedule 10 allows municipalities to pass an
"open-for-business
planning bylaw." They would have to prove that such a bylaw would
lead
to the creation of a number of jobs, based on an arithmetic
formula
that takes into account how many people live in a municipality.
If a
municipality's project is approved by the Minister of
Municipal Affairs and Housing, provisions from nine environmental
laws
would cease to apply to the area governed by the bylaw.
Municipalities
and residents oppose this schedule on principle as a denial of
the
social responsibility of government and demand its complete
abrogation.
 Second reading also
dealt
with other aspects of the bill such as Schedule 9 which amends
the Labour
Relations
Act,
1995
so
as to deem municipalities and certain local boards, school
boards,
hospitals, colleges, universities and public bodies to be
non-construction employers. This means the trade unions currently
representing employees
of those agencies and institutions, who are now or may be
employed in
the construction industry, no longer represent them once the bill
is
passed. Any collective agreement binding the employer and the
trade
union ceases to apply in so far as it applies to the construction
industry. This is clearly meant to de-unionize the construction
work
that is
done in these public bodies and to obstruct and deprive workers
of
their right to bargain collectively for wages and working
conditions
agreeable to themselves. Construction work by definition is
limited in
time and moves from project to project. Construction workers have
always had a difficult time defending themselves collectively and
this
abrogation of their right under schedule 9 will make it even more
difficult. At second reading, MPPs of the Ford government said
this
part of the bill is meant to divert money away from construction
workers by finding ways around collective agreements that
guarantee
wages and working conditions. This comes at a time when the rates
of
fatalities
and injuries in Ontario's construction sector continue to rise
and
workers are fighting against this devastating trend.
Second reading of Bill 66 further convinces
Ontario
workers that
the entire legislation should be withdrawn. Prescriptive measures
and
regulations that provide a measure of protection to the people
must not
be abrogated. The Lac-Mégantic tragedy in Quebec was in
large
measure
caused by the elimination of protective regulations under the
hoax
that it was preventing the rail companies from growing their
businesses.
Note
1. For more information about
the
content of the bill, read "The Human Toll of
the
Ford Government's
"Job-Killing Red Tape" Campaign," Pierre Chénier, TML Weekly, January 26,
2019.
Alcoa/Rio Tinto's Manipulation of
"Force
Majeure"
to Achieve Its Anti-Worker Aims
- Pierre Chénier -
Protest by ABI smelter workers, March 1, 2019, outside Premier
Legault's
office. Banner reads "Disgusted by paying for [Alcoa's
electricity]."
During the over year-long Alcoa/Rio Tinto lockout
of
1,030 ABI smelter workers, a lot of attention has been drawn to
the
"force
majeure" clause in the cartel's hydroelectric contract with the
Government of Quebec and Hydro-Québec. Since the lockout
began
on January 11, 2018 the use of "force majeure" to stop most of
Alcoa/Rio Tinto’s contracted energy payments has deprived
Hydro-Québec of the sale of more than $250 million in
electricity reserved for the cartel.
 While working people
demand
the cartel must abide by the contract, which allows it
preferential
hydro rates, the Legault government has hidden behind the farce
of a
"force majeure" depriving Hydro-Québec and the people of
Quebec
of a huge sum of money and in part financing this unjust lockout
and
assault on
peoples' livelihoods and their
communities. The people, with increasing strength of conviction,
demand
the Legault government enforce the energy contract and not allow
Alcoa/Rio Tinto to attack Quebec workers and breach their social
obligations with impunity.
