Presented by Ken Georgetti on Thursday, 14 July 2011

(Check against delivery)

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

Consœurs et confrères, c'est un honneur pour moi de vous transmettre les salutations de solidarité des dirigeantes et dirigeants et des 3,2 millions de travailleuses et travailleurs affiliés au Congrès du travail du Canada.

Thanks to your International Vice-President Phil Flemming and your executive for asking me to speak with you today.

Phil sits on our CLC Executive Committee and the new Canadian Council, making sure the concerns of IBEW and indeed the Building Trades are heard loud and clear in our labour movement.

Phil has also been essential in having the IBEW very much involved with our CLC campaigns and programs – I really appreciate his support... and yours.

Now, I have to say I am a few days late coming to your All-Canada Progress Meeting – and I very much regret that.

Phil had suggested I attend one of your training sessions in particular – it was titled “Dealing with Difficult People”.

Apparently Phil thought that if I took that course... I would have a lot more success in dealing with Prime Minister Stephen Harper!

Well, if anyone thought that Prime Minister Harper would be any easier to get along with after his Conservative Party won its first majority government, there’s no doubt now that was dead wrong.

The federal government’s interventions into both the recent Air Canada and the Canada Post contract disputes show that the Harper Conservatives are only on one side of labour relations – the employer’s side.

Harper was ready to impose back-to-work legislation in a private sector negotiation – with Air Canada’s CAW members.

That shows just how difficult the federal labour relations and political climate have already become.

Then there was the lockout at Canada Post, forcing CUPW members to accept a lower wage offer through back-to-work legislation than what was actually on the table from the employer.

It was outrageous.

Let’s be clear – when one side – the employer in both these disputes – can count on government intervention to give them what they want, how can the union bargain a fair collective agreement?

Why would the employer even bother coming to the table?

That isn’t mutual negotiation – it’s forced capitulation – and it’s not how labour relations works in a democracy.

And this situation isn’t limited to the CAW or CUPW, nor is it limited to federal collective bargaining.

When our national government shows that it is willing to impose contracts on both the private and public sector – when it shows that employers have no reason to bargain and respond to union pressure – then every set of negotiations in our country is impacted by this example of bad behaviour.

When the Prime Minister of Canada shows disrespect for the principles of free collective bargaining, how can we expect any employer to do the right thing in negotiations?

Sadly, this is the latest chapter in what amounts to a very long book of right-wing governments and the business community attacking union rights and principles.

Why were CUPW members on rotating strikes to minimize disruption to the public, but locked out by Canada Post?

Then promptly blamed by the government for shutting down the postal service?

Because once again an employer wanted to introduce permanent two-tier wages, cut sick pay and get rid of a defined-benefit pension plan, but in this case needed government help to do it.

We see it in several long private sectors disputes as well – like that at Vale-Inco for a year or the US Steel lockout in Hamilton since November – over the same issue – concessions.

The political climate in Canada has changed against our labour movement – and may continue to change negatively in several provincial elections due this year.

At the Canadian Labour Congress, we recognize who supports labour and who doesn’t... in federal, provincial and municipal politics.

But while we work for change through political action, we also deal straightforwardly with all governments to advance labour’s agenda.

The CLC has been successful in obtaining important legislation from both the Conservative and Liberal minority governments of the past several years – from bankruptcy protection for workers to health and safety regulations.

It’s important that all parties and all politicians understand the concerns of Canadian workers.

We have managed to put labour’s agenda into play in the recent federal election, forcing every party to respond to the need for retirement security, for more economic stimulus and much more.

Put simply – workers cannot be ignored any longer by political parties, because we represent a large segment of voters – and we make that count.

But we still face challenging times ahead.

It’s one reason why the CLC was restructured at our May Convention to create a “Canadian Council” to give every affiliate a seat and voice at the table. It will meet for the first time in November.

We have broadened and strengthened representation of labour from across the country – because we need our solidarity now more than ever before.

One of the topics slated for discussion at the upcoming Canadian Council meeting is titled: “Building Public Support in a Hostile Political Climate.”

The CLC will be conducting public opinion polling over the summer, focus group testing messages and designing creative work to bring to the Council in November on ways we can build public support for workers' struggles in this hostile political climate.

