Quebec and Ontario Trade Union
Conventions in November
Workers Express Need to Find a Way to Move Forward
- Pierre Chénier -
Trade union activists are gathering this November to
deal with the serious situation working people face. They are
determined to organize their ranks to resist the denial of the rights
of workers by the international financial oligarchy and the governments
and state agencies deployed to serve its supranational private
interests. Many delegates sense an urgency to step up the struggle in
defence of the rights of all in opposition to the anti-social offensive
in both the public and private sectors.
The Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ) will hold its 32nd
Congress in Quebec City from November 25 to 28 under the theme "In
Action in a Changing World." The FTQ has about 600,000 members from the
private and public sectors, including construction, mining and
metallurgy, communications, forestry and others.
The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) is holding its
14th Biennial Convention in Toronto from November 25 to 29 under the
theme "The Power of Many." The OFL has approximately one million
members who work in the private and public sectors, including all the
major industries.
In Quebec and Ontario, workers and their allies
throughout society face an authority in governments that rule on behalf
of the international financial oligarchy. Through the fraud of the
cartel party system, these governments claim mandates from the people
when in fact they represent the tiny minority of rich and powerful.
Working people who are the vast majority are subjected
to constant abuse from the minority in power that refuses to solve the
social, natural, economic and political problems facing the people and
society. Instead, the ruling minority has turned over the productive
forces to pay the rich and destroy the social fabric and former
arrangements of civil society and what are called the liberal
democratic institutions.
The trade unions face a ruling minority that refuses to
recognize the right of workers to a say in their working conditions
and, in many cases, refuses even to negotiate terms of employment in
what used to be considered the norm of good faith bargaining.
But working people are the majority and have over a
century of experience in developing the productive forces, defending
their rights and opening a path forward under constantly changing
conditions. Workers are the essential human factor in producing the
social wealth that the society and people require for their existence.
As the essential human factor in the economy, workers' rights must not
and will not be denied. Workers refuse to accept the situation where a
tiny minority abuse the majority and trample on the rights the people
possess by virtue of being human.
To defend themselves, their rights and future, workers
do indeed have the "power of many." This power of many must be
organized to take "action in a changing world" in ways that make the
working class and its social consciousness the decisive human factor
for democratic renewal, to humanize the social and natural environment,
to stop paying the rich and increase investments in social programs.
Quebec Federation of Labour -- In Action in a Changing
World
The FTQ convention is taking place at a time when the
Quebec government, in the service of the international financial
oligarchy, is intensifying its activity against the organized struggle
of workers. This was on ugly display with the open and gross
intervention of the government against the ABI aluminum smelter workers
in Bécancour. The Legault government gave its wholehearted support to
the global cartel Alcoa/Rio Tinto and its prolonged lockout of workers
and demand for concessions.
The ABI workers faced 18 months of a brutal lockout. The
Legault government turned against its own working people, talking
nonsense about their demands and allowing Alcoa/Rio Tinto to use its
supranational powers with impunity to the point of refusing to
negotiate and simply throwing "final offers" at workers. The Legault
government caved in to the global cartel reneging on its obligations to
pay Hydro-Québec $400 million in contracted electricity. This in effect
forced Quebeckers to finance the long lockout. The Quebec government
has also allowed Rio Tinto to evade its obligations to invest in its
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean facilities in exchange for the hydroelectric
preferential rates and privileges that the government and Hydro-Québec
have bestowed upon the monopoly.
In another example of the treachery of the rich minority
in power, the Quebec government intervened on behalf of the big
construction companies to unilaterally impose changes to the training
regime for crane operators without the consent of the workers affected
and in direct opposition to their views and those of experts and
professionals in the construction industry.
 Legault has also announced the
government's intention to impose wage settlements on public sector
workers without even going through the pretence of negotiations with
public sector unions and their members. The arrogance of the ruling
minority must be challenged!
Taking action in a changing world means confronting the
abuse of authority and impunity of the ruling minority. It means taking
action not to bring back the old forms of the past but to defend the
rights of all and usher into being new content and forms to deal with
the arrogance and dictate of the ruling minority within the present
conditions.
When the majority is organized to defend the rights of
all, the ruling minority will not be able to abuse fellow workers in
the construction, metallurgical and other industries and public sector.
The full mobilization of the workers' movement and public opinion has
the power to force the ruling elite and their political representatives
to back off!
The working people are sick and tired of the privilege,
power and impunity of the rich minority and their flunkies in
government and the state. The FTQ convention has the social
responsibility to forge a new beginning of resistance to the ruling
elite and to mobilize the working class majority to engage in actions
with analysis to defend the rights of all and to fight for democratic
renewal in a changing world and give the economy a new direction that
guarantees its stability and the well-being of all.
Ontario Federation of Labour -- The Power of Many
In Ontario, the OFL Convention is taking place in the
midst of the Ford government's escalating attacks on the people and
society. The rich minority has intensified the anti-social offensive
against those who provide the social programs and public services that
strive to raise the level of society and ensure a dignified life for
all, especially the most vulnerable.
 The health care and education systems,
injured workers, the unemployed and vulnerable, and the entire public
sector that is providing the necessary services for a modern society
are under attack. The Ford government's austerity measures include huge
cuts in social programs and public services. The government explains
the anti-social offensive in the most pathetic way as necessary to prop
up the privilege and power of the rich minority of the international
financial oligarchy. While ignoring the real problems the working
people, economy and society face, the Ford government seeks to bolster
the social wealth, power and privilege of the oligarchs who own vast
amounts of secure state-organized debt for which they receive
guaranteed interest payments and whose private enterprises benefit from
public money through pay-the-rich schemes.
Ontario workers are in a constant battle to defend their
rights and to speak out against the anti-social offensive of the rich
minority. Workers are organizing to discuss the problems with their
peers and find a way to unleash the power of many to turn the situation
around in their favour.
A blatant example of the rich minority running amuck is
the Ford government's Bill 124, which gives itself the power to impose
caps on wage, benefit and pension increases for hundreds of thousands
of union and non-union public sector workers and to declare null and
void any collective agreement that does not adhere to the imposed caps.
The government has even denied the affected workers the right to
challenge the imposed wages before the courts or Labour Relations Board.
Members and allies of the OFL know they are confronting
a tough battle for their rights against a rich minority that has
abandoned all the old forms and content of civil society and what are
called the liberal democratic institutions. The Workers' Centre of the
Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) shares weal and woe with
working people in this fight to organize and unleash the power of many
to change the direction of the economy and open a pro-social path
forward to democratic renewal with new forms and content in politics
and relations of production suitable for the modern world.
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 28 - November 23, 2019
Article Link:
Quebec and Ontario Trade Union
Conventions in November: Workers Express Need to Find a Way to Move Forward - Pierre Chénier
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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