Presented by Ken Georgetti on Friday, 14 August 2009

(Check Against Delivery)

Chers amis, consoeurs, confrères, partisans néo‑démocrates – c’est un honneur pour moi de vous transmettre les voeux de solidarité des dirigeants et des 3,2 millions de travailleuses et de travailleurs membres du Congrès du travail du Canada.

Friends, sisters, brothers – fellow New Democrats - it is my honour to bring you greetings of solidarity from the Officers and the 3.2 million workers who are members of the Canadian Labour Congress.

And let me just say how great it is to be in NDP Country!

And at a time of economic gloom and doom, let me start by trying to cheer you up a little with some very good news.

Conrad Black is staying in jail – and he’s not getting out anytime soon!

This corporate criminal, this convicted fraud artist, this felon who obstructed justice – has lost his last chance at getting bail before an appeal hearing on his six-year sentence.

Doesn’t it feel good just hearing these words - Conrad Black in jail?

Don’t you feel better already?

More good news – Bernie Madoff – the biggest corporate criminal in world history – is in jail.

And when Madoff finishes his sentence he’ll be 221 years old.

Bye-bye Bernie!

But there’s some bad news in all of this – both Black and Madoff were convicted of corporate crime in the United States.

Here in Canada, corporate crime is rampant – but justice is absent.

Apparently Stephen Harper wants to increase minimum sentences for corporate fraudsters.

But not one corporate executive has yet gone to jail in Canada for ripping off pension funds or people’s RRSPs.

Mr. Harper, you have to actually charge and convict them before you can sentence them.

But even without criminal activity, one heck of a lot of money sure just disappeared – and at the same time that corporate CEO’s gave themselves huge bonuses.

And it even happened with our public sector pension funds.

The Public Service Pension Investment Board suffered a massive loss of $9 billion last year – and still six top executives were paid nearly $4 million in bonuses!

Bonuses for what? Because they didn’t lose $10 billion? This is crazy!

And not one corporate executive has yet done any jail time for killing workers on the job – despite ample evidence that they allowed unsafe conditions that led to injuries and deaths.

The Canadian Labour Congress agrees completely with the Stephen Harper Conservative government on one thing – it’s time to crackdown on crime.

But we disagree on the priority – it should be to crack down on the corporate crime wave that is ripping off not just our jobs, our pensions and RRSPs – but also taking workers’ very lives!

It’s time for action in Ottawa to stop corporate crime and I know that Jack Layton and our NDP caucus are the only real cops in town!

In fact, they’re the only real Opposition in town!

It’s time for Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff to stop treating corporate criminals like they were the Untouchables!

Get tough! Throw those responsible for workers’ deaths in jail!

The legislation is already there – the Westray Act makes it a crime to allow deadly workplaces – now we need some successful prosecutions to show business leaders that we mean business when it comes to protecting workers’ lives!

Oui mes amis, cette assemblée se déroule à un moment critique.

Lorsque vous délibérerez et débatterez des politiques, je vous demande de considérer une série de circonstances précises.

Yes friends, this convention comes at a critical time.

As you deliberate and debate policy, I want you to consider a clear set of circumstances.

Record levels of unemployment, with nearly a million workers losing their jobs.

Seniors seeing their retirement dream turn into a nightmare as pension payments and benefits are dramatically cut.

An enormous world-wide financial crisis caused by the greed of investment funds, banks and speculators – greed allowed to run wild because of a lack of government regulation and enforcement.

Corporate executives who celebrate like Roman emperors, illegally spending company money on personal expenses.

A do-nothing right-wing Canadian federal government - aided and abetted by several right-wing provincial governments – that fails to respond to the economic crash.

A Conservative Party Prime Minister who ignores the tremendous job losses and suffering of the Canadian people.

Public services slashed just at the time they are most needed.

A portrait of Canada in 2009?

No, that’s a description of Canada in the 1930s – the Great Depression.

But whether it’s Prime Minister R.B. Bennett or Stephen Harper, the similarities are so stunning as to take your breath away.

In 1932 the response of unions, progressives, farmers and others to this disaster was clear – to create the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation – the CCF – the predecessor of the New Democratic Party.

The CCF was urgently needed because of Canada’s economic crisis – and because the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party had no answers for working people and no willingness to take on corporate power.

I argue that today, just as in the 1930s, working people need the CCF’s successor, the NDP, in exactly the same way.

And I also argue that today it is critical for the NDP to take on the reckless and unregulated corporate power that has taken the world to the brink of economic disaster.

