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May 7, 2014
27th Canadian Labour Congress
Convention
Opening Day of the Convention
Palais des
congrès, Montreal (M.
Rousseau)
27th
Canadian
Labour
Congress
Convention
• Opening Day
of the Convention
Discussion on the
Fairness Works Policy
• The Need to Abolish the Temporary Foreign
Worker Program - Peggy Morton
• Defend the Pensions We Have! Fight For
Pensions For All -- It Is a Matter of Justice! - Peggy Askin
27th Canadian Labour Congress Convention
Opening Day of the Convention
- Monday, May 5, 2014 -
The 27th Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress
opened in Montreal on Monday, May 5, 2014. The delegates were welcomed
to Mohawk territory by Chief Billy Two Rivers representing the Mohawk
Council of the Kahnawà:ke territory. He warmly greeted the
delegates and wished them success in their
deliberations.
Daniel Boyer, President of
the Québec Federation
of Labour, Danielle Casara, President, Conseil régional FTQ
Montréal métropolitain, and Montréal Mayor Denis
Coderre also made welcoming remarks.
 
Daniel Boyer; Ken
Georgetti (CLC)
Following the opening ceremonies, Ken Georgetti
presented the President's address. He dedicated this Convention to the
memory of Nancy Riche, an officer of the CLC from 1986 to 2002 who
passed away in October 2011. The Convention then observed a moment of
silence.
Georgetti began his remarks by reiterating the union
advantage and listed all the benefits won by unions over the years. He
said that "together fairness works" was the focus of this Convention
and the 52 affiliated unions of the CLC were working hard to implement
the CLC campaign. He emphasized that "the
goal is to defeat the Conservative agenda across the country." He spoke
about the national television ad campaign promoting the benefits of
unions and he also reviewed the campaign of the CLC in the Senate
against Bill C-377, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act
(requirements for labour organizations),
and the present demand of the CLC for the "massive overhaul of Harper's
Temporary Foreign Worker Program" to ensure that "migrant workers are
treated fairly and given a chance to become permanent residents."
Georgetti vowed that "any right-to-work laws anywhere in
Canada will be immediately and strongly opposed by the CLC."
He concluded his remarks to the delegates by pointing
out that "to end the threat against unions we must convince Canadians
that fairness works and we seek a better life for everyone."
Following the keynote speech by President Georgetti, the
Credentials Committee presented its first report. As of 8 am Monday,
May 5, there were 1,713 registered delegates. The Committee will report
to the Convention again Tuesday morning to update the total number of
registered delegates.
An important debate took place in the afternoon on one
of the three major policy papers being presented to the Convention
entitled "An Economy for a Fairer Tomorrow." The paper says that
"Canada's success depends on a broadly shared prosperity that not only
builds a large, secure, thriving and growing middle class; but also
creates the capacity to invest in our future, enhance the vitality of
our communities, create more and better jobs, build a stronger social
safety net, and improve the quality of life for everyone."
To support these "values and vision for Canada" the
document includes a quote from Kevin Lynch, former Clerk of the Privy
Council who presents an idealized economic model in the neo-liberal
vein which he says will stabilize the Canadian economy. The policy
paper then declares, "We agree with Lynch's
analysis, and are committed to a forward looking approach that brings
together labour, business, government and other key stakeholders to
work in a partnership defined by common effort and purpose."
The debate which followed revealed the dissatisfaction
many delegates felt about the analysis presented. The policy paper
never deals with the conditions faced by the workers in their daily
lives; there is no mention of the role played by the Harper
Conservatives and the systematic attacks being waged against
the people through the anti-social offensive of the ruling class and,
furthermore, it proposes that tri-partite arrangements for governance
which ended in the mid 1970s can solve the problems facing the
direction in which the ruling elites are taking the economy. Even in
the 1970s when the workers faced wage controls but prices of
commodities other than labour continued to soar, workers opposed the
collaboration of the unions with big business and big
government to force them to limit their demands. "Tripartism did not
serve the interests of the workers in the mid-seventies and it most
definitely can't be seriously considered now when the unions have no
standing whatsoever as far as governments are concerned," an auto
worker told Workers' Forum.
In the opinion of other delegates, workers have to fight to reject the
dictate of the monopolies and governments for concessions and force
them to respect the role played by labour.
The discussion on the policy paper revealed the striving
of delegates to make sure the working class is not rendered passive
when it comes to the need to effectively fight to affirm workers'
rights. More than that, what is being imposed on the workers is an
agenda of accepting the very system which is the source
of all our problems, some delegates said.
Delegates who spoke in favour of the document at the
same time expressed doubts about the soundness of the conclusions. One
delegate opposed it saying that the policy paper did not properly
address the threats and actual attacks against universal health care.
He said that documents of the CLC should not undermine
the public health care system by calling for more private sector
investment. This type of investment has created a crisis in BC by
giving rise to more public-private partnerships and increased
privatization of health care, he said, adding that workers must fight
to preserve the public health care system.
