Presented by Ken Georgetti on Friday, 17 June 2011

(Check against delivery)

Sisters and Brothers, I am pleased to bring you greetings of solidarity from the Officers and 3.2 million workers who are members of the Canadian Labour Congress.

Thanks to President Darryl Walker and your executive for inviting me to speak with you today.

Darryl plays an important role in the labour movement not only here in British Columbia but across the country.

And I want to say how great it was to see NUPGE represented at the CLC's Convention last month here in Vancouver and to see so many BCGEU members participate!

It was important to me personally, and for the solidarity of our movement. So I thank you for that.

Now, I may work in Ottawa but my home is in Vancouver – sadly it was oh so close but it’s not the home yet of the Stanley Cup, thanks to those darn Boston Bruins.

The Boston Bruins definitely found a way to ice the Canucks.

But now our national public services with the new federal Conservative majority government are definitely on thin ice.

We need look no further than the government's plan to cut $4 billion a year from its budget.

There is only one way to make those kinds of cuts, and that's to programs and public services, and the jobs that go with them.

We also know that at the provincial, federal, and municipal level – public sector workers and their unions are under increasing attack.

Here in BC, your union has faced ten years of cutbacks in services under the Liberal-led government of Gordon Campbell and now Christie Clark.

Look at the shambles our justice system in BC is, with staffing levels cut so much that court cases are being cancelled and the safety of court workers and the public put at risk due to the reductions in deputy sheriffs staffing.

And I know that your Community Social Services Sector is fighting to keep basic successor rights that you went on strike to get twelve years ago.

The private sector – which BCGEU also represents – has as well been battered, with several long strikes like that at Vale-Inco for a year or a lockout at US Steel in Hamilton right now – over the same issue – concessions.

And now Air Canada and of course Canada Post where workers were conducting rotating strikes until they were locked out on Wednesday.

On those disputes, I want to just say a couple of words.

Their fight is our fight.

The drive to take away defined benefit pension plans is gathering steam.

The private sector felt it first over the last five years, and if Air Canada gets away with eliminating their defined benefit pension plan for new hires, it paves the way for other federally-regulated employers to do the same.

And that can only cascade to the public sector.

So we have to get talking Sisters and Brothers – to our friends, to our families, to our neighbours.

The race to the bottom will affect all workers, and it will affect the ability for our children to make a decent living, to retire in dignity after a lifetime of work.

This is turning into a summer of discontent and with good reason.

The efforts to undermine needed and important public services – and to denigrate the workers like your members – who provide them – are coming from several sources.

Obviously right-wing governments like that of Prime Minister Stephen Harper are determined to make public sector workers pay the price for yet more corporate tax cuts – as announced in the Throne Speech.

Even with corporate taxes lower in Canada than the United States and most G-20 countries, the insatiable greed of big business demands yet more tax cuts to fuel their windfall profits.

Those same big businesses also want to profit from further privatization of public services.

And there are many right-wing media who continually push an anti-union agenda at every opportunity.

Those of you who attended the recent Canadian Labour Congress Convention here in Vancouver last month know that one of our key themes was about how we in labour must change our public image.

Regrettably, business organizations have been working hard to trash the labour movement – to try and turn the positives of the union advantage into negatives.

Business criticizes union wages as “too high” – when they in fact give workers more disposable income and the ability to spend it in their communities – to the benefit of local and Canadian businesses.

Ask dentists in your community how many minimum wage or low-wage workers can afford to get braces for their children... and the answer will likely be – “none”.

Ask car dealers in your community how many new vehicles they sell to minimum or low-wage earners... and the answer will probably be – "none".

Then ask why their business organizations are attacking the unionized workers who are their best customers.

It’s the same thing with taxes – business simply refuses to understand that fair taxes help maintain our decent standard of living – and create the conditions which are good for business.

Without adequate provincial government services for both those in need and those in business, how would British Columbia even function?

Where would we be without the educated workforce that some of your members help provide?

Without taxes would we have good roads and bridges that are kept safe summer and winter to transport products and facilitate tourism?

Without enough wildlife protection officers, forest fire fighters, corrections officers and police would we be a safer, healthier country?

Without hospital and long-term care workers, licensed practical nurses, without child care workers, without workers helping seniors live at home would we be a kinder, better society?

The answer to these questions is no.

But we have to get these questions asked – and asked by the public to counteract the poisonous anti-union attitude of too many businesses.

Corporations also say our pensions are “too rich” and that Canada can’t afford defined benefit pension plans.

But every major CEO has a gold-plated defined benefit plan!

Shaw Communications boss Jim Shaw recently retired at just 53 years old.

Shaw will collect a pension that pays him – wait for it – $16,000.

Not $16,000 a year... which would be more than the maximum Canada Pension Plan retirement benefit of $11,520.

Jim Shaw won’t even be collecting $16,000 a month – which would be $192,000 a year.

No, Jim Shaw will retire on $16,000 a day – that’s $6 million a year for the rest of his life.

Is it any wonder why your cable TV bills are so outrageously high?

Remember when corporate CEOs tell us Canada can’t afford defined benefit pension plans – they mean your pension plan – not the Shaw family pension plan.

And remember when big business tells you we can’t afford to improve the Canada Pension Plan – it’s simply because they don’t want to.

But they're more than happy to take defined benefit pension plans for themselves.

55% – yes, over half of all DB plans in Canada have just one plan member – the corporate CEO!