The Quebec government and Hydro-Québec
arranged new preferential electricity rates for the three Alcoa
aluminum smelters at Bécancour, Deschambault and
Baie-Comeau
which
came into effect on January 1, 2015. The deal sets aside blocs of
electricity, which Hydro-Québec is obliged to produce and
Alcoa
is
supposed to buy. The arrangement includes a "force majeure
clause"
defined as the following:
"'Force majeure'
means any unforeseeable, irresistible
event beyond the control of a Party that delays, interrupts or
impedes
the performance, in whole or in part, by that Party of its
obligations
under the Contract. [WF
emphasis]
Without
limiting the scope of what is
written above, any one of the following events constitutes a
'force
majeure': war, embargo, insurrection, invasion, riot, rebellion,
social
unrest, epidemic, flood, fire, explosion, lightning, earthquake,
ice
storm, thunderstorm, sabotage, labour dispute, strike, picketing
or
lockout (including labour disputes, strikes, picketing and
lockouts by
the Party which invokes 'force majeure'), as well as any act,
omission
and any
coercion by a court or a public authority (including default or
delay
in issuing permits despite reasonable efforts in this
regard)."
"The Party
affected
by a Force Majeure Event shall have
its obligations suspended only to the extent that it acts with
due
diligence in order to eliminate or correct the causes and effects
of
this 'force majeure.' However, the resolution of labour disputes,
strikes, picketing and lockouts is at the sole discretion of the
affected Party facing these
difficulties."
The government and Hydro-Québec granted
the new
preferential electricity rates following Alcoa's threat to close
its
three aluminum smelters as of January 1, 2015, if it did not
receive
new rates even lower than the existing preferential rates. As
part of
this one-sided negotiation and signing of a new contract under
threat
of closure,
the "force majeure" clause contained in the previous energy
contracts
was
renewed.
Today, the government claims it must abide by the
terms
of the contract and cannot do anything. Aside from the global
cartels
forcing these one-sided contracts on public authorities to serve
their
narrow private interests, the contract clearly states that the
"force
majeure" must be "unforeseeable, irresistible and beyond the
control of
a Party." The
planned and calculated lockout can in no way be described as
"unforeseeable, irresistible and out of its control" and has
always
been completely under its control and could have been avoided.
The fact
that the contract contradicts its own words by saying the
resolution of
the lockout is at the sole discretion of the company shows how
these
supranational private interests have gained control of public
authorities wherever they operate and dictate their narrow
wishes.
Before the Alcoa/Rio Tinto cartel locked out the
workers it twice withdrew from the bargaining table instead of
completing negotiations: in November 2017 and again in December
2017.
The company made what it called a final offer in December saying
a
rejection by the workers would mean in effect the rejection of
any
further
negotiations.
ABI smelter workers, March 1, 2019, outside Premier Legault's
office.
The ABI workers resisted the ultimatum and
threats and
following the holidays, on January 9 and 10, 2018, turned down
the
offer
while acknowledging that the offer could be the basis for an
agreement
and that a settlement was close. While the union requested a
meeting
with the company to explain the reason for its rejection of the
offer,
Alcoa immediately closed the plant and locked out the workers at
3:00
am on the night of January 11, 2018. Not only did the cartel
declare a
lockout, it shutdown two-thirds of the tanks, which require
considerable planning both to shut down and restart. It was
obviously a
planned move and in no way outside of the control of the company.
In
contrast,
in 2004 when the workers went on strike, the company continued to
operate all the tanks for about a month. The cartel's refusal to
negotiate, even after being told a settlement was close, was in
clear
violation of fair collective bargaining but no public authority
took
any action to hold it to account or force it to pay for the bloc
of
energy reserved for
it.
Other alternatives to a lockout existed for
Alcoa/Rio
Tinto, which cannot pretend the lockout decision was not its own,
forseeable and
under its control. Lockouts have become a commonplace
weapon of the global cartels, which use their immense wealth,
influence
with public authorities, global production and control of
markets, to
isolate
pockets of workers and force them to submit to the cartel's
demands.
This lockout in Becancour is happening at the same
time
that Alcoa in Western Australia got Australia's national
workplace
relations tribunal to nullify the collective agreement of 1,500
Alcoa
workers, under the Fair Work
Act 2009.
