Presented by Marie Clarke Walker on Wednesday, 19 October 2011

(Check against delivery)

Sisters and Brothers, I am pleased to bring you greetings of solidarity on behalf of President Ken Georgetti, our other Officers and 3.2 million workers who are members of the Canadian Labour Congress.

And thank you to your President, Larry Hubich, and the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour’s officers for inviting me here today.

It’s always good to be back in Saskatchewan.

And I’m particularly excited to be here because in less than three weeks your province faces a milestone election.

As we all know, New York’s Wall Street financial district is currently being occupied by protestors demanding an end to economic inequality.

But I’m hoping that after November 7, the Brad Wall occupation of the Saskatchewan Legislature will finally come to an end.

Because when it comes to promoting inequality, to bending over backwards to big business and to hurting the interests of working people, it’s clear that Brad Wall’s street... is a dead end!

And I'd like to thank the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour and all the affiliates for their work on the labour issues campaign in this election, and all those affiliates whose members are working to elect an NDP government in Saskatchewan.

I know the hard work and effort put in by the affiliates to support this campaign will no doubt be seen at the ballot box.

I also want to recognize the SOS − Save our Saskatchewan Crowns Campaign.

I have to say that your commitment to keeping the issue of privatization on the forefront for Saskatchewan people is so important, and the success of this campaign proves just that.

If there’s ever been a time to mobilize – it’s today and for the rest of this campaign.

Whatever the activities of each of your unions during this election, the common outcome and objective has to be that the voices of our members will be heard through the ballot box on November 7th.

Why is that?

The people of Saskatchewan need to send a strong message to Ottawa – that this conservative brand is done and Stephen Harper won't have a provincial ally here!

Sisters and brothers, I come from Ottawa today with a strong message – be very, very afraid of the new majority Conservative government.

This is a time of grave concern for workers in every province and territory, because Prime Minister Stephen Harper is no longer restrained by minority government status.

That means it’s not just hunting season in Canada this fall, it’s open season on unions, on working people, and on public services.

We at the Canadian Labour Congress believe it is no coincidence that the first Conservative MP’s Private Member's Bill is an attack on unions across the country.

BC Member of Parliament Russ Hiebert won a draw among all backbench MPs for the right to introduce the first Private Member's Bill.

Hiebert’s Bill is simply entitled Bill C-317 – An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act and then in brackets (labour organizations).

Hiebert claimed when introducing Bill C-317 that, and I quote: “Labour organizations play a valuable role in Canadian society, representing and defending the rights of workers to health and safety on the job and ensuring good compensation for the work that they do.”

That’s very good of Hiebert to say – perhaps he should tell Prime Minister Harper, who doesn’t seem to recognize that!

But the purpose of Bill C-317 isn’t to praise unions – it instead would force all unions, local unions, labour councils, federations of labour in Canada like yours and the Canadian Labour Congress to post online all their financial information, through a 26-page filing with the Canada Revenue Agency.

As Brother Georgetti immediately said, this is a solution where there is no problem.

All of us here today know that unions’ financial records are available to any union member who requests them.

And we all know that our unions have healthy, democratic governance that allows questioning of our elected officers at every level and full scrutiny of finances.

So what is the real purpose of Russ Hiebert’s legislation?

Which member of the Canadian public really wants to know who cleans the CLC's offices, or how much the contractor that clears the snow in the SFL's parking lot gets paid – which is the level of financial detail this Bill says unions must disclose?

Let’s be blunt – this is a shot across the labour movement’s bow, an unmistakable warning from a right-wing government that doesn’t like unions.

Already we’ve seen the Conservative government legislatively intervene on the side of management at both Canada Post and Air Canada in June, and threaten Air Canada flight attendants again this month.

In less than four months this government has turned upside down over fifty years of precedent of the government's role in mediating federal labour disputes.

The Conservatives have muzzled federal scientists from speaking publicly about important issues, they’ve bullied churches and non-profit organizations over what projects they fund and now they want to crack down on unions.

Well let me tell you – this labour movement will not be silenced by Stephen Harper!

The unions in this country have fought for labour rights in the last three centuries and we are not frightened by any government.

Joining a union and engaging in collective bargaining is a democratic right in this country and no one is going to take it away from us!

And it's all the more reason why union members and their families need to be even more vocal and politically active – because only when these conservative politicians feel their jobs are at stake will they take notice.

What we really need to talk about are some of the real issues that threaten Canada and ordinary workers – the serious issues that the Conservatives desperately do not want the public to consider.

Once again, the world has been rocked by another stock market meltdown – the 5th in just 20 years.

The reason is the same each time – the insatiable greed of the super-rich, including the CEOs who make more money in a half a day than your members make in a year.

