|
September 17, 2020 - No. 62
September 20
National Day of Action
Demand Permanent Status for All
- Steve Rutchinski -
• Open Letter to Federal Government from Migrant Rights Network
Justice for Injured Workers!
• Celebrating Three Years of the Workers' Comp Is a Right! Campaign
Opposition to Privatization of Public Services
• Stop and Reverse the Privatization of Calgary Transit Service Lane
Workers
- Peggy Askin
• Calgary Transit Union Call to Action to Defend the Rights of Workers and the Public Interest
Actions against Deregulation of Trucking Industry
• BC Truckers Rally to Protect Their Livelihoods
- Normand Chouinard
September 20
National Day of Action
- Steve Rutchinski -
Status for All! action in Montreal, August 23, 2020
There are more than 1.6 million people in Canada denied their
fundamental human rights because the government of Canada refuses to do
its duty and guarantee the rights of each and every human being. On
September 20, just days before federal Parliament resumes, migrant
rights organizations are holding yet another Canada-wide day of
action to demand Canada modernize itself, come into the 21st century,
recognize that all human beings have rights and provide Status for All!
Everyone should go all out to support these actions. It's a matter of
principle, of social solidarity! To learn more about the actions, click here.
 The
mass migrations of workers in the world today are due primarily to the
subjugation of the entire world to the imperialist system of states.
More than 200 million workers in 40 countries, including Canada, are
migrant workers. Remittances from these migrant workers hit a record
$554 billion in 2019, supporting 800 million relatives in
more than 125 developing nations. Countries like the Philippines
sustain their domestic economy by exporting workers to be exploited
abroad.
Migrant workers in Canada are part of the Canadian working class.
The ruling elite however have concocted categories of people based on
state-determined criteria -- citizens; permanent residents; temporary
foreign workers seeking permanent status; temporary foreign workers
with no right to seek permanent status; foreign students with and
without the right to seek permanent status who pay huge sums to study
in Canada and have the right to work while they study; undocumented
workers in a state of legal or civil death, and others. The division of
the people into these categories allows the ruling elite to
super-exploit those accorded fewer rights, a situation that is
exacerbated by the
COVID-19 pandemic. These divisions serve to deprive the people of a
consciousness of what is happening which, in turn, seeks to weaken the
resistance of the working class and its ability to defend all its
members.
Such divisions have no place in a modern society. Modern definitions
recognize only one humanity and governments at every level have a duty
to guarantee the rights of all. Let us make our voices heard on the
September 20 Across Canada Day of Action to affirm Status for All!
Our Security Lies in Our Fight for the Rights of All!
No One is
Illegal!
Status for All!
Toronto action for Status for All!, August 23, 2020.
On September 14, the Migrant Rights Network held a press conference and
issued an open letter calling on the federal government to normalize
the status of all migrants and undocumented workers, refugees and
foreign students. Already more than 280 groups and organizations --
including provincial federations of labour, trade unions, faith
organizations, student unions and others -- had signed on in support
and more have joined since.
The open letter states: "We, the undersigned, join the Migrant
Rights Network in calling for full and permanent immigration status for
all, without exclusions. [...] We call for a single-tier immigration
system, where everyone in the country has the same rights. All
migrants, refugees and undocumented people in the country must be
regularized
and given full immigration status now without exception. All migrants
arriving in the future must do so with full and permanent immigration
status."
 The
open letter holds the federal immigration system responsible for the
unacceptable working and living conditions of the 1.6 million
undocumented and migrant workers, refugees and foreign students.
Discriminatory immigration status, it says, is a tool which serves
"to divide and pit workers against each other -- citizens against
non-citizens -- to keep wages low and profits high." Full immigration
status for all is necessary, it says, for global justice; for racial
justice; and "an essential step towards eliminating inequalities in the
workplace and necessary for a transition to a just and sustainable
economy of care."
Joining the Migrant Rights Network at the press conference were
Patty Coates, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour; Catherine
Abreu of the Climate Action Network which represents over 100 climate
organizations; Jennifer Henry, Executive Director of KAIROS, an
ecumenical program comprised of ten participating member
denominations and religious organizations; and Lindsey Bacigal on behalf
of Indigenous Climate Action. Workers' Forum attended the virtual press conference.
