Presented by Ken Georgetti on Monday, 14 November 2011

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Sisters and Brothers – a very warm welcome to everyone of you to the Canadian Labour Congress’ first-ever Canadian Council meeting!

Consoeurs et confrères – je vous souhaite tous une très chaleureuse bienvenue à la toute première réunion du Conseil canadien du Congrès du travail du Canada!

I want to welcome my good friends Rich Trumka, from the AFL-CIO in the United States and Brendan Barber from the TUC in Great Britain who you will hear from this morning.

I also want to give a special warm welcome to Bob White, President Emeritus of the CLC – who is here to be part of this first Canadian Council.

So let me start with some great news.

Just over a week ago, under the strong leadership of its President Gary Corbett, the Professional Institution of the Public Service of Canada voted at its annual general meeting to join the Canadian Labour Congress!

This is truly an historic decision for their union.

Gary is here today observing our Council meeting – Gary would you stand up please?

Let's give him a warm welcome!

I know each and everyone of us will look forward to working with you, the Professional Institute and your members as you join the house of labour in the coming weeks.

But today is also notable because we are all taking part in history as well – in starting a new era for the Congress.

The Canadian Council is part of the CLC’s new leadership structure – a structure designed to be more reflective of the needs of all the CLC's affiliates.

Our new Canadian Council structure was created through extensive consultation with our affiliates before delegates at our CLC Convention adopted it in May in Vancouver.

One of the most important features of the new Canadian Council is its expanded membership.

In order to significantly improve the work of the Congress and meet the needs of our affiliates, we now have the input of the following as Vice-Presidents of the Canadian Council:

• the ranking officers of every union affiliated to the CLC;
• 10 women representing the 5 largest public and private sector affiliates;
• Federations of Labour in every province and territory, giving a regional perspective;
• And the following Vice-Presidents as chosen by their respective caucuses at the CLC convention and endorsed by their affiliated union:
• 2 representatives of workers of colour;
• 1 representative of Aboriginal workers;
• 1 representative of workers with disabilities;
• 1 representative of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender workers;
• 1 representative of young workers; and
• 1 representative of retired workers, who is elected at the convention of the Congress of Union Retirees of Canada.

Sisters and Brothers – this new Canadian Council is more inclusive and representative of all our affiliates – welcome to the future!

And because this is the first such gathering of our new Canadian Council – we welcome your suggestions to shape future Council meetings to best use your time, expertise and commitment to organized labour.

We fully expect these meetings to evolve with experience each time and appreciate your patience.

As those who attended Executive Council before know, CLC departments and regions reported through our Executive Officers.

While informative, the result tended to be more of a listing of activities than an exploration of the themes underlying the Congress’ good work.

Under our new Canadian Council structure, my report as President is intended to give you a significant overview of the important projects we are undertaking.

And I encourage each of you to seek more information about areas of our work that are of particular interest or concern to you and your memberships.

But when I look at recent CLC campaigns and work internally and with our affiliates, I see five major subject areas:

Political action & mobilization – which includes our considerable research and analysis, legislative and electoral work.

Communications – including our work in social media – Facebook, Twitter and online campaigns.

Education – including the Labour College of Canada, our Winter Schools and many courses for workers offered across the country.

Equality – including our anti-racism work, promoting equality for women and fairness for workers of colour, Aboriginal workers, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender workers and workers with disabilities, engaging young workers and ensuring retired workers issues are heard.

International solidarity – including the CLC’s role in representing Canadian workers in international labour bodies and our work with unions and union centrals around the world.

Each CLC department’s work and each region’s work can be seen in one or more of these focus areas, which I will outline in this report.

Overall – the Canadian Labour Congress has simple goals – to improve the lives of working people through their unions and to achieve progressive social change – in Canada and internationally.

As J.S. Woodsworth eloquently put it: “What we desire for ourselves, we wish for all.”

Sadly, our simple goals face significant and sometimes complex obstacles.

This month I was honoured to represent Canada at the meeting of the G20 group of countries – comprising the world’s major and emerging economies.

On your behalf, I met with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa in late October in advance of the G20 summit.

While we disagree strongly on many important issues, I respect that Prime Minister Harper has met with the Canadian Labour Congress regularly prior to each G20 Summit.

Our meeting was frank… but cordial.

While our time was limited and agenda set, I took a few moments to press him on the government's interference in collective bargaining.

