Presented by Ken Georgetti on Tuesday, 27 April 2010

Thanks to Brother Ken Neumann for inviting me – Ken is an old friend and a great leader in our labour movement.

I depend on Ken’s advice at the CLC – and the few times when I don’t follow it, I always get in trouble.

Your conference theme is very timely - “Building for Tomorrow’s Jobs” – but I’m tempted to say it’s a good thing you said “Tomorrow’s Jobs” because there really aren’t any jobs available today!

More seriously, unions today are facing big challenges – obviously with the terrible unemployment Canada is suffering from – but also in organizing, negotiating and in taking job action as our economy changes dramatically.

Labour must respond to this new reality – or labour will suffer badly.

Not that long ago, going to school for a few years and taking some trades training was enough for most Canadians to earn a decent living.

Growing up in Trail, B.C., I remember recruiters from the giant Cominco smelter approaching students in our high school – telling them to quit and come to work immediately ....for big money.

A new car, a first house and a union job for life – it was promised ....and delivered.

Il en a été de même pour bien des membres de la génération de nos parents – beaucoup de travail – pas beaucoup d’instruction nécessaire.

Mais tel n’est plus le cas, consœurs et confrères.

L’éducation – l’éducation permanente – est la nouvelle pierre angulaire de notre économie moderne.

Il s’ensuit que le mouvement syndical doit favoriser l’éducation, y compris la formation professionnelle et le recyclage, l’apprentissage et l’éducation permanente, en tant que facteur critique de notre survie.

Parce qu’un trop grand nombre d’emplois syndiqués disparaissent en raison des progrès technologiques.

How have times changed since unions first arrived in Canada?

Here’s one small example – what was the largest union in British Columbia in 1900?

The cigar makers union – producing them by hand in Kamloops!

We can all easily think of more recent occupations that have simply vanished – typographers and printers in newspapers for example.

In fact the world has changed dramatically in just the fifty-four years since the Canadian Labour Congress was founded.

It’s a world that is changing faster and faster with every innovation in the technological revolution – what once took days to receive now takes milliseconds – what once filled an entire library doesn’t even fill one of these [hold up blackberry].

It’s a world that is changing your members’ lives every day – at home and at work.

Today there are less workers and more technology in the steel, mining, lumber, manufacturing and auto making sectors – in almost all industries.

Today’s reality for workers not just the need for more education and training - it’s also Facebook, Twitter, the internet, Ipods, Ipads and Iphones.

So labour must use the tools of today in order to grow tomorrow.

Maybe we should invent an app for the Iphone – and call it the Iunion!

But what it means is we have to rethink how we do things, not only as unions, but also as central labour bodies – like the CLC.

Your union – my union – has been an important part of an ongoing review of the CLC and central labour bodies that the CLC convention delegates approved in 2008 - to ensure that what we do, and the services we provide, give you and your union the best value for your per capita dollars.

And I want to thank Ken Neumann, and all the district directors who are playing a valuable role in this examination of central labour bodies.

Because in this rapidly changing world we must continually look at ourselves and how we operate to make sure our efforts and resources are properly focused on the challenges our members face, and can respond to the changing nature of our work and our economy.

Like environmental concerns.

Who would have thought fifty years ago a focus on green jobs would be critical to unions.

Steelworkers are leading the way with its Blue-Green Alliance – this is an excellent example of what needs to be done in the best interests of our unions – and what must be done in the best interest of our environment.

Dealing with the overwhelming globalization of our employers is now mandatory – and unions must increasingly act together globally to succeed.

The Steelworkers are again leading the way – in Mexico with Los Mineros - the mineworkers union – and it’s leader Napoleon Gomez - who is exiled in Vancouver .

And in Colombia, the most deadly country in the world for labour activists – where the CLC and its affiliates are fighting the Canadian free trade deal with unions there.

Negotiations and job action are also far more challenging with globalization as powerful multinational corporate employers can squeeze workers and withstand the withdrawal of labour for indefinite periods.

Steelworkers know this from the ongoing Vale-Inco strike in Sudbury and the recently ended US Steel lockout in Lake Erie – which show the enormous need for labour to go international with campaigns against employers and use new strategies based on solidarity across all borders.

The Vale-Inco workers truly are on the frontline of this new reality – we all need to give them our full support – because their victory is crucial for all of organized labour – here in Canada and around the world.

And make no mistake, sisters and brothers – the Steelworkers at Vale Incoe will win this fight!

We will still be standing tall and proud long after this corporate monster has disappeared.

Today’s dramatically changed economy has also made organizing workers more difficult than ever.

Decentralized, small workplaces and the high turnover of workers make union drives costly, frustrating and time-consuming.

Tous ces défis rendent l’action politique absolument indispensable.

Nous devons faire élire à tous les paliers des gouvernements qui défendront les intérêts des travailleurs et travailleuses plutôt que favoriser la cupidité des entreprises.

C’est le seul moyen d’obtenir de meilleures lois, une législation anti-briseurs de grève et les règles sur la santé et la sécurité ainsi que les programmes sociaux dont nous avons besoin au Canada.

À cette fin, les syndicats doivent aider à faire élire des représentantes et des représentants plus favorables aux travailleuses et travailleurs. En conjuguant nos efforts, nous y arrivons.

Across Canada over 800 mayors, councillors and school trustees have been elected through the efforts of the CLC, our affiliates and our local labour councils – who endorse and support candidates in our communities.