Workers'
conditions
are
now being governed by the minimum employment
standards' legislation, which means that all the protections that
were
in their collective agreement regarding job security,
subcontracting
and related affairs have been wiped out, besides the loss of
wages,
benefits and pensions. Is what Alcoa achieved in Australia
indicative
of where they are headed in Quebec? Has the prolongation of the
lockout
been manipulated to achieve nefarious results such as the ones
imposed
in Australia with government connivance?
Despite the wording of the "force majeure" clause
in
Hydro-Québec's contract with Alcoa which leaves everything
to do
with a lockout to the discretion of the company, the very idea of
"force majeure" implies that it is outside of human control. In
English, another term for "force majeure" is "Act of God." What
is
happening at ABI is not out of the company's control. On the
contrary,
it is a clear manipulation of "force majeure" to achieve
anti-worker
aims. The balance of forces is so one-sided precisely because the
government objectively intervenes on the side of the corporation
when
it refuses to call the company to order for its manipulation of
the
"force majeure" clause. If the company had to pay what it owes on
the
hydro contract for the past 14 months since it locked the workers
out,
it would not be so blithe in thinking it can just impose
its
demands on workers who have been without their wages for all that
time.
The Quebec government refuses to defend its own
people
while siding with the Alcoa/Rio Tinto global cartel. To declare
the
well-planned lockout as out of the control of the cartel is a
farce and
exposes the government as a stooge of the global financial
oligarchy.
The Quebec government must do its duty and force ABI to respect
the
contract,
pay for the block of energy set aside for it, lift the lockout
and
engage in fair collective bargaining with the smelter workers and
their
union.
Locked-out ABI smelter workers visit office of MNA Donald Martel,
March
1, 2019.
Locked-out ABI aluminum smelter workers in
Bécancour Quebec will vote on their employer's offer at a
general membership meeting on March 11. The cartel's offer
submitted
March 4 includes collective agreements for all three bargaining
units,
as well as a back-to-work protocol.
The union said it will present its analysis and
position on the offer during the general membership meeting.
Following
the bargaining committee's analysis, the President of United
Steelworkers Local 9700, which represents the locked-out workers,
confirmed that the offer is very similar to what was on the table
when
ABI broke off
negotiations in mid-February. A back-to-work protocol had not
been
discussed at that time.
 "In terms of the
content of
the collective agreements, it is basically consistent with the
state of
negotiations that our members were made aware of at the last
general
membership meeting on February 23. For the sake of transparency,
the
union executive has decided to have the employer's offer voted on
by
secret ballot," explained
Clément Masse.
The ABI cartel issued a March 4 press release,
which
many contend is meant to divert attention away from the important
issues that concern workers. ABI begins by highlighting the wage
increase estimated at 2.55 per cent per year on average. The
union has
long said that wages have not been the central issue but rather
the
cartel's insistence
on eliminating stable union jobs and replacing them with
precarious
contract work.
The ABI cartel's statement clouds the thorny
issue of
job security for present and future workers stating: "This offer
will
allow all currently locked-out employees to return to work. It
includes
work reorganization that respects seniority and does not foresee
any
layoffs. The proposed agreement will provide flexibility,
encompass
attrition through
an ongoing wave of retirement and improve productivity."
This formulation consistently used by the global
cartel
fails to present in a straightforward way the crucial issue of
what will happen to unionized jobs and the security and benefits
of
having a permanent position. The wave of retirements is very
strong at
ABI
and will become even stronger over the months and years to come,
as the
workforce
is going through a generational renewal. The cartel's admitted
use of
attrition as a means to achieve "flexibility" and "improve
productivity" opens the door to the elimination of unionized jobs
through retirement in favour of outsourcing jobs under much less
advantageous working conditions for all workers both unionized
and
non-unionized
contract workers and the community.