The Prime Minister did suggest the government was surprised by the backlash from so many people and organizations other than unions.

We also discussed the CLC's proposal to expand the Canada Pension Plan.

Sisters and Brothers, we must redouble our efforts to convince provincial premiers and finance ministers between now and December because if we receive the solid support of the provinces, I am confident the federal government will not stand in the way of expanding the CPP.

I believe it is very important that the CLC be able to communicate clearly and directly with the Prime Minister, the government and all opposition parties on the issues that matter to our members no matter which party is in power.

While attending the G20 summit meeting in France – and what is known as the L20 meetings of labour leaders from each country – I had the opportunity to meet in person with several heads of state.

I was pleased to be able to represent Canadian labour at meetings with US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

But I was even more pleased to see the efforts of the international labour movement, led by my friend Sharan Burrow, of the ITUC, pay off with an historic bilateral statement between the L20 and what is known as the B20 – the business 20.

It was a recognition by business that jobs and a solid social protection floor underpin a successful economy.

We pressed for and received a commitment from the G20 nations for a global strategy for jobs and growth, and a commitment to a jobs task force that would include the participation of labour, before their next summit in Mexico.

Back here in Canada, we can see the wide variety of issues of importance to workers by looking at the work being done by the Congress. For example:

We have created a new online video contest to highlight how corporate tax giveaways cost us needed public services.

We are making sure that thousands of rank and file union members through our regional offices can attend labour education courses on workplace and other issues. 

We have worked with our Labour Councils and affiliates to elect 70% of labour-endorsed candidates in Ontario municipal elections last year and 78% in BC in 2008.

Since our municipal program began, we have helped elect almost 1,500 labour-endorsed mayors, councillors and school board trustees.

We are fighting to end racist discrimination against migrant foreign workers brought to Canada but paid substandard wages and benefits; and

We are promoting international solidarity and economic development by sending a CLC delegation to West Africa to connect with unions in those countries.

We continue to get results in political advocacy – such as more funding in the last federal budget to the Wage Earner Protection Fund which, thanks to the efforts of the CLC and affiliates, puts workers before banks when companies go bankrupt.

Millions of dollars in wages now go to workers instead of to banks and other creditors.

Our successful lobbying to get some improvements to the Guaranteed Income Supplement for our most vulnerable seniors in the last budget.

And for the EI worksharing program to be extended which was announced in Finance Minister Flaherty's most recent economic update.

So let’s look at these five theme areas – Political action & mobilization; Communications; Education; Equality and International solidarity – to explore the many CLC projects and work with affiliates and others that we undertake to promote the objectives of our labour movement.

Let’s start with:

Political Action

2011 is "The Year of the Election" – we just had a federal election, seven provincial and territorial elections have just finished, and we have municipal elections in some provinces still to come.

Federally – we experienced great triumph, enormous tragedy and now considerable trepidation.

The New Democratic Party’s huge leap into Official Opposition status in May under Jack Layton’s inspiring leadership was an unbelievable success.

Speaking personally, and I know you share my feelings on this, I have lost a good friend who dedicated his life to progressive politics and to Canadian labour.

Jack’s appearance at the CLC Convention in Vancouver in May just a week after that historic breakthrough was his final major speech, although we did not know it at the time.

How fitting it was that our delegates gave him such a hero’s welcome.

And how incredibly sad we all felt at the extremely unfair loss of our friend to cancer just months later.

Jack Layton’s courage, his commitment and his optimism even in the face of the cancer that took his life will be an inspiration to all of us, forever.

During the national election campaign, the CLC worked hard with affiliates, Federations of Labour and Labour Councils across the country to make the needs of working people into national election issues.

For example, we made the issue of retirement security one that all parties had to address in their platforms.

We forced all parties to respond to our plan.

Our strategic focus on assisting the New Democrats in key target ridings with those affiliates who endorse political parties or politicians was highly successful.

The “Orange Crush” splash that led to the NDP becoming Official Opposition for the first time came in part because the CLC was helping to shake the bottle!

But unfortunately the federal Liberal Party collapse and an extremely well-funded and targeted Conservative campaign put Harper into a majority position – also for the first time.

The results are already ominous for labour – we’ve seen one-sided in federal interventions supporting the employer in both the Canada Post and Air Canada negotiations and disputes.

We’ve also seen significant cuts announced to much-needed federal public services – and that’s only the beginning.

