Presented by Ken Georgetti on Monday, 27 April 2009

Thank you Al for that very warm welcome.

I am very pleased to be here and to bring greetings to you on behalf of the Canadian Labour Congress and our 3.2 million members.

Last year we marked the 20th anniversary of the formal partnership agreement between the Canadian Labour Congress and the United Way of Canada.I’m proud of that partnership and our history of working together to support those in need and to build our communities.

But you know, the roots of our support for the United Way’s across this country go back further than that signed piece of paper 20 years ago – they go back to the 1930s and the depths of the Great Depression – a time when workers and their families were dislocated and communities were devastated.A time when failed government policies and the excesses of corporate greed affected the livelihoods of so many of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents – whether they lived here in Canada or around the world.

Some things just don’t seem to change.

I don’t have to tell you that we again find ourselves in very hard times – this is an economic crisis.You see it every day in your work in your communities.

Almost every day I receive an e-mail from someone crying out for help.

Tom from New Brunswick who, after paying EI premiums his whole working life, is 60 hours short of being able to receive the benefits he needs to live.Rick from Manitoba, whose son is trapped in an unfair EI system – one that makes him work 200 more hours just to qualify for EI benefits because he is new to the labour market.

Or Shannon from Hamilton. She has four children, one of whom is physically and developmentally disabled. Now laid off from Stelco, Shannon knows she can’t live on employment insurance. Even if she could, she knows the benefits will run out and the good-paying jobs that can help support her family are scarce in her community.

I hear from elderly people – who after a lifetime of contributing to the wealth of their former companies are now worried about their pensions and how they will pay for expensive medications.

As we bleed jobs, our communities suffer with us – tax dollars are reduced, while the demand for service increases.

Beyond this, we’re seeing human misery, with increases in anxiety and depression in the hardest- hit communities.

The demands on you and the work you do will only increase as we struggle to help those being affected by this crisis.

So, what do we do?

Your 2002 vision statement tells us the approach we need to take.

We need “to improve lives and build communities by engaging individuals and mobilizing collective action.”

That means helping people who need help right now.

But it also means getting to the root of the problem and finding solutions.

The number of people who are being affected, and are going to be affected by this crisis means we need to think bigger and we need to work harder together to push our governments to take action.First, it means pushing for greater economic stimulus and protection for laid-off workers.

Second, we need to fix the broken employment insurance program for laid-off workers.

Too many people losing their jobs are not qualifying for benefits to help them through this recession. And that means cities are left to pick up those falling through the cracks.Third, our government needs to get serious about creating and supporting Canadian jobs.

The federal government must invest directly to save jobs in hard-hit industries.

But the government must also develop strategies and investments to support cultural industries, environmental and technology, renewable energy and other promising industrial sectors of the future.Fourth, it means protecting pensions and ensuring every person can retire in dignity after a lifetime of work.

We need to increase Canada Pension Plan benefits to protect today's retired and reduce reliance on RRSPs which are too vulnerable to the whims of the market.It means taking on the banks over credit interest rates – especially credit card interest rates that are pushing vulnerable people further and further into debt as they turn to credit cards for the basic necessities of life like food.

Finally, it means maintaining our valued systems of health care, post-secondary education, training, infrastructure programs and public services and social programs.I know some of you are uncomfortable to hear me say we need to push our governments and work for these things.

But, this is not about partisan politics.

This is about building for our future, our children’s future, and our grandchildren’s future.

As a parent and a grandparent, I worry about the kind of society we are leaving to them, the kinds of communities we are building for them.
Will we move forward together, or will we force people to fend for themselves?

This economic crisis is an opportunity for us to really learn from the lessons of the past, to work together not only for those in need, but to change things for the better for our families, our communities and their futures.

Let’s find ways to work even more closely together during this time of economic turmoil, to improve lives and build communities.
I believe we are Stronger Together.

Thank you for the work that you do and I wish you a successful conference.