 As attrition
accelerates,
the cartel wants to reduce the total number of unionized workers
with
benefits within negotiated collective agreements to less than the
number of contracted workers with no, or fewer, benefits and
union rights. The precarious workers become the means to meet the
cartel's
aim of "flexibility" and "improved
productivity" to serve its private interests, not those of Quebec
working people and their communities. Attacking workers and their
rights and their claim on the value they produce in the name of
flexibility and productivity has become the irrational mania of
global
cartels and their billionaire owners. The cartels constantly
complain
of
"overproduction" within various sectors such as aluminum and
steel, yet
demand increased productivity from the working class to defeat
the
"overproduction" of the competition.
The domination of the global cartels over the
lives of
working people and any nation-building project worthy of the name
is
front and centre in these disputes. This savage lockout imposed
by the
Alcoa/Rio Tinto cartel on 1,030 ABI smelter workers for more than
a
year demonstrates the necessity for a new direction for the
economy and
nation-building project.
Workers' Forum congratulates ABI workers
for
the contribution they are making to the struggle in defence of
workers'
rights and the rights of all in the face of a difficult
situation. All
workers across Quebec and Canada are with you and wish you a very
fruitful general membership meeting to assess the situation.
Quebec Construction Workers Defend
Safety
Standards
Overturned crane, November 2018.
On February 28, the Independent Committee on
Crane
Operator Safety
tabled its report to Quebec's Minister of Labour. Out of concern
for
the safety of both workers and the public, the Crane Operators'
Union,
Local 791G, affiliated with FTQ-Construction, has requested that
the
Minister immediately make the report public, along with the
briefs and testimonies submitted to the committee. In a February
28
statement, the union wrote:
 "Since
the announcement of the committee's creation in July 2018, crane
operators have been impatiently awaiting its conclusions, which
must
confirm the importance the new government attaches to the safety
of
workers and the public.
"Local 791G, which represents all crane
operators, has
been
opposing such regulatory changes for several years. In an effort
to
raise awareness amongst elected officials, the union has tripled
its
representations to various actors, decision-makers and
governmental
authorities to express its concerns and propose
solutions."[1]
The Coalition Avenir Québec government's
Minister of Labour
confirmed he has received the report and said that he will first
meet
with the committee's two members and then decide what steps to
take.
Crane operators are determined to have their two
demands met: that
the new regulation that drastically reduces crane operator
training be
withdrawn and that compulsory training at the prior level be
restored,
and that a roundtable be created of all concerned parties,
including
instructors, to look into the problems linked to the crane
operator
sector and construction site safety.
Note
1. The regulation brought in
last
year
eliminated the compulsory nature of crane operator professional
training, consisting of 870 hours of training provided by
professionals
in an educational institution. In competition with that
vocational
training, the Quebec Construction Commission (CCQ) and
the former Couillard Liberal government introduced a much lower
150-hour on-site training provided by the companies. They also
created
a mere 80-hour course for boom trucks with a maximum capacity of
30
tonnes, after which a worker becomes a qualified driver. It is
precisely this type of crane that tips over the most and causes
the
most
damage. This was all done without consultation with or approval
by
crane operators. Crane operators have made a remarkable
contribution to
worker and public safety by contesting the regulation in various
fora
and finally refused to work for about a week, in June 2018, to
illustrate how serious their opposition was. They received wide
support
from the public. The government and the CCQ resorted to
repression,
through a decision of the Administrative Labour Tribunal, which
declared that the crane operators' actions amounted to an illegal
strike, with the CCQ threatening to prosecute them for
"intimidation."
Within the context of growing popular support for crane operators
and
their
determination to continue their struggle, the government created
the
Independent Committee on Crane Operator Safety.
Our Security Lies in the Fight for
the
Rights of All
- Peggy Morton -
A Coalition of Migrant Care Worker groups and
allies and
the Landed Status Now! Campaign issued a joint press release on
February 25. The release is a direct response to new government
pilot
projects announced two days before by the federal
government.[1] The press release points out that
the
government projects are in direct response to the determined
campaign
for Landed Status Now!
for
all migrant care workers
(www.LandedStatusNow.ca).
The press release explains that the government
has
responded to the campaign and given certain concessions but
significant
issues have
not been addressed. The press release notes that the government
announcement does include workers in Quebec who remain caught in
a web
of exploitation and denial of rights.