Friends, when you add up all the attacks on unions – the sad truth of the matter is this – we have been framed.

Framed by our opponents – who blame labour for every financial crisis actually caused by an unregulated market economy and unscrupulous investment scams.

Framed by our opponents – who attack unions even as shameless right-wing governments give to the greedy and not the needy in our society.

Yes – we have been framed.

But don’t just take my word for it – here’s what Nobel Prize-winning U.S. economist Paul Krugman recently said about the ongoing economic crisis we face in his New York Times column:

“The policies that got us into this mess weren’t responses to public demand.”

“They were, with few exceptions, policies championed by small groups of influential people – in many cases, the same people now lecturing the rest of us on the need to get serious.”

“We need to place the blame where it belongs.”

I say to Paul Krugman – amen, brother, amen.

But we don’t have to look very far to find the same problems here in Canada of those responsible for the economic crisis trying to blame the victims.

In Canada the public sector has been the primary target for these actions.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses has been vociferous in criticizing public sector workers.

The CFIB opposes our Canadian Labour Congress plan to double Canada Pension Plan benefits so that all workers can retire with dignity and security.

CFIB President Catherine Swift actually says benefits need to be reduced for future retirees.

But the CFIB boss goes even further.

Swift says all government defined benefit pension plans must be scrapped and the retirement age for public sector employees be increased.

Swift also says governments at every level – provincial, federal and municipal – are giving public sector unions a “free ride”.

I’m sure Darryl and your members have noticed how easy it is to bargain with the BC government and your other employers!

But the CFIB boss goes even further – Swift says all government defined benefit pension plans must be scrapped... and the retirement age for public sector employees be increased.

But amazingly, in an interview with the London Free Press last month, Swift confessed what the CFIB’s true agenda actually is.

Here’s Swift’s direct quote:

"What would be ideal is getting rid of public sector unions entirely."

There you have it – the complete elimination of public sector unions in Canada.

Even the crazy right-wing governor of Wisconsin hasn’t gone that far!

And this from the head of the main small business organization in Canada.

Catherine Swift’s position is unacceptable, it is intolerable and it will be fought strongly at every possible level by the labour movement.

But we have to be smarter than we have in the past in fighting these threats to our unions.

When they try to frame us, we have to fight fiction with facts.

Fight fiction with facts – by using social media – like Twitter and Facebook and blogs and texting and the Internet.

I said at last month’s CLC Convention that labour can’t be playing 8-tracks... and expect to organize workers listening to Podcasts on their iPhones!

It’s true – we have to be more relevant to our members – and to the public.

We can’t lead with our chins – in boxing terms – and keep getting punched hard in the head by our opponents.

No, we have to do more talking to the public through unfiltered media where our direct message can be heard – because we have a compelling story to tell about the union advantage.

In many ways, this is the primary challenge that we all face together – to ensure that the union movement is presented accurately to the public.

Because everything else we try to do flows from that public image.

We can succeed in our strong efforts to improve retirement security for all Canadians through dramatic expansion of the Canada Pension Plan if our message is heard because we have credibility.

We can fight for fair labour laws, for better health and safety, for equal pay for work of equal value for women, for decent treatment of temporary foreign workers – if the public sees that our union movement has a good reputation to start with.

That’s why I’m asking for your help – to get involved through your union and at your workplace in communicating our message.

One last point – strong unions like the BCGEU have a particularly critical role right now – because union density is at risk in Canada.

In the United States the percentage of the workforce belonging to unions has dropped dangerously low – to just 12%.

Here in Canada we’ve been able to hold the line at about 30% despite all the attacks on unions – because of the strength of our public sector and unions like yours.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the private sector fought for the public sector’s right to organize, leading to major unionization.

Now we need the public sector in our labour movement to help private sector unions survive and thrive once again.

So we have our work cut out for us – improve the labour movement’s public image through the use of social media as well as traditional media – and fight off the assault from both right-wing governments and employers at the same time!

But we can do it!

Let me close with one small and successful example of how using all the tools in our toolbox can work even in extremely difficult circumstances.

In Brantford, Ontario the United Steelworkers got into a nasty dispute with a company owned by Intertape which demanded 25% wage cuts.

A long strike began in 2008, with strikebreakers used by the company.

This year the company announced it was closing permanently – and would only pay severance to the replacement workers – not the striking union workers.

The Steelworkers and the Shareholder Association for Research and Education – SHARE – put together a report to shareholders demonstrating that Intertape was very poorly governed.

The Steelworkers, SHARE and the CLC met with Intertape’s largest investor, a corporate fund management firm, and convinced them a settlement with striking workers was in the shareholders’ best interest.

We also said we would be at Intertape’s Annual General Meeting to tell shareholders about the company’s bad governance, poor social responsibility and disregard for its workers.

A tentative settlement has now been reached solving the severance issue.

So by using the power of workers' capital invested in pension funds, by using the right tool of shareholder lobbying and by making clear Intertape would be publicly embarrassed, we got the job done.

These are lessons we have learned and which we can now apply to new situations.

Our increasing ability to influence key decisions gives me confidence that together, we can win the big prize – we can win retirement security improvements for all Canadians through an expanded Canada Pension Plan.

And together with your strong help I know we can ensure that our labour movement is a beacon of hope for progressive change in our country.

Thank you for listening and thank you for all you do to make this a better Canada.