Among the 280 plus organizations endorsing the open letter and
calling for full immigration Status for All are the federations of
labour in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the
Northwest Territories; public and private sector unions including the
Canadian Union of Public Employees, National Union of Public and
General Employees, the Service Employees International Union, Unifor,
the United Steelworkers; as well as civil liberties organizations,
student unions, faith-based organizations, the Communist Party of
Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and others.
For the full text of the open letter and to add your name in support of the demand of Status for All visit migrantrights.ca.
Justice for Injured Workers!
 
This September marks the three-year anniversary of the Ontario Network
of Injured Workers' Groups' (ONIWG) Workers' Comp Is a Right! campaign.
To mark the occasion, ONIWG organized an online celebration in which
more than 65 people participated.
 On
this occasion, ONIWG put forward its demand, that with the announced
resignation of the current CEO of the Workplace Safety and Insurance
Board (WSIB), Thomas Teahen, injured workers must have a say in who
should replace him and what the CEO's job description should be. ONIWG
President Janet Paterson read out the job
description put together by injured workers in different areas of the
province and encouraged people to sign a petition calling on the
government to give injured workers a say in hiring the new CEO.[1] The hiring committee for the new CEO must include those most affected by his actions -- Ontario
injured workers -- Paterson pointed out.
The online program included a slide show which captured some of the
important moments in the campaign that was launched at a public meeting
on September 11, 2017 followed the next day by a press conference at
Queen's Park as the Ontario Legislature opened for its fall session.
Over the past three years ONIWG and its allies have
organized rallies, pickets and outreach actions across the province,
spoken to more than 70 MPPs, produced issues of their newspaper, Justice for Injured Workers,
organized Justice for Injured Workers' Bike Rides and much more. In the
fall of 2018 alone they organized some 30 public meetings in different
regions.
Speaking about the campaign, Executive Vice President Willie Noiles
pointed out that ONIWG began developing the campaign almost a year
before it was launched and involved injured workers from across the
province in discussing the problems they were facing and the key
demands on which they wanted to mobilize. In March 2017,
ONIWG brought groups together from across the province and by the end
of the day, from months of discussion and an initial list of 15
demands, they had sorted out the main demands of the campaign. These
were: No cuts based on phantom jobs!; Listen to injured workers'
treating health care professionals!; Stop cutting benefits based on
"pre-existing conditions"!
 The
campaign has been important in activating injured workers across the
province, with new groups being founded and important steps taken to
end injured workers' marginalization and make their concerns the
concerns of all working people in Ontario. Among other things, due to
the work done by injured workers through this campaign,
there is now a private member's bill before the legislature, Bill 119
introduced by the NDP, which would end the practice of deeming.
Patty Coates, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour, brought
greetings to the celebration and pointed out that changes to the
workers' compensation system are especially urgent under conditions of
the COVID-19 pandemic. She denounced the refusal of the provincial
government to implement the presumptive principle, meaning that
workers in health care and other high risk workplaces who contract
COVID-19 would be presumed to have been infected at work and be able to
quickly access WSIB benefits.
The program also included remarks by Dr. Giorgio Ilacqua, who has been
active in the demand that WSIB listen to injured workers' treating
physicians; Wayne Harris, an injured construction trades worker; and
Jessica Ponting, who spoke to the conditions faced by migrant workers
in Canada under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers' Program when
they are injured on the job.
ONIWG also announced that it will be launching a speakers' series on
October 8 which will explain in more detail the demands of the Workers'
Comp Is a Right! campaign. The first online meeting will deal with the
WSIB's practice of deeming and the demand that it end.
Note 1. To read and sign the petition, click here.
Opposition to Privatization of Public Services
- Peggy Askin -
Calgary Transit announced on August 26 that 110 workers who clean and
refuel the city's transit fleet would be permanently laid off by
mid-October, and the work contracted out to the private contractor
Bee-Clean.
