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¢ Canadian Labour Congress President Bob White said more unions are lining up to join.

CLC president says labour strength growing

Canadian Labour Congress President Bob White spoke to the I.W.A. convention and, in his speech, talked about organizing and the growing strength of the labour movement.

“I really believe fundamentally, and since I

have been a young person in the union, that there are two really important foundation blocks for the labour movement. One is educa- tion and the other is organizing,” he said. “If we don’t do the education in the labour movement im which our leadership at the grassroots level and membership understand the issues, not only to be able to deal with corporations, but to deal with the broad social and economic issues facing us and if we don’t organize (the unorga- nized), we can’t move ahead.”

White said the CLC is growing as large such as the Teamsters, the Painters, the Carpenters, the Labourers the Sheet Metal Workers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are coming back to the organization. A week before the convention, the alternate Cana- dian Federation of Labour folded.

The CLC has also received an application for affiliation from the Plumbers and Pipefitters which will bring in another 30,000 members.

In the past two years, Brother White said that two of the largest teachers’ federations in Ontario have signed up along with nurses from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. An application to bring in over 7,000 members of the Canadian Airline Pilots Association, is also in front of the

IAM Speakers

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Employer interference is the order of the day _

in the southern states where Rice works, and it may take up to 6 months to get a certification ballot.

The IAM, said Rice, now sends organizers in on three day “blitz” campaigns to sign up as many workers as possible over a Friday, Satur- day and Sunday. The organizers get to the workers and explain what the union is before the employers and their lawyers get a chance to work on them. As a result the success rate for campaigns in the IAM has risen dramatically.

But Rice said that there are still major prob- lems for union’s to get first contracts in the U.S. Company lawyers can delay over negotiations for months on end until a year passes and the workers can have a vote on whether or not to keep the union.

“You know, folks, if we don’t’speak in your country and my country for the everyday work- ing people, nobody will,” he said. “That’s the burden we have. That’s the opportunity we

have, because we can take that burden, turn it into an opportunity and change some lives for the better.”

Congress for consideration as affiliates.

“T believe these decisions are being made based on the reality of the economic and politi- cal times we live in, which says that everyone is affected by the attack that’s going on against working people, it doesn’t matter where you come from.” said White. “We’re living in a time in our society in a day which there’s more wealth being created than at any time in the history of the world.”

“At the same time as all of that wealth is being created, working people in all walks of life are feeling Hicasttinee insecure. Many fami- lies are working longer hours than they were a decade ago. Collective bargaining demands are difficult to make ...and a lot of times is about trying to hang on to what we’ve bargained for many years ago.”

“Poor kids come from poor families,” he said. “We have a problem with workers’ wages and benefits, and the politicians have got to be the blamed with their cuts for social programs and cuts for health care and holding down workers’ wages...the problem is there’s too much god- damn money being concentrated in the hands of a few and not enough being given to working

people and the poor all across this country.”

“That’s why I think a lot of people are saying that the labour movement is eal very impor- tant and we have to get back to forming one national labour movement all across the coun- try, because it doesn’t matter whether you are a woodworker, an autoworker, a person work- ing in McDonald’s, unemployed or working in the public sector, employers in many cases are still demanding cutbacks. Many governments across the country are legislating away gains and legislating away collective agreements.”

White said that some academics and politi- cians are saying the labour movement is irrele- vant.

“T just want to ask this question. If we’re so irrelevant, if the labour movement is not so important in our society, how come we have so many governments that bring in legislation that takes away labour legislation that we fought for so many years? How come they make it so difficult to organize?”

The CLC President said that the labour movement has to reach out to other groups in society and, ultimately, put some workers into power.

!.W.A. takes on 1,400 new members

Included as part of the National Officer’s report to this year’s national convention was a report from the Organizing Department. In the past fiscal year the I.W.A. brought in about 1,700 new members, up from 1,400 in the previ- ous year.

“There are other positive indications that we can look forward to greater success in the future,” noted the report, delivered by National First Vice President Neil Menard, officer respon- sible for organizing. “Not the least of these is the current awareness and hard work that all levels of our union continue to put into the orga- nization of new members.”

In Western Canada the best climate for orga- nizing will remain in British Columbia with favourable labour legislation, the report states. The NDP provincial government is currently undergoing a review of the Labour Code.

Despite the withdrawal of Bill 44, the union remains confident that a current review of the bill will help bring changes to assisting in the organizing of under-represented sectors of the workforce which are in mostly non-traditional areas for the I.W.A.

The union hope there will be changes to make it easier to negotiate a first contract and pre- serve hard-won certification and contract rights by having stronger legal provisions on succes- sorship rights.

The report noted that Local 1-425 and 1-425, in northern B.C., have launched major organiz- ing drives of large forest industry employers in

their jurisdictions. In September, Local 1-425 successfully organized the Riverside Forest Products sawmill in Williams Lake with 238 members.

In Alberta, Local 1-207 continues to organize in “one of the most unfavourable organizing jurisdictions in the country with advertising and promotion of the union.”

At convention time it was announced that a major campaign to organize the Louisiana Pacific oriented strand board plant in Swan River, Manitoba was defeated as workers voted 59 to 59 in a dead heat over unionization of the anti-union employer.

“The local union (Local 324) is determined that this particular operation of about 130-140 people is going to become I.W.A.,” said Brother Menard.

He also mentioned that in 1997 the Manitoba Conservative government of Gary Filmon passed “some of the most anti-union legislation this country has ever seen.”

“Bill 26, which came into effect in February of this year, makes it tougher to organize, easier for employers to interfere and grants unprece- dented right to employers to discipline striking workers,” said Menard.

In Saskatchewan Local 1-184 organized 125 workers at Clearwater Forest Products in Meadow Lake, making it a major success for the local union.

Continued on page twenty-three

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22/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1997