Through the Landed Status Now! campaign, care
workers
have spoken out with pride about the essential work they perform,
which
is necessary for society to function. They speak with social love
about
the children, the frail elderly and the people with special needs
whom
they care for. They also speak about the pain of leaving their
own
families behind, and the precarious conditions of their work
because of
Canada's anti-social immigration system and labour laws.
The release notes that as a result of the
campaign's
persistent struggle for the rights of care workers, the
government's
announcement includes some immediate concessions. Care workers
will now
be able to bring their families with them to Canada;
occupational-specific work permits will no longer be tied to one
employer; and, workers who came under the 2014 pilot project can
apply
for
permanent residency with modified conditions during a three-month
window this year.
However, the government has failed to meet the
most
important demand of the care workers and other migrant workers
for Landed Status Now!
Care workers' temporary status in Canada without
guaranteed rights makes them vulnerable to abuse and
super-exploitation. This must be ended!
Caring for Children and Caring for People with
High Medical Needs Pilot Projects
Forced family separation of care workers is a
stain on
Canada, a barbaric form of indentured slavery. The majority of
care
workers are women; they come to Canada to care for children and
frail
seniors yet must leave their own families
behind. This abuse must stop.
This photo posted on social media on Family
Day
highlights
the forced separation of
caregivers from their families.
|
The government has promised that the new program
will
end family separation and allow care workers to bring their
families.
Spouses will have open work permits and children will receive
study
permits. However, these changes remain as unspecified policy
objectives
and ministerial orders, not something concrete that guarantees
the
rights of
care workers.
The Coalition of Migrant Care Workers points out
that
the government must make the changes a reality for all. If
children are
to receive "study permits," does this mean they will be treated
as
"international students" with crippling tuition fees? Care
workers
provide care for people with disabilities and high medical needs
yet
they are barred
from bringing their entire family if one member has a disability.
This
is unconscionable and must end.
Further, the temporary status of care work, the
continued pay inequality between women and men, and low wages for
traditionally female occupations mean that many care workers will
still
have to leave their children behind because of the significantly
higher
cost of living in Canada.
Ending the devastating human impact of separation
of
families also requires that provincial governments enforce their
labour
laws. Despite the laws "on the books" that overtime be paid for
work
over 40 hours a week, many care workers cannot afford to live
away from
their employer's residence because of their low pay and long work
hours,
with no time off or overtime pay.
Care workers will now have an occupation-specific
work
permit instead of a work permit tied to one employer. This is a
positive achievement of the fight care workers have waged for
years.
Work permits tied to one employer make migrant workers very
vulnerable
to abuse and have been used by many employers to withhold pay and
benefits
due to them according to contracts and employment standards, for
example working long hours without pay.
Under the new pilot projects, applicants will be
assessed for permanent residence criteria before they begin
working in
Canada. Once caregivers have their work permit and two years of
work
experience, they can apply for permanent residency. However the
requirement for education equivalent to one year of
post-secondary
education in
Canada and more stringent English fluency requirements introduced
in
2014 have not been withdrawn.
Interim Pathway for Caregivers
Federal Minister Ahmed Hussen announced the
Interim
Pathway for Caregivers, which will be open from March 4 to June
4,
2019. Many care workers who came to Canada after 2014 found out
that
after they completed 24 months of work they could still not apply
for
permanent residency because they did not meet English fluency or
educational equivalencies. Many care workers were left with huge
debts
paid to human traffickers who masquerade as "immigration
consultants"
and
"recruiters." These human traffickers extort large sums to
arrange
employment in Canada, only to leave many workers with no hope of
becoming permanent residents and Canadian citizens.