These workers have worked on the front lines, keeping transit buses
and C-trains clean, an essential service very important to containing
the pandemic. "Is this how we thank our transit workers?" asked
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 583 President Mike Mahar. "The
City of Calgary is showing how ungrateful they are to the
hard-working people who went over and above putting themselves in
harm's way -- keeping our riders safe. It's a slap in the face to them."
Calgary Transit says contracting out has been in the works for two
years. It was temporarily halted due to the pandemic, but it is full
speed ahead despite increasing numbers of positive cases in Alberta.
The acting director of Calgary Transit stated that this was a "business
decision." "I think one of the advantages of contracted services is
that if
we find that we want to do a slightly different function or perform
more cleaning or even less, we can actually turn that dial up and down
far easier than we can with actual full time employees," he said.
 Who
does this "business decision" serve? Certainly not the workers or the
people of Calgary. There were 106.5 million trips taken on Calgary
Transit in 2019, an average of close to 300,000 trips a day, with 1,224
active vehicles in the fleet. With so many people taking public
transit, Calgary Transit is refusing to
uphold its social responsibility to keep transit safe under the guise of "business
decisions" which only serve private interests.
This "business decision" is not only irresponsible but a vicious
attack on the rights of the workers. The service and cleaning workers,
and their conditions of work are not a dial on an appliance that can be
turned to different settings. These are human beings who in these
conditions are protecting the health and safety of our population.
Transit
workers have fought for the conditions they have, for the wages and
benefits and quality of work life they deserve. Their work produces
value and workers who perform it have a right to security, to wages,
working conditions and benefits acceptable to themselves, not a
precarious
existence with wages below the poverty line.
The fact that the City of Calgary is guided by fictitious ideas
about cost cutting is highly irresponsible and unacceptable. Besides
considering the human factor 'a cost,' contracting out only enriches
the private owners who pay cheap wages and impose such harsh working
conditions that inadequately trained and underpaid and abused workers
come and go. It is a fiction coming out of the mouths of those who
have the power to make such self-serving decisions. Calgary City
Council is duty-bound to provide safe public transit. When it
endorses contracting out, the city is openly saying these arrangements
will make it easier to cut corners on proper cleaning and sanitizing of
buses and light rapid transit trains, when the need is greater than
ever. To do so when COVID-19 cases are increasing makes it all the
more opportunist and reprehensible.
Bee-Clean will be paying the fueler-cleaners the minimum wage of
$15.00 an hour, and $18.00 for the operators, Mahar said. He told Workers' Forum
that the city has "nothing but trouble" with
Bee-Clean which already has the contract for bus shelters and C-train
stations. Its shoddy record is already known. Mahar told CTV that Bee-Clean has "a terrible track
record with thousands of registered complaints about dirty,
contaminated bus shelters and stations." This is of concern to all
Calgarians.
It is particularly irresponsible and dangerous when tens of thousands
of students who ride the buses are already dealing with an unsafe
return to school.
Calgary Transit claims that it will "save" some $5 million, an
indication not only of unacceptable wages and working conditions, but
that staff will also be cut in order for the private owners to line
their pockets. Outsourcing the cleaning of public infrastructure to
private cleaning companies is increasingly common, and in many places
the
workers in these companies are fighting to organize themselves under
very difficult conditions. These companies are notorious for terrible
conditions of work.[1]
Will these workers even have proper personal protective equipment? How
will they travel home from work when their shift ends at 3:00 am and public
transit is not available?
 Workers
in the industry are mainly recent immigrants, often migrant workers
working under conditions of super-exploitation. In many cases the
companies call the workers "independent contractors" in order to flout
the law, pay workers less than minimum wage, make no EI or CPP
contributions on the workers' behalf and provide no sick time
or benefits. Bee-Clean for example was found to be in violation of
labour standards at the University of Alberta for failure to pay
overtime and other violations of employment standards. These workers succeeded in organizing a union.
Such decisions are made in the name of "lack of money." But this
"lack of money" for public services exists because the financial
oligarchy refuses to pay for the public infrastructure it uses that
benefits its business activities, including providing public transit for
workers to come to work and access their businesses. Building the
public transit and other infrastructure such as public highways,
bridges, public education and health care and mass transit, amongst
others, including research and development, is also a source of big
profits for the rich. The revenue which comes from the economic
activity which public transit generates must be returned to pay for
these services.