Ce ne sont pas des temps où des mesures fay-ble et des étapes sans conviction qui ray-u-cer-ront à répondre aux véritables besoins des Canadiennes et des Canadiens ordinaires.

Because, my friends, greed is winning in this country, greed is winning.

And greed… must… be… stopped.

“Power has become more and more concentrated into the hands of a small irresponsible minority of financiers and industrialists – and to their predatory interests, the majority are habitually sacrificed.”

Does that last line ring true?

I think it does – but it comes not from me but directly out of the CCF’s Regina Manifesto in 1932.

Am I saying we need to nationalize the banks and key industries, as the CCF argued?

I’m tempted to argue that we have already have got a good start – by putting General Motors into public ownership – and that through our union pension funds we effectively do own much of the means of production – but the reality is that we need new ideas and new approaches for new circumstances.

And without question we absolutely must regulate and control the corporations, banks, hedge funds and investment houses that are literally attacking Canada.

Workers from coast - to coast - to coast - are getting hammered by companies.

Auto industry workers, airline workers, public sector workers, workers everywhere – are being forced to take pay cuts, to take pension reductions, to take benefit cuts, to take unpaid holidays, to take fewer hours of work, all to help struggling corporations in this tough economy!

And then there are people like the former Encana CEO Gwyn Morgan – who publicly criticized autoworker pensions as being too rich while personally collecting a 1.8 million dollar a year pension.

The hypocrisy is breathtaking – but it’s typical of those corporate executives.

Workers are tired of taking it in the neck so that fat-cat executives can take them to the cleaners.

It’s time working people told corporate executives to take their bonuses and shove it.

Because workers aren’t going to take it anymore!

We have spent our entire lives paying our taxes to support public services and we are not going to let corporate executives take money needed for health care, education and social services to give it to multi-millionaires who have nearly destroyed our economy.

Any government money given to big business – every last dime – has to come with guarantees that it will be used to protect workers’ jobs – not to protect the fat bank accounts of irresponsible bosses.

With the help of Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty in Ottawa, Brad Wall in Saskatchewan and Gordon Campbell in BC, working people are once again being thrown to the wolves, as they were in the 1930s.

And that demands that the NDP demand forceful action, capture the nation’s attention and control the national agenda – just as its past CCF leaders did – Woodsworth, Coldwell and in Saskatchewan, Tommy Douglas.

We hope to gain power – but until then, we must exert influence on Canada’s public policy.

The reasons why are simply obvious -

Our economy is rewarding greed and ignoring need.

The Conservative government is punishing workers who spent their lives building Canada and it’s benefiting corporate CEOs and bankers and hedge fund managers – many who don’t even live in this country.

And it gets worse - Statistics Canada figures show that only 50% of the 1.6 million unemployed Canadians today are receiving EI – and yet the EI surplus now stands at a staggering $57 billion!

Yet Prime Minister Harper says we have – and I quote – “a very generous employment insurance system.”

Any more generous and no one would be collecting EI!

That’s why we need a strong and mobilized New Democratic Party caucus in Ottawa led by Jack Layton!

That’s why we must force action by Parliament on behalf of working Canadians!

Because we haven’t spent all of our working lives as union members building job security, earning a decent pension to retire on and fighting for labour rights to make our workplaces fair and safe places to make a living – we haven’t done all that to see it just thrown away in a moment by this economic crisis.

And we haven’t built a better Canada for all workers – non-union and union – simply to let a bunch of greedy, reckless and downright stupid corporate CEOs and hedge-fund owners ruin our country for everyone else.

Ordinary Canadians didn’t create this economic rip-off – big business did – and who was driving the get-away car?

Right-wing governments like Stephen Harper’s that refused to regulate our financial markets!

These corporations are completely, utterly, and shamelessly out of control!

And we have to put a stop to it now – and never let it happen again.

Let me leave you with just one idea of many for the NDP to champion – the dramatic need to ensure that every Canadian can retire in dignity and with security after a lifetime of work.

The Canadian Labour Congress is calling on our country to not just increase but to double Canada Pension Plan benefits for every Canadian over the next 7 to 10 years.

Make no mistake - this is a practical and affordable proposal that would not only significantly improve the lives of the hard-working people who built this great country – but it would also stimulate our economy as seniors who have more money to spend in their communities.

These are the kind of positive, popular and powerful ideas that our New Democratic Party must advocate – and must demand action on.

That’s because the New Democratic Party – like the CCF before it in time of economic crisis – must demand that we transform our economy from one based on greed to one based on need.

So I ask you to join with me, with the CLC’s 3.2 million members to fight for a new and fair economy that benefits not just the wealthy.

Thank you for listening and have a great convention!