Another delegate criticized the weakness of the economic
analysis which, he said, let the Harper Conservatives off the hook. He
suggested that the paper should have "hammered the Conservatives for
the way they are managing the economy."
President of Local 1005 USW Rolf Gerstenberger explained
the conditions of the steelworkers he represents by describing the
brutal tactics U.S. Steel has used to force concessions like the
elimination of indexing of the workers' pensions. Lately another unit
of his local
has been locked out in Hamilton for 10 months,
at Max Aicher North America. The company is demanding a 30 per
cent wage cut -- that's $8 to $10 per hour -- and they don't want to
pay indexing, and want to cut benefits and the pension plan for new
employees, Rolf
said. "We [and workers across the country] have born the brunt of the
unfairness that has been going
on," Rolf said. He made the point that when we make the issue one of
fairness, when the corporations and the government are dictating
concessions, then we accept the system and just want it to be fair. "I
don't agree with that," Rolf said. He said that the problem facing the
labour movement is to get the power to
make it impossible for the corporations and governments to get away
with their unfair dictate, not that this dictate can be made fair.
Something has to change, he said. In his opinion, raising the issue of
fairness will not cut it.
 
Delegates at the
Convention. At right, Rolf Gerstenberger, President, Local 1005 USW.
Judging by the applause that greeted these remarks, Rolf
expressed the views of many of the delegates present whose experience
is similar to the one he recounted. Retirees from an auto plant
told Workers' Forum that their own sons and daughters are now
working at the same plant as third-tier
workers, with no benefits of any kind, while the second-tier workers
will work for 10 years at lower wages and with inferior conditions
until they catch up with the first-tier workers. All of them produce
the wealth which lines the pockets of the owners who are dictating
these conditions. The unions cannot cooperate
with that, they said. It is not about fairness, they said. Not only
will the CEO not give up his bonus, but even if he did give up a little
bit of his multimillion dollar bonus to match the concessions the
workers are being forced to make, it is still not a matter of fairness
but of grand theft of what belongs to the workers by right, they said.
The resolution to accept the policy paper was
nonetheless adopted by the Convention, showing the weakness of the
discussion on the direction in which the CLC has been engaged since the
last Convention.
Several other resolutions related to the issues in the
policy paper were debated during the afternoon of the first day.
A resolution opposing trade agreements, like the
Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European
Union, was adopted.
A composite resolution dealing with Post-Secondary
Education and Training calling for "all provincial and territorial
governments to provide post-secondary education that is publicly
administered, comprehensive, universally available, portable and
accessible," was adopted.
A composite resolution opposing the Privatization of
Public Services was referred back to the committee because delegates
found it unacceptable that a resolution opposing privatization also
contained clauses which permitted privatization under certain
conditions. The delegates declared that the committee should
correct the resolution so that privatization of public services is not
permitted under any condition.
Discussion on the Fairness Works Policy
The Need to Abolish the
Temporary Foreign Worker
Program
- Peggy Morton -
Delegates at the Canadian Labour Congress Convention are
faced with the difficult but necessary work of setting the agenda for
the next period. This makes it all the more important to discuss what
is taking place and evaluate whether the theme of the Convention --
"Together Fairness Works" provides the guide
to action needed at this time.
 Consider the discussion
which is raging across Canada at
this time on the future of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
According to Minister of Unemployment and Anti-Social Development Jason
Kenney, the program is fine and the problem is abuse of the program by
a few rogue employers. In
other words, the program should be administered in a fair way.
The Workers' Opposition has
gone to the heart of the
matter and drawn conclusions that the issue is not how this program is
administered but that the entire program must be scrapped. It has
thoroughly exposed the Harper dictatorship's claim that the temporary
foreign workers program exists because of a labour
shortage in Canada. It has shown that the program is actually operating
as intended. The aim of the program from the get go has been to ensure
a cheap pool of labour for the monopolies. The exploitation of
vulnerable temporary foreign workers and international labour
trafficking is intended to drive down the wages
and working conditions of all. As such it cannot be reformed or
administered fairly, but must be abolished together with all forms of
worker trafficking.
Two aims representing opposite class interests are in
battle. For the Harper dictatorship the aim is to push their
neo-liberal agenda and serve the monopolies by providing cheap labour
and attacking the rights of all to Canadian standard wages, working
conditions, benefits and security in retirement. Jason Kenney
claims he will put an end to "abuse" in order to save the anti-social
anti-human global trafficking of workers and Harper's low wage agenda.
He blusters that the program will be administered as intended and not
abused, or in essence it should be administered "fairly." For the
working class, it is a matter of rights.
Workers have a right to wages, working conditions and benefits which
are commensurate with the work they do and their contribution to
society. All forms of international worker trafficking are an affront
to the dignity of labour and the rights which belong to people by
virtue of being human. The TFWP must be
abolished and new arrangements brought into being including an
immigration policy that serves the public interest.
