Presented by Ken Georgetti on Tuesday, 7 September 2010

(Check against delivery)

Sisters, brothers – Solidarity greetings from the labour movement – the folks who brought you the weekend!

As 3.2 million members of the Canadian Labour Congress celebrate Labour Day, it’s good to remember – there was a time when workers never had any weekends off, let alone stat holidays for long weekends like this one.

So no matter how much we accomplish together to make working lives better, we must never take what we have for granted – or we just might lose it.

Sisters and brothers, we’ve achieved remarkable progress through our solidarity – and through our commitment to social justice.

But today I am excited to tell you that we are on the verge of another significant breakthrough for all working Canadians.

We are very close to gaining dramatic improvements in retirement security.

And we’ve done it the old-fashioned way – by going out and changing the government’s mind.

The CLC, affiliated unions, workers, seniors and others have all come together to call for action on retirement security – and we are winning.

The majority of provincial governments and the federal government now agree to what the CLC called for last Labour Day – to expand the Canada Pension Plan so that no worker can be forced to retire into poverty and despair.

It’s not yet a done deal.

And those governments have not endorsed the complete CLC plan to double pension benefits over 7 years.

But they have agreed our approach of expanding the Canada Pension Plan is the right one.

And they have rejected the banks and corporations that called for more tax cuts and more RRSPs.

The reasons we are winning are obvious.

First, how can any government defend the fact that 1.6 million seniors are living below the poverty line in this rich country?
It’s shameful – and it must end!

That’s why we also call on the government to immediately increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement benefits by 15% – to lift all seniors out of poverty.

Second, we mobilized our members.

Workers forced politicians to listen to our concerns.

Elected government representatives at every level heard from us loud and clear – in meetings, letters to the editor, talk radio, blogs, Twitter – we were there with a message – fix retirement security now!

And just this past June the country’s Finance Ministers agreed.

They decided to expand the Canada Pension Plan.

It’s about time.

And it’s about fairness.

But we aren't finished yet – some big business groups and right-wing media are trying to stop our success.

They have launched a desperate campaign.

They call expanding the Canada Pension Plan a “payroll tax” that kills jobs – what utter nonsense!

We already know what kills jobs – out of control, unregulated big business!

We’ve already seen what happens when governments follow the bad advice of big business – an economic crisis.

Now it’s time for good advice – from the majority of people who are working Canadians.

Because when all workers can retire with sufficient income – everyone benefits.

But these big businesses don’t care – they want to protect the windfall profits of those who benefit from a system that doesn’t work for all of us – just for them.

We can’t let that happen.

So as we celebrate Labour Day, let us rededicate ourselves to social justice.

Let us work hard to push our elected representatives to move quickly to expand the Canada Pension Plan and fix retirement security – once – and for all!

Thank you and have a great Labour Day!