City Council must be held to account for this reprehensible decision and failure to uphold its social responsibility. Everyone,
and Calgarians in particular, should join Local 583's campaign to
demand that Calgary City Council reverse its decision.
Note 1. See "Why the 'invisible workers' cleaning up COVID-19 need better labour protection," CBC Radio, April 3, 2020.
Local 583 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) has launched a
campaign calling on Calgary City Council to reverse Calgary Transit's
decision to contract out cleaning and fueling of buses and C-trains.
ATU Local 583 President Mike Mahar points out that since the beginning
of the pandemic the transit workers have stepped into the
void time and time again, advocating for safe practices, coming to work
despite the fear of COVID-19, and taking steps to make the system safe.
In doing so they have defended their rights and the rights of all. The
workers have shown that they are the essential factor in the economy.
 Writing
in the Local 583 newsletter, Mahar said, "For five months while between
75 per cent and 85 per cent of the general public has avoided riding
public transit, you have been fixing, disinfecting, scheduling and
operating public transit as front-line workers. Our fears of
contracting COVID-19 are no less than those that have chosen not to
ride. Our risks of serious health consequences are no less than those
that have chosen not to ride. Yet in spite of these fears, you've
continued to soldier on.
"As a fraternity, where the employer has fallen short, we have
stepped up. Whether it was their inability to provide personal
sanitizer bottles or masks due to the Calgary Emergency Management
Agency (CEMA) lock down or an ill thought out plan to maintain front
door loading in the initial phase of the pandemic, our actions as a
whole,
were a big part of the success of keeping public transit moving.
"I remember the first night in March when CEMA declared a local
emergency. Our service lane attendants were there until 4:30 in the
morning disinfecting buses. This went on for weeks until Calgary
Transit was able to adjust the sign up to closer reflect service
demands and reallocate staff to spread the work out. All this took
place as the
workers were being threatened with the contracting out of the very jobs
they were busting their tails doing to keep us all safe. Just stop for
a second and think how that must weigh on their hearts."
"But Calgary Transit isn't just experimenting with the lives and
income of our Service Lane members. They are gambling with our safety
and the safety of the public. They are literally gambling with the
fragile continuance of public transit during a pandemic...
"This is a deadly pandemic. Who decides to gamble on sanitization
services during a deadly pandemic? If our system shuts down because
Bee-Clean fails as they've done with the shelters and stations, there
will be fingers pointed and the fingers will be loaded."
Calgary Transit Riders Deserve Safe Transportation!
Local 583 is calling on working people and all Calgarians to make
their voices heard and demand that City Council reverse this reckless
decision.
 "By
mid October, the same company that has failed miserably in cleaning our
shelters and stations -- and received thousands of complaints for
shoddy work -- will clean and service all our public transit vehicles.
This will happen as we enter into what is expected to be a second wave
and likely surge in COVID-19 cases.
"Unlike a dirty shelter which you can possibly avoid, this will
result in poorly serviced and biohazard-exposed vehicles that you will
have to board or find other transportation. This is not just a work
place issue, this is a public health issue. Keeping public transit
running during a public health emergency has taken a great team effort
by
thousands of dedicated employees.
"The system remains extremely vulnerable and contracting out the
disinfecting of these vehicles during a deadly pandemic is a reckless
and irresponsible experiment that puts the riding public at risk."
Calgarians can "Make the Call" to their city councillor or to Mayor Naheed Nenshi, by going to the ATU Local 583 website. The union is also carrying out a letter writing campaign asking city
council to reconsider its decision.
"It's very easy to think that a single person's message isn't going
to make an impact," Mahar says. "But when a group of us gets together
and we have a unified voice that DOES make a difference and does get
noticed."
Actions Against Deregulation of Trucking Industry
- Normand Chouinard -
On Labour Day, September 7, about two hundred truck drivers, members of
the United Truckers Association (UTA), drove in a caravan in their
vehicles to rally at the Office of the BC Container Trucking
Commissioner on Cambie Street in downtown Vancouver. The drivers are
demanding that the commissioner enforce regulations which
prevent unlicensed truckers handling containers "off-dock" at
significantly undercut rates.[1] This has resulted in loss of work for
independent operators and other truckers that work at the ports.