The Trudeau government says that it understands
the
plight of care workers and will assess the situation of those
care
workers who came after 2014 under the old criteria. During the
three-month window this year, workers can apply for permanent
residency
after
12 months of work instead of 24, and post-secondary education
will not
be
required. The government has also committed to expedited
processing
within the small three-month window. Migrant worker organizations
point
out however that many care workers may not even find out about
the
"window" until it has been closed. Also, workers who have become
undocumented have not been included. This failure must be
immediately corrected and the right to permanent residency
extended to
all migrant workers now working and living in Canada.
The government has taken no action to end the
extortion
of workers by human traffickers, whether in Canada or abroad. No
public
authority has been established to replace the human traffickers
so that
the rights of migrants are upheld during the recruitment process
for
work and after their acceptance, or to provide compensation for
the
countries involved that have trained their members to become
productive
and valuable workers.
Further, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Canada
will only accept a maximum of 2,750 principal applicants (not
including family members) each year under the Home Child Care
Provider
and Home Support Worker pilot projects. This reduction in
applicants
was introduced despite the growing demand for workers in the High
Medical Needs Program, and within a national day care program for
children and a modern, humane, public seniors care program.
Landed Status Now!
Minister Hussen speaks of the new pilot projects
as
"immigration projects" when they are nothing of the kind. The
decades-long fight for landed status on arrival for all migrant
workers
cannot be obscured by calling the situation an "immigration
project."
The pathway to the guarantee of rights for all is still strewn
with
obstacles and dangers
along the way. Care workers and others are not temporary workers
and
neither should their status be temporary.
The government claims that it understands the
importance of permanent residency. Announcing its Public Policy
to
Provide an Interim Pathway for Caregivers, the government said,
"The
Department also heard that migrant caregivers face unique
challenges,
which are made worse by their temporary status. Examples include
the
often gendered
and isolated nature of caregiving occupations; the high incidence
of
live-in work arrangements, despite the removal of the formal
live-in
requirement in 2014; and caregivers' dependence on their
employers to
obtain and provide proof of the Canadian work experience needed
to
qualify for permanent residence.... [In 2014] the program
criteria were
changed to more closely align with the Government's approach of
selecting economic immigrants on the basis of their ability to
become
economically established in Canada." It further says it has
established
criteria for the caregivers' program consistent with this
policy.
These programs and policy objectives have been
put in
place through a ministerial order and are even called temporary
pilot
projects. This or another Minister can change them with the
stroke of a
pen or let them expire. This is what is known as the "rule of
law" and
what the ruling elite consider "legal" and even "constitutional."
In
this way
the government facilitates human trafficking and the denial of
rights
on a large scale.
Congratulations are due to the care workers,
their
organizations and all who have stood firmly to defend the rights
of
all. Through their courage to speak out and organize despite
their
precarious situation, they have forced the government to make
certain
concessions. The situation requires working people and their
allies to
provide full
support to continue the fight for Landed
Status
Now!
Note
1. Immigration, Refugees,
and
Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Minister Ahmed Hussen announced on
February
23, two new 5-year pilot projects to replace the Caring for
Children
and Caring for People with High Medical Needs. The original
projects
were introduced in 2014 and end in November
2019. Hussen announced the new projects as "caregiver immigration
pilots" to "allow caregivers to come to Canada together with
their
family and provide a pathway to permanent residence."
Federal Public Service
Ottawa, February 28, 2019 Day of Action.
Federal public service workers held a Day of
Action on
February 28 to demand justice and immediate rectification of the
chaos
sown in the lives of thousands of workers by the Phoenix Pay
System.
Some 500 workers rallied in downtown Ottawa and blocked entry
into two
major federal government buildings.
The federal workers provide key services to
Canadians,
which are the practical realization of people's social and
political
rights. The workers who provide them must be given the proper
conditions to do their important work, including peace of mind
that
their employer, the Treasury Board of Canada, will pay them
promptly
and properly.
In its call to action for February 28, the Public
Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) stated, "Three years after the
launch
of the Phoenix Pay System, thousands of PSAC members continue to
be
plagued by pay problems: they are underpaid, overpaid or not paid
at
all.