The reason is governments like the Conservatives in Ottawa and the Saskatchewan Party here – who only listen to big business – and not working people.

These governments keep refusing to regulate financial markets to avoid such disasters.

And the results are also the same each time: the poor around the world pay the price for financial meltdowns caused by greed.

So millions of workers lose their jobs.

And billions of dollars in pension funds and retirement savings for ordinary people simply vanish.

You and I know this is all true – because it’s so obvious.

But big business around the world is very, very nervous right now.

That’s because one of their own has become a traitor to his class – the class of the super-rich.

Warren Buffett is the third wealthiest man in the entire world – personally worth $50 billion dollars.

And guess what Buffett said in August to governments around the world?

“Stop coddling the super-rich.”

That’s a direct quote.

Billionaire Buffett actually wants higher taxes imposed on the wealthy.

We may have to make Buffett an honorary officer of the Canadian Labour Congress!

“Brother” Buffett sounds pretty good to me!

Here’s the key thing Buffett said – and it applies to Canada as well as to the United States:

“While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks.”

Buffett should know – he makes $40 million a year.

But he only pays 17.4% of his income in taxes – that’s outrageous!

Not one person in this room pays that low an income tax rate!

But Warren Buffett isn’t the exception – he’s the rule – because the rich make money from money – not from an honest day’s work like your members.

We might foolishly think that in Canada we don’t let the rich get away with this kind of stuff.

Think again.

The head of one of Canada’s largest cable TV companies – Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw – recently retired at just 53 years old.

Shaw will collect a pension that pays him $16,000.

Not $16,000 a year.

That would be a lot more than the average Canada Pension Plan benefit of only $6,000 a year.

Not $16,000 a month. That would be $192,000 a year – or 4 times more than the average Canadian worker makes.

No, Jim Shaw will retire on $16,000 a day – every single day.

That’s $6 million a year – for the rest of his life.

He makes the maximum yearly Canada Pension Plan benefit every 17 hours!

And yet Shaw and his super-rich CEO friends tell the Canadian Labour Congress to forget about our plan to dramatically improve the Canada Pension Plan so all Canadians can retire with dignity and security.

My friends, the reality is simple – we are in a class war right now.

That war was quietly declared a long time ago by the super rich and big business against the ordinary working people who we represent.

It’s a war that we must win if our labour movement is to survive.

This is a diversionary war – a tactic designed to confuse us, to divide us and then to conquer us.

When big business and the right-wing tell us workers have to take big wage cuts and slash public services – it’s a lie.

When big business and the right-wing tell us Canada is going broke – it’s a lie.

Canada isn’t broke – it’s simply that the rich want to break our unions!

And when big business tries to pit union workers against non-union workers they are up to no good.

When big business encourages private sector unions to oppose public sector workers – they want to divide and conquer all union members.

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.

The truth of the matter is this – Canadians are being played… with a bait and switch game.

And unions have been framed by our opponents.

In Canada those responsible for the economic crisis are trying to blame the victims.

They want to roll back the hard-fought gains unions have made.

They particularly want to get rid of defined benefit pension plans, particularly those in the public sector, while avoiding expanding the Canada Pension Plan.

And we have to fight back.

We have to be smarter in fighting these threats.

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.

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.

And that’s one of the key ways we are going to get out of this mess and win the war being waged against us.

Internationally, the CLC is also taking on those who oppose workers and their legitimate unions.

I have some great news for those of you who are having representation battles with the Christian Labour Association of Canada – CLAC.

On Monday, the Governing Council of the International Trade Union Confederation – representing unions around the world – made a major ruling against CLAC at the request of the CLC.

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

Therefore the ITUC has suspended CLAC from membership in the ITUC.

The international trade union movement knows what CLAC is up to in Canada.

At the International Labour Organization, we have also won victories − like the positive decision for workers on Saskatchewan's Bills 5, 6 and 43 last year.

But sisters and brothers, we have to redouble our efforts on political action here at home – like you are doing in next month’s Saskatchewan election.

Because we all know that we face challenging times ahead.

But the key to our success is the same as it has always been for the labour movement – talk to our members.

We have to educate our local executives, activists and stewards to engage our members with our own message.

And we need every union member’s help to get these simple messages across:

“That lifting up our standard of living is a good thing.”

“That 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 our kids through college, and after a lifetime of work, be able to retire in dignity.”

Unions are the way we achieve all these great things – so we should publicly celebrate our unions and be proud of all we do – all that you do – for workers and for their families.

So when we talk to our members, when we fight fiction with facts, when we give them the strong message of the union advantage – then sisters and brothers, then we will win.

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