 During
the 1990s the federal government deregulated transport at the behest of
transportation monopolies. Unionized truckers represented by Unifor and
independent owner operators represented by the UTA have been fighting
for their livelihoods and against precarious working conditions for
over twenty years. A full-scale strike on the docks
occurred in 2005 and job action and rallies took place in 2014. UTA
spokesperson Gagan Singh says the same conditions that gave rise to
previous labour disruptions exist today.
Off-dock activities for which regulations are not being enforced are causing serious harm to hundreds of truckers.
Following the actions of the truckers in 2014 there was a review by
Transport Canada then negotiations, which included Unifor and the UTA,
which resulted in a Joint Action Plan to address the issues. In the
Transport Canada Report from 2014 the issue of off-dock work is
addressed: "It is apparent from conversations with stakeholders that
several container movements take place outside the ports. There is
considerable variation in these off-dock trip rates, and it appears
that off-dock
rates are much lower than the MOA [Memorandum
of
Agreement] rates. It was reported to us
countless times in the course of our discussions with drivers and the
union representatives that off-dock trip rates may be at least 50 per
cent lower than average trip rates, with some rates as low as $50.00
per container, and even as low as $15.00-$20.00 per container. It is
also
reported that rampant undercutting of rates occurs for off-dock
container movements."
Although measures were put in place as part of the Joint Action Plan
to bring the off-dock operations under control and regulation the
situation has worsened. In a letter to BC Minister of Labour Harry
Bains on August 27, Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor Western Regional Director,
states: "The intent of the Joint Action Plan signed in 2014 was to
capture and regulate all on-dock and off-dock movements of containers
within the Lower Mainland, whether by employee or owner operator, and
we believe the provisions of the Container Trucking Act and
Regulation make this clear... Companies and individuals moving marine
containers off-dock without encountering a port location are
evading the licensing regime and pay lower rates, which will lead to
the collapse of regulated off-dock rates -- a key part of the Joint
Action Plan."
 The Office of the BC Container Trucking
Commissioner was
created by the BC government in 2014 to regulate this sector. Both
UTA and
Unifor argue that the Commissioner has jurisdiction and the
responsibility to
enforce the standards set out in the 2014 BC Container
Trucking Act and regulations,
but according to Singh there has been industry-wide
disregard for
regulations and the Office has shown little intention to fulfill
its duties.
Unlicensed truckers are moving containers off dock within the
Lower Mainland at
steeply discounted prices. As a result, there is an uneven playing
field caused
by those flouting the law and rules without any
consequences.
Commissioner Michael Crawford disputed UTA's claim that the law is
being broken and Unifor's claim that a "black market' has been created
by stating that "the commissioner has jurisdiction to regulate and
license container trucking work that requires access to a marine
terminal. If a trucking company needs access to a marine terminal, it
requires a license and then must pay the commissioner's trucking rates
for on and off dock work," he said. "Trucking companies engaged only in
off-dock trucking are not required to have a license, and do not fall
within the scope of the Container Trucking Act and regulations" he
said. In recommendations that he made in April 2019, Crawford
acknowledges that "there are licensed companies which own or are
otherwise closely affiliated with unlicensed companies and therefore
able to pay regulated rates for on-dock work and unregulated rates for
off-dock work."
UTA argues that the commissioner does have jurisdiction. "The
commissioner is not following his own regulations and allowing
companies to openly break the law," said Singh. It is time to stand up
and fight these injustices that are hurting container truckers."
At the rally on September 7 the truck drivers demanded action to
protect their jobs and pledged to continue the fight until their
demands are met.
Note
1. On-dock refers to a container yard that is
situated within the port area. Containers are off loaded from the ship
and moved to the on-dock yard and stored there till the receiver takes
delivery of the cargo. To avoid high storage costs shipping companies
may instead move containers to a
nearby off-dock yard.
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
PDF
PREVIOUS
ISSUES | HOME
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: office@cpcml.ca
|