We will also bring in international union leaders from Britain and the United States to talk about how their labour centrals and unions are responding to a political climate that allows big business and their political supporters to use the world economic crisis to roll back trade union rights, wages, pensions and benefits – and hide employer greed under the disguise of “austerity”.

Tell me, do you remember when teachers, nurses, postal workers, librarians, social workers, airline employees, electricians and plumbers crashed the stock market, wiped out banks, took billions in bonuses, trashed the world economy, and paid no taxes?

No, me neither.

But our opponents have managed to turn the tables and have workers fighting with each other for a shrinking slice of the pie, while they take all the money in the economy for themselves.

No one should underestimate the challenge we face.

Nor can the insatiable greed of big business be discounted.

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

And they have the nerve to now argue we need to cut back on services and wages in the public sector because of a deficit caused largely by their tax cuts, and by government spending to keep the financial crisis from pushing the global economy into a depression.

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

Corporations are saying our union 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!

In fact, 56% of all defined-benefit pension plans in Canada have only one plan member – the CEO!

78% of all defined-benefit pension plans in Canada have less than 10 plan members – the CEOs buddies in upper management.

I know some of your locals have been trying hard to organize Shaw Cable workers, and I hope you are very successful.

Interestingly, 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.

Not $16,000 a month.

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 surprise when Shaw Cable says they can’t afford to pay workers better wages and benefits?

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 business and their friends in the Conservative government tell you we can’t afford to improve the Canada Pension Plan so our kids will have a decent pension when they retire after a lifetime of work – it’s simply because they don’t want to.

When you add up all the attacks on workers – the sad truth of the matter is this – Canadians are being played with a bait and switch game.

The gap between the rich and the rest of us is widening at a level not seen since the early 1900s.

It's been 30 years of wage stagnation for the middle class while the richest 0.1% – those with annual incomes of $1.5 million – have more than doubled their share of the nation's wealth.

They are receiving the lion's share of the benefits of the Conservative government's tax initiatives.

This government had to be dragged kicking and screaming during the recession to temporarily provide better employment insurance benefits for those who lost their jobs.

Yet in the election campaign, they promised income splitting that will overwhelmingly reward already well-off families.

To steer Canadians away from the issue of growing inequality, corporations, their think tanks, politicians and the media have stirred up envy instead.

Envy between workers themselves.

Private sector workers against public sector workers.

Non-union workers against union workers.

We've been framed by our opponents who, in the wake of a financial crisis caused by an unregulated market economy, unscrupulous investment scams, greed and fraud, see opportunity to roll back workers' hard-won gains.

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.”

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.

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

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 governor of Wisconsin hasn’t gone that far!

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

The politics of class envy is rearing its head but it is being played against us, sisters and brothers.

The richest in our society have been very successful in turning class envy on its head so we will ignore how they are getting ahead and we are standing still.

As one writer recently wrote "trying to forment class envy against postal workers and other public servants should be seen for what it is – an attack on democratic values and democracy itself."

We have to be smarter than we have in the past in fighting these threats to workers and their 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 the CLC Convention in May 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.

We can ensure our children and our grandchildren have a good start in life, and will enjoy a standard of living equal to or better than the standard of living that great unions – like the IBEW and their members built with their sweat and their knowledge.

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

We need your help.

We need every union members' help to get these simple messages across.

Lifting up our standard of living is a good thing.

Being in a union means earning a decent wage so that we can buy a home, a car, raise a family, take a vacation, put the kids through college, and after a lifetime of work, be able to retire in dignity.

We can’t as a society – and we especially can’t as a labour movement – tell our kids that they don’t deserve the same standard of living as we have enjoyed for ourselves.

What kind of a world would that be if we accepted such a terrible notion?

And yet that’s what many employers and governments are telling all of us.

Nonsense! We have to fight back.

But as Allan Greg said to us at our CLC Convention ‘we have to stop leading with our chins.

We have to work together, using our great abilities and influence as a labour movement to not give up and to win the big prize.

I believe we can achieve retirement security improvements for all Canadians through an expanded Canada Pension Plan.

And we can convince Canadians that every worker, union and non-union alike, deserves a living wage.

You know, labour has always done best, has always had its greatest support, when our arguments have spoken to the interests of all workers: dignity, rights, a voice in determining the conditions under which every worker will work.

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.