The monopolies and their
representatives in Parliament
claim that the program will be"fair" if temporary foreign workers are
paid the same wages as Canadian workers. Is this the issue? First,
there is no public authority willing to enforce the provisions that
employers must first seek Canadians before hiring temporary
foreign workers or that employers must pay regional standard wages. The
Harper government has responded to years of exposure of the terrible
conditions imposed on desperate and vulnerable workers from around the
globe with empty words and cover-up, behaviour consistent with their
aim not to address a labour
shortage but to drive down wages. Further, the standard regional wage
which supposedly must be paid to TFWs has already been lowered as a
result of the program.
 Considering all of this, it
must be asked -- where does
fairness come in when considering the aims of the TFWP and what new
arrangements must be put in place? The idea of fairness makes sense
when one is speaking about a hockey game for example, where it can be
said that everyone should play by the rules,
uphold a sense of fair play and so on. But what if one side gets to
decide what the rules are, and decides that the other team should be
deprived of their hockey sticks, or that anyone on the opposing team
who scores a goal should go to the penalty box for the rest of the
game?
A guide to action must begin with life as it is really
is, the reality that workers experience every single day, not nostalgia
for a time which has already passed into history. That period in which
the ruling elite favoured defending the public interest in various ways
no longer exists. The private monopoly interests
that now prevail are waging a vicious anti-worker, anti-social
offensive. They are concerned only about what serves their own narrow,
selfish private interests, no matter how much nation-wrecking results.
Why should the working class recoil from this reality?
The workers without whom society cannot function for a single day are
quite capable of solving the problems facing society, while the ruling
elite could care less about the problems of society and has shown
itself unfit to govern. Why should workers look
to them? The working class is quite capable of establishing its own
independent politics and pro-social agenda based on defence of the
rights of all.
Workers across Canada are watching what is taking place
in Montreal with a great deal of concern. Making sure that the real
problems facing workers are discussed will be a very good start to
continuing this discussion in workplaces and communities.
Defend the Pensions We Have!
Fight For Pensions For
All -- It Is a Matter of Justice!
- Peggy Askin -
The right of all to security and dignity in retirement
is a concern for Canadians from coast to coast to coast. The
assault on workers' pensions is being carried out as part of the
austerity agenda of the monopolies, who have arrogantly declared that
defined benefit pensions have to go. According to the ruling
elite, the well-being of the working class and other strata, active and
retired, must take a back seat to the monopolies and their accumulation
of wealth and private profit and building of global empires. For some
reason, which the neo-liberals cannot explain coherently, they claim
that even the most modest security
in retirement is no longer sustainable.
 
Alberta workers in action
to defend the right to pensions, March 20, 2014.Workers reject this anti-social attack and are fighting
for a human-centred agenda based on the principle that security in
retirement is a right. This fight to block corporations or governments
that defend private interests from robbing workers' pensions is
crucial. Delegates at the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
Convention are part of this fight for Pensions For All, including
expansion of the Canada Pension Plan.
Is fighting for defined benefit pensions, with full
indexing to the cost of living, a matter of fairness? Or is it a matter
of justice? This is an important question in setting the agenda for the
coming period and providing a guide to action.
Fairness refers to something that is reasonable,
impartial and free of bias. Justice relates to rules and a way of life
established within a society based on rights. People have rights by
virtue of being human, and these rights include the right to food,
clothing, shelter, health care, education, culture, and everything
necessary for human beings to flourish according to the level that
society has reached. In our modern industrial society with its
socialized way of life, governments have a duty to provide these rights
with a guarantee. In this economic system, workers exchange their
capacity to work for a defined claim on the value
the working class produces within the socialized economy. The claim of
workers on the value they produce extends throughout their lifecycle of
childhood, maturity and retirement. Security in retirement is a right.
The ideas of access and fairness are used by governments
to refuse to recognize their duty to provide rights with a guarantee.
Instead such ideas are put forward that everyone should have an
opportunity to succeed, by which it is meant that governments can wash
their hands of their responsibilities.
May Day at
Alberta Legislature.
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If rights are provided with a guarantee, then providing
access will be a real, tangible discussion but if they are based on
what is called fairness to cover up that an authority is exercising
arbitrary power to deprive people of access then it is another matter.
Fairness does not enter the equation; rights demand government
guarantees not reasonableness, impartiality or freedom from bias.
Rights demand justice through guarantees in practice enforced by
government.
Starting with the recognition that security in
retirement is a right, how to provide this guarantee in practice
becomes a real, tangible discussion. On this front the working class
can and must give rise to its own thinking and independent program.
Should defined-benefit pensions for all not become a universal social
program similar to universal health care, delivered by governments and
funded by the value workers bring to the socialized economy during
their working lives? Canadians fight tooth and nail for the right to
the universal public health care they have and for its expansion. So
too the working class must fight for dignity
and security in retirement for all. How society carries out its
responsibilities to its members in practice is a matter for an
empowered people to decide, through their government of, for and by the
people. However, it is not a matter of fairness -- it is a matter of
justice for pensioners and working families. It is a matter of
upholding the rights of all and providing them with a guarantee at the
standard society has achieved.
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