"On this third anniversary of Phoenix, PSAC
members
will come together to further increase pressure on the government
for
urgent action. On February 28, PSAC will hold a rally in the
National
Capital Region to kick off a series of escalated actions around
the
country in demand of: more concrete action to reduce Phoenix
cases; a
real
timeline to end these pay nightmares; and damages to compensate
the
hundreds of thousands of public service workers who have been
impacted."
 
  
Ottawa, February 28, 2019.
PSAC explains that since last year's February 28
Day of
Action, the union has:
- Halted the recovery of overpayments and
emergency pay
until employees' pay files have been cleared of all outstanding
transactions, meaning employees will receive any and all funds
they are
owed before they must reimburse the employer for any overpayments
or
emergency pay.
- Expanded the Treasury Board's claims process
for
Phoenix related financial losses.
- Ended gross payback for overpayments. In
January, the
federal government finally proposed tax legislation so that it
can no
longer force workers to reimburse the gross amount of the
overpayment
(CPP payments, income tax deductions, etc.) -- which can be
significantly more than the amount they received.
PSAC also says, "At the start of 2019, the Public
Service Pay Centre was still facing a backlog of over 280,000
cases.
And after three years of Phoenix, about two-thirds of [human
resources]
data is still being inputted late, causing pay problems across
the
board. Phoenix continues to also delay the implementation of our
collective agreements
and the retroactive pay our members are owed."
According to estimates, the total cost to fix the
Phoenix Pay System
will exceed $1.2 billion with work only completed by 2022-2023.
The
union is demanding that the government:
- Provide damages to all public service workers
for the
great financial and emotional hardship they have endured because
of
Phoenix;
- Provide the additional staffing and training
needed
to assist members at the Client Contact Centre and the Public
Service
Pay Centre;
- Reduce Phoenix cases by ensuring HR data is
entered
on time;
- Eliminate the backlog of Phoenix cases,
including
implementing collective agreements and delivering retroactive
pay;
- Provide a clear and accountable timeline to
stabilize
Phoenix, eliminate the backlog, and transition to a new pay
system.
Government Bargaining Offer Adds Insult to
Injury
Charlottetown, PEI, February 28, 2019.
The dedication of federal public service workers
to
carry on their work despite the hardships caused by Phoenix has
been
met with an unacceptable bargaining offer by the government.
On December 10, 2018, the union wrote, "The
Liberal
government tabled a series of offensive counter-proposals in the
latest
talks between the union and Treasury Board. After months of
government
delays and insulting offers, PSAC bargaining teams representing
90,000
federal public service workers have declared impasse and filed
for a
Public Interest Commission (PIC) to help negotiations move
forward.
 "The government
proposed to
increase wage rates by only
0.75 per cent per year for four years, well below the rate of
inflation, and refused to make the increase retroactive to the
start of
the term of the collective agreement. In addition, they requested
the
new agreement only take effect 365 days after it is signed by
both
parties, amounting to
a two-year wage freeze for PSAC members."
"It's outrageous that the Trudeau government
won't even
come to the table with a serious offer after our members have
been
waiting three years to get paid correctly under Phoenix," said
Chris
Aylward, PSAC National President. "We've tried to get this
government
to bargain in a fair and respectful manner -- it's clear we've
reached
an
impasse. Prime Minister Trudeau promised a new relationship with
public
service workers -- one of respect -- but that couldn't be further
from
what happened this week. This is a real betrayal."
PSAC reports that the Treasury Board also ignored
important demands for improvement in areas such as work-life
balance,
workload, leave provisions and use of temporary workers.
Aylward added, "We're angry, and we're not going
to let
the Liberal government get away with this. Every day PSAC members
show
up to work not even knowing if they're going to get paid properly
--
they deserve working conditions that reflect that dedication....
We
won't back down until they get it."
Workers' Forum calls on everyone to stand
with
the federal public service workers in this fight for their rights
and
dignity.
Valcartier, QC
Thunder Bay, ON
Fraser Valley, BC
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