There was a private members bill from BC Member of Parliament Russ Hiebert that would have allegedly solved a problem that doesn’t exist – the forced disclosure of union finances – information any union member can already currently obtain freely.

That bill was dealt a technical defeat just over a week ago by the Speaker of the House of Commons following a motion introduced by the Official Opposition NDP House Leader Joe Comartin.

But make no mistake – our opponents – and it's not just the Conservatives, but also the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Fraser Institute, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and all the new right-wing think tanks that have sprung up in recent years – these opponents are emboldened by the Conservative majority.

They will not let up. This was a shot across our bow – a warning shot.

And it won't stop.

What did Saskatchewan Party Premier Brad Wall say the very night he was re-elected? … that his government will also consider union financial disclosure legislation.

Don’t tell me that’s just a coincidence!

We will monitor their activities closely but one thing is clear – we have never been intimidated by threats of legislation nor will we be.

Our labour movement will still be going strong years after the Harper Conservatives are in the history books.

Provincially and in the territories, the CLC, our Federations of Labour and affiliates worked hard to elect labour-friendly provincial and territorial legislators.

And while some misinformed pundits talked of a groundswell of conservatism sweeping Canada after the federal election, the provincial results show that’s just not true.

In Manitoba, the NDP government under Premier Greg Selinger was elected to a fourth term – defeating the Conservatives.

In Newfoundland and PEI, conservative parties lost popular vote.

In Ontario, the Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty was also re-elected with a stronger NDP opposition presence under Andrea Horwath, while the right-wing Conservatives under Tim Hudak was not successful in winning government, despite Stephen Harper's boast in the summer of a conservative trifecta in Ontario.

The election results from Saskatchewan last week are admittedly discouraging but the name “Conservative” is still too tainted for any party to run under in that province.

And you won’t find “Conservative Party” candidates who ran in either the Yukon or Northwest Territories elections.
In municipal elections, the CLC, working with our Labour Councils, has done a fine job.

There are elections this week in British Columbia – and we hope to improve on the remarkable 78% success rate of labour-endorsed candidates we achieved in 2008.

And New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia have local government elections next year where we hope to make more gains.

But when we fail to elect progressive municipal councils, unfortunately we get right-wing mayors like Rob Ford in Toronto.

Ford’s public service cuts and privatization show how important it is that all affiliates work together with the CLC and Labour Councils to win these elections.

And if we lose, we must immediately move to fighting back against regressive mayors and councils.

That kind of mobilization is the other key part of our political action – and not just in electoral politics.

The CLC and our affiliates also put considerable efforts into lobbying on Parliament Hill – work that has paid off in the past with major successes – like bankruptcy protection for workers.

Now we face a new challenge.

The current 10-year funding agreement for Medicare between the government of Canada and the provinces expires in 2014 and the renegotiation of that Health Accord is critical to every provincial government.

As a proud defender of public health care, the labour movement needs to intervene in the process – to stop the threat of privatization and to press for progress on long-term care, home care and pharmacare.

Between now and the next Canadian Council meeting we will work together with our affiates and partners to develop our strategies.

We also have more work to do pushing Parliament on health and safety concerns.

The CLC has just concluded a fascinating symposium titled “Westray – eight years later” about how the Westray Act is influencing Criminal Code prosecutions and enforcement.

The symposium also focused on how to engage law enforcement and labour communities around using prosecution and litigation to prevent workplace fatalities.

This event featured police, crown counsel, OH&S and Steelworker representatives, and was very well attended by affiliates.

But not all change comes from simply lobbying Ottawa.

Labour has long supported the goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement – demanding an end to the growing income inequality and rapacious greed of corporations and CEOs.

And we must give credit to them – they have been far more successful than anyone else at generating a public debate about greed and growing inequality.

For the first time in decades, we are seeing low corporate taxes and greed being discussed by media and the public with governments and bankers forced to respond.

And that’s a good thing.

Where we have been asked in the regions, we have worked with Occupy organizers to provide the kind of support they want.

Because it is important for those young people to be in control of their agenda.

Communications

One very important lesson from Occupy Wall Street is about the importance of communications through social media.

The Occupy Wall Street idea, while ignored for weeks by mainstream media, was going viral online – blogs, Twitter, Facebook, alternative online publications – until it exploded into prominence.

The CLC has been increasingly using online communications to get our message across – and the results are very positive.

Our “Retirement Security for Everyone” page on Facebook has nearly 5,000 fans.