We have also enjoyed increasing success – with the Steelworkers leading again – in electing more NDP MPs in labour-targeted ridings in the last federal election.

There is no easy way to do all this – its hard work and it takes a lot of time.

But getting representatives elected is only one part of political action – lobbying and putting the heat on all parties is essential to getting legislation that meets workers’ needs.

It can be done – we’ve proven it in Canada.

And Steelworkers – are you tired of hearing it yet? – led the way along with the Canadian Labour Congress in getting the historic Westray Act passed by Parliament to allow criminal prosecution of those responsible for workplace deaths, including corporations.

But despite this historic legislation, we cannot let up on our efforts to make employers pay for their negligence.

There has rarely been a charge, let alone a conviction, under the Criminal Code since the Westray law was enacted.

In fact, just last month, Steve Hunt and District 3 had to file a private prosecution before a Justice of the Peace in British Columbia, against Weyerhaeuser, because the BC government refused to lay a criminal charge in the death of Lyle Hewer.

So tomorrow when we pause to remember those killed on the job – like Lyle, and here in Toronto the four workers killed on Christmas Eve last year, we also need to send a clear message to governments.

Enforce the law.

And a clear message to companies that put workers in danger.

Kill a worker – go to jail!

Our advocacy in other areas has also gained results.

Thanks to lobbying and applying political pressure, the CLC has been successful in recent years in winning bankruptcy protection for workers and important health and safety improvements.

But our biggest challenge – and what will be our biggest success lies directly ahead – our goal of achieving significant pension and retirement security reforms in Parliament.

Sadly, the prospect of retirement is actually scaring most Canadians – they see ahead of them not their golden years but poverty fears.

And even more sadly, they are right to be worried.

Today more than 1.6 million Canadian seniors are living with incomes below $16,000 a year – what a shameful situation for the people who built this great country!

And because work and our economy is changing, with young people moving from job to job throughout their working lives, good workplace defined benefit pension plans are becoming harder to find.

And for unions, harder to negotiate.

In fact it’s a struggle to keep what we’ve negotiated for our security and the security of future generations – Steelworkers at Vale Inco know that too well.

So what is the answer?

Well it’s definitely not telling young people to put their money into RRSPs!

Only 1 in 4 Canadians even invested in RRSPs in 2008.

It’s no wonder RRSPs are scary - billions of dollars were lost in the financial meltdown caused by corporate greed and the failure of governments to regulate banks, financial institutions and corporations.

And with management fees in the range of 2-3% we sure know why the financial industry wants to protect their turf!

Meanwhile, the 38.5% of the workers who actually have pensions are under attack.

Employers are scrapping defined benefits pension plans and replacing them with defined contribution or RRSPs – which both have the same high risks as the markets.

What’s the answer from the banks and the financial “experts” like former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge?

Just save more money, they tell workers.

But how?!!

We’ve had 25 long years of wage stagnation – or worse – for workers.

Fortunately, the Canadian Labour Congress has a better plan – we want to expand Canada Pension Plan benefits phasing in over 7 years a small increase in premiums that would result in, because of its size and management efficiencies, a doubling of the maximum benefits to $1635 a month.

That would raise the basic pension floor for all workers from a poverty level of $12,000 a year to better, more liveable $20,000.

Les raisons en sont claires : le Régime de pensions du Canada est universel, il prévoit des droits transférables parce qu’ils sont associés à la personne plutôt qu’à l’emploi et il s’applique à 93 % des travailleuses et travailleurs.

Le RPC est un régime à la fois à prestations déterminées ET à cotisations déterminées, ce qui répond aux besoins tant des travailleurs et travailleuses que des entreprises.

The reasons are clear – the Canada Pension Plan is universal, it’s portable – it goes with you, not your job – and it covers 93% of workers.

The CPP is both a defined benefit AND a defined contribution pension plan – suiting the needs of workers and companies.

It’s what corporate CEOs all have – certainty and security.

I mean, did you know that an astonishing 50% of all pension plans in Canada have less than 10 members?

Did you know that most of those plans are defined benefit plans with guaranteed lucrative benefits for the corporate elite?

The corporate bosses sure know what’s good for them – too bad they want to eliminate it for us.

The CPP would make a far better plan for younger workers – but it would also benefit older workers – in just 7 years it would add $29,000 retirement benefits in their overall CPP nest egg.

The CLC plan is achievable – we have had it costed by Bernard Dussault – the former chief actuary for the plan, who says so.

For employers with existing pension plans there would be no additional costs.

For employers without pension plans there would indeed be modest cost increases but a Compass Poll last year found that a strong majority of business leaders actually support expanding the CPP!

That’s not all we need to get done – we need an immediate 15% increase to Guaranteed Income Supplement benefits in order to lift those 1.6 million seniors out of the poverty they are now trapped in.

And it would only cost $1.12 billion – that just 6.2% of the $18 billion our government currently spends subsidizing RRSPs through the tax system – and yet it could lift all seniors out of poverty.

We also need federal pension insurance – to protect our workplace plans.

We insure our lives, our homes, our vehicles and our jobs – but not our pensions!

So sisters and brothers - this is our time – our moment to make the most sweeping positive change seen in Canada since Tommy Douglas introduced Medicare in Saskatchewan and transformed the nation.

It’s time to protect every worker in Canada so they can retire with dignity and security.

And I know that with your strong support – we can do it – we can win!

Merci.

Thank you for listening and have a great conference!