CONVENTION

CLC President
hammers Liberals
on jobs record

Canadian Labour Congress President Bob White
brought greetings from the national labour body to
the national convention and gave his speech fol-
pe the nominations for national officers of the

He acknowledged that this it is an important
time in history for the union and thanked Brother
Gerry Stoney for his years of service to the labour
movement, as a local union activist, Labour Coun-

cil President and activist, B.C. Federation of
Labour officer, activity at all levels of the New De-
mocratic Party, National President of the I.W.A.
ana fepgmmber of the Executive Committee of the

At an Executive Committee meeting of the
C.L.C. a week earlier, White recommended that
there should be a seat held on that top committee
for Brother Stoney’s successor if the next I.W.A.
National President wants to fill it.

Brother White stressed that the I.W.A. must re-
main a strong and united union and urged the
union’s membership to come together behind the
new leadership to make sure it continues to play
an important role in the labour movement.

White then devoted a large part of his speech to
the issue of unemployment in the country.

“We live in a world today, quite frankly, that re-
wards greed and layoff and discharges in many
cases, more that it rewards jobs creation and
growth,” said White. “Time after time corporate
executives of international corporations, because
they decide to restructure their organizations and
cut thousands of jobs, result in major increases for
them(selves) because the share prices go up in
their corporations.”

He said that wealth is being concentrated in
fewer hands and that workers in lower and middle
incomes are being told, in spite of the wealth, that
they have to do with less.

The C.L.C. President said that, in the province of
Ontario, half of unemployed workers are ineligible
for unemployment insurance.

He said that official unemployment has been at
over 9 percent for 72 months, which has not been
seen since the Depression.

“So in spite of all of the talk about deficit reduc-
tion, all of the talk about interest rates and social
Spending, the number one problem in the country
is jobs, good jobs for workers at decent incomes,
and we've got to demand that is a priority all
across the country,” he said.

“We are not prepared to say to those who want
to take us back 60 years that we're going to buy
that agenda and dismantle the important social
and economic benefits,” said White. “We have got
to say to them (that) our fight is to build on what
was done in the past...”

e B.C. Federation of Labour President Ken Georgetti praised Brother Stoney's involvement in supporting
the NDP throughout his life as a trade unionist.

° CLC President Bob White

White said the C.L.C., along with its allies, must
put forth its agenda for creating jobs including
public infrastructure and investment, interest rate
and inflation policy. The C.L.C. is pressuring the
federal government to set targets for job creation.

He commended B.C. Premier Glen Clark for set-
ting targets on creating jobs in the forest industry.

“Unless you set some targets and go to work on
it, it’s not going to happen, and the federal Liberals
have got to start setting some targets for jobs and
reduction of unemployment all across the coun-
try,” said White.

The C.L.C.’s action plan includes an upcoming
conference on jobs and the Canadian economy,
which will also reach out to youth and unorga-
nized workers.

Federal NDP calls
for tax reform

Federal NDP Leader Alexa McDonough was a
featured speaker at this year’s national convention
where she used part of her speech to rip into the
federal Liberals and the other federal opposition
parties over their positions on taxes.

In mid-October the Federal NDP launched a fair
taxes campaign which calls for a fair and progres-
sive taxation system in Canada and greater taxes
on the corporate elite.

She said that the opposition Reform and Conser-
vative parties are campaigning early on the plat-
form of cutting taxes.

“And politicians like Preston Manning and Jean
Charest are running around the country whipping
out their tax breaks and showing them off every
chance they have,” said Ms. McDonough. “Who are
these guys kidding, anyways?”

“The truth is that they're pushing for even high-
er taxes on middle class and working families, and

every time these guys propose a tax cut it benefits
high income earners and big corporations,” she
said.

The NDP Leader said that the federal Liberal
Party is presiding over an unfair tax system that
gives tax benefits and breaks to the most prof-
itable companies and individuals in Canada.

Up-to-date figures from Statistics Canada reveal
that, in 1995, over $17 billion in corporate profits
went untaxed.

“Because the fact of the matter is...we have a
federal government that has no problem telling a
child in Newfoundland that our country doesn’t
have the resources to ensure a healthy diet for that
child,” she said. “...No problem telling forestry
workers that you have to keep paying into the UI
fund, although you probably won't be able to draw
benefits when you're out of work through no fault
of your own. And yet that very same government
hands out the lowest,corporate taxes in the indus-
trialized world, without jobs or any other econom-
ic benefit to Canadians.”

McDonough said that “if low corporate taxes
were the key to creating jobs we’d have so many
jobs in this country, we wouldn’t know what the
hell to do with them all.”

She said that its time for the banks and other
corporations to knuckle up their fair share of tax-
es, starting with the next federal budget “so that
governments will begin putting the everyday needs
of working people and middle class families front
and centre.”

“Every loop hole and every tax giveaway takes
money away from Medicare, from education and
from other vital services,” she added.

The NDP Leader said that a Reform Party mem-
ber of Parliament for British Columbia is demand-
ing a two-tiered health care system for the coun-

try.

She asked I.W.A. delegates, who believed that
Reform would be a fresh voice in Ottawa, to think
about what has happened since the last Federal
election in 1993.

“We need to come out of the fair taxes campaign
absolutely committed to doing what needs to be
done to re-establish the New Democratic Part as a
serious political force in the Parliament of Canada
and in the politics of this country.”

Federal NDP Leader Alexa McDonough

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LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER 1996/13