In just one year more than 2,000 people are following the CLC’s Twitter account.

Our online campaign against the elimination of the long-gun registry – including a function to email your Member of Parliament – focused on sending urban Conservatives a message.

And our online RRSP Management Fee Calculator – which show how outrageous the fees charged by banks and financial institutions are.

This will be highlighted during November – which is Financial Literacy Month – the month where the banks and mutual fund companies try to teach us how to save more, while sugar coating their fees.

We are also hoping to have our One Minute Message Contest about ridiculously low Canadian corporate tax rates go viral – to become an Internet hit on YouTube.

Take a look – [video/french/english]

Equality

Young workers like the one you just saw in our video are critical to the CLC – and social media is how we are engaging them.

A growing Young Worker Advisory Committee with representatives from many affiliates is working hard to help us connect with workers who are employed in traditionally difficult to organize sectors, such as retail.

Young Workers are also very interested in other CLC equality work – like anti-racism and women workers’ issues.

Our Women’s and Human Rights department is holding a Women’s Strategy Session later this month and will include developing strategies for a CLC campaign on child care, as mandated by our Convention.

Child care is going to be a central focus, as women workers face increasing challenges in balancing work and life while striving to reduce economic inequality.

And again, we will use social media to draw attention to those issues.

We will launch a new online game called “Work It!” on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2012 – a fun and engaging way to learn and to reach unorganized workers and young women.

One success we can celebrate is the CLC's efforts, led by Executive Vice-President Barb Byers, to win support for a precedent setting agreement at the International Labour Organization that will bring real change in the living and working conditions of domestic workers.

This new ILO Convention could affect an estimated 150,000 domestic workers in Canada – if the federal government ratifies it.

And we are cautiously optimistic that we can succeed – well done Barb!

Another way we promote equality is through our long-term work with the United Way of Canada.

Labour’s strong role at the United Way not only helps us help those in need, it shows that unions are a vital part of our communities.

And United Way participation helps labour reach out to businesses that otherwise might be our opponents, as well as churches, anti-poverty activists and many more groups.

Our Anti-Racism and Human Rights department also works hard to fight for equality and make important links around the world.

We held a “Rise Up!” conference last December that focused on issues like the United Nations 1267 listing of Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik, a man who was accused of being a terrorist by the US government but cleared by CSIS, the RCMP and Sudan.

We supported his struggle to be de-listed from the UN’s travel, work and financial sanctions, which violate his basic human rights.

Our focus on Equality connects back to Communications – the Sun Media chain featured such biased and unfair coverage of our support for him at the Rise Up! conference that the CLC complained to the Ontario Press Council.

And after our case was heard, rather than apologize, Sun Media quit the Press Council instead!

This situation clearly illustrates the integrated approach CLC must take, linking our departments to be effective.

The Anti-Racism department also created a great poster series about 10 important human rights dates – called Working Voices – with funding from the federal government’s Racism Free Workplace Strategy Unit of Human Resources and Skill Development Canada.

Another key initiative of the department is a collaborative project to work with Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions to research labour brokers and employers.

This project also seeks to establish “migrant workers support committees” with union and community members to advise on workplace rights and fight their exploitation as cheap sources of labour.

International solidarity

This important work is closely linked to the CLC’s important role as Canada’s voice in international solidarity with labour organizations around the world.

While we have significant struggles here with employers and right-wing governments, our battles are minor compared to the oppression our Sisters and Brothers suffer in many countries.

Last month the CLC, the Steelworkers and 80 other labour and social justice partners acted together to fight that oppression, submitting a complaint about union busting of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union – the SME in Spanish – by the Mexican government and army – under the NAFTA agreement labour provisions.

CLC Secretary -Treasurer Hassan Yussuff accompanied leaders of the SME to meetings with Canadian government officials on October 27.

And we just received word late last week that the Canadian government has accepted our complaint.

This is an example of not only international solidarity but of finding ways to use an agreement like NAFTA – that we opposed – to our own advantage.

And given a near-complete mainstream media blackout on reporting the abuses of the Mexican government against legitimate unions, we need to use communications through social media to get the word out.

But I have some good international news to report with positive results in Canada – especially for the building trades unions and unions representing workers in nursing homes.

Last month the Governing Council of the International Trade Union Confederation – representing unions around the world – made a major ruling against the Christian Labour Association of Canada – CLAC – at the CLC’s request.

ITUC said that CLAC’s published policies and activities in Canada undermine the labour conditions of workers and hinder the organizing activities of our CLC affiliated unions.

Therefore CLAC-Canada has been suspended from ITUC membership and must change the way it conducts itself – or be permanently expelled.

Our International Solidarity also led to an important trip to Nigeria and Ghana by Brother Yussuff, PSAC President John Gordon and CFNU President Linda Silas with CLC staff, meeting top trade union leaders, developing ties and sharing information.

And Brother Yussuff’s ongoing role in building international solidarity has led him to be asked, by major international affiliates, to run for the presidency of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas – TUCA – at its upcoming Congress next April.

We will be taking a delegation to this Congress, and would welcome affiliate participation.

This would not only be prestigious for the CLC but a strategic balance against the Harper Conservatives’ focus on the region and promotion of unfair free trade agreements like NAFTA and those with Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Colombia, Panama, and soon Honduras.

Good luck Hassan!

In another international trip, CEP President Dave Coles and I, at the invitation of the CLC's counterpart in Norway – LO Norway – visited to learn more about how that country utilizes its royalty revenue, and the operations of Stat Oil.

Stat Oil – whose majority shareholder is the people of Norway – is involved in projects in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador where the CEP represents workers.

Our trip included meeting Norway’s Foreign Minister and other top government officials in the Finance Ministry to discuss the much more integral role of unions in Norway.

In Norway tax revenue generated from oil profits is invested in their significantly better national pension plan – information of great use to our campaign to improve the Canada Pension Plan.

Canada’s role in both international trade and labour’s role in international solidarity are relatively ignored in this country.

That’s an important reason why labour education is critical to the CLC.

Education

Through our Labour College of Canada, our Winter Schools and other education programs, the CLC gives both rank and file workers and union leaders some fresh perspectives on issues like our international role and much more.

For many workers, exposure to courses provided by the CLC with assistance from affiliates is the first step to a lifetime of activism and contributing to social justice – in the workplace and around the world.

We are extremely pleased that the revitalized Labour College of Canada has been remarkably successful in its first years as a new institution, dedicated to enhancing the leadership capacities of union activists.

The Labour College offers a 4-week program with a wide variety of courses – from political economy to labour history to workers in a global world.

We have plans to expand our offerings at the Labour College and in our education programs that help activists build their skills to better serve their members.

In our regions, the CLC is equally busy providing labour education programs for our affiliates.

In fact, the Pacific Region Winter School has been so successful we’ve added an additional 5th week of classes, the Atlantic region plans to expand courses next year, Manitoba hopes to establish a new Winter School soon and Ontario’s Summer School took on a new look with many additional courses.

And lastly we draw all of our focus areas together in the CLC’s biggest campaign – to dramatically improve the Canada Pension Plan.

Our CPP campaign – with enormous support from our affiliates – has nearly every department contributing to the cause.

From research and analysis on pension issues to educating our members to communicating the issues to the public to lobbying politicians at every level to even consulting politicians from other countries about their pension plans, the CLC is pulling out all the stops.

We will not stop until we succeed.

This campaign has been a hallmark of our movement – a campaign where every worker benefits, and labour is leading the way.

Working together, I know we can achieve success with the biggest single improvement in social programs since the introduction of Medicare!

There is much more the CLC has accomplished since the convention in May but there's only so much time I can talk without having to take a break...

and I'm sure there's only so much you can take from me!

This Canadian Council meeting is historic – and we hope to be on the verge of making history in so many ways.

Make no mistake – right-wing governments and greedy corporate interests are threatening our labour movement – and that threat is very significant.

But unions have been threatened since the first worker put down his tools and walked off the job to protest unfair treatment centuries ago.

Organized labour will always face enormous opposition from those who refuse to share their wealth and power equitably.

The shrinking middle class in Canada and the United States can be attributed to the first attacks on unions coming out of the post-war era – in the 1980s.

But when we engage with the public, when they see us as the voice of working people everywhere – like with our retirement security campaign – we have allies.

Now is our time to re-engage with the public more than ever before.

What is changing is the ability of Canada’s labour movement to meet these new challenges with innovative responses, better skills and more sophistication.

We have never backed down from a challenge – and we will meet them head on – from the picket line to online – because the Canadian Labour Congress is in it to win!

Thank you and I look forward to many great meetings of our Canadian Council in the future!