Category Archives: Organized Labour
News Leader Pictorial staff on strike in Duncan
Source: cowichanvalleycitizen.com
Twelve employees at the Cowichan News Leader Pictorial newspaper in Duncan took to the picket lines on Monday in a dispute over proposed changes to their pay structure.
The strike is about blocking the implementation of a two-tier wage system by management, said Unifor Local 2000 representative Peter McQuade.
Right now, employees’ wages increase over time through a classification system. Management is trying to eliminate the top wage classifications for any new employees coming in, McQuade said.
Employees voted 100 per cent in favour of strike action.
McQuade said it was possible the paper would not be able to put out an edition for Wednesday. He had no indication when the strike might be over.
Calls to the News Leader Pictorial’s editor and publisher were not returned Monday morning.
– See more at: http://www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com/news/news-leader-pictorial-staff-on-strike-in-duncan-1.1632965#sthash.QdORmcda.dpuf
CMG deeply disappointed by CBC Management blame game
Carmel Smyth, National President for the Canadian Media Guild says she is deeply disappointed that CBC vice president, Heather Conway, has seen fit to assign blame in advance of an investigation that she herself commissioned into the Jian Ghomeshi matter.
“One would have thought there would be enough respect for the process that she’d have the patience to await the findings of the investigation,” said Smyth commenting on tonight’s remarks by Conway on CBC’s As It Happens and The National.
Smyth says Conway makes pained efforts to exonerate management and its handling of the matter, while at the same time singling out one element and publicly observing, “it was not well handled.” “Is this not specifically what the independent investigator has been engaged to determine?” Smyth asks. “The real question is, what did CBC Management know and what did they do about it?”
What BC’s Public Sector Unions Got for ‘Labour Peace’
Source of Article: thetyee.ca
Five-year deals show scrounging for nickels and security is new reality.
These are strange days, indeed, for public sector unions. Big developments, not always happy ones, are everywhere. Yet the dearth of labour reporters and the collective yawns from editors and the public alike have combined to shine relatively little light on groundbreaking events that would have dominated front pages not so long ago when unions were considered important.
These days, it’s all business, all the time. Employees struggling collectively to improve their lot in life, or even just to hang on to what they have, is so last century. Cue the top 10, top 50, top 100 lists of corporations and their powerful executives. Cue the latest real estate blip. Cue record bank profits. Now that’s news!
In beautiful British Columbia, a series of astonishing tentative agreements were signed earlier this month covering more than 50,000 government employees, to scant fanfare. They are like no contracts in the history of public sector bargaining in this province. Snore. Few, apart from the Vancouver Sun, seemed to notice or care. But let this aging, ex-labour reporter hack drone on about why they are significant.
Sure to be benchmarks
The new deals are a virtually unheard of five years in length. In return for all that labour peace, union members will receive a grand pay hike of barely one per cent a year. Such are the tenor of the times, however, that one radio host nevertheless referred to them as “significant wage increases.”
Even more unusual, negotiations were concluded four months (!) before existing contracts were due to expire. That is certainly a first. Think of the savings on strike ballots….
And finally, there is the fascinating, added fillip of a bizarre, economic growth booster. The clause holds out the promise of top-up wage increases should the B.C. economy suddenly roar to life, responding, no doubt, to Christy Clark’s unwavering belief: If you close your eyes, click your heels and wish real hard, dreams can come true.
(I would have declared such a clause unprecedented, but a quick rummage through my personal archives confirmed my hazy recollection of a similar pig-in-a-poke deal in a BCGEU contract from 1982. Called an “economy recovery formula”, it provided points for increases in productivity, government revenue and inflation. There were also points if unemployment went down. Enough points would trigger a mid-contract raise. The end result, after all the fancy pencil-work, was a big fat doughnut for the union.)
These contracts are in addition to an earlier, tentative landmark agreement involving 17,000 members of the Health Sciences Association, one of the province’s three major health unions. Terms are similar.
These lengthy, ultra-modest settlements, covering a quarter of the provincial public sector, will inevitably serve as benchmarks for other negotiations. Even though the more militant BC Nurses Union and the ever-tough BC Teachers Federation have yet to begin bargaining, the contracts, if approved, are a big coup for a government obsessed with keeping costs low.
Still, it’s not hard to understand why union negotiators in B.C. opted for these long, cheap deals. They represent security. There are no rollbacks. Elsewhere, public sector unions are under heavy attack, their benefits and pensions a target for many governments. It’s in keeping with the race-to-the-bottom attitude that seems to believe forcing wages and pensions lower will somehow boost the economy. Hello? Scrounging for pennies, er nickels, is the new reality. Look around.
Public workers targeted across Canada
In oil-rich Alberta, where public sector strikes are already illegal, the government has moved to strip the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees of its right to binding arbitration as well. Even more draconian is a provision making union leaders liable for large fines if they even call for a strike.
This throwback to the reactionary, anti-union days of W.A.C. Bennett in British Columbia 50 years ago is brought to you by Premier Alison Redford. Yes, the same Alison Redford who once worked with Nelson Mandela to improve human rights in Africa. “He taught me that the best advice comes from people who have been working in the trenches,” said Redford, on the great man’s death. Hmm….
And in Ottawa, Treasury Board President Tony Clement continues on his merry, anti-union way, with barely a squeak of public concern. At a recent meeting with Clement, Robyn Benson, head of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, asked for union consultation on the government’s plans to gut their bargaining rights. She also requested the minister stop calling them “union bosses,” a pejorative term belying the fact labour leaders are democratically elected and responsible to their membership. Afterwards, Tony Clement, who supports right-to-work laws, tweeted that Benson wanted “co-governance with Parliament. Takes ‘union boss’ to a whole new level.” Thanks, Tony.
He is sponsoring legislation giving the government power to decide who can and can’t go on strike. It would also compel arbitrators to bring in wage settlements based on the government’s “ability to pay.” So much for free collective bargaining, even for mild, federal unions who hardly ever go on strike.
The media has tended to characterize this as “a battle” with labour. It’s hardly a battle when one side has all the guns and ammunition and the other side little more than the right to say “We object,” as their forces are mowed down.
Welcome to the new reality. It’s a funny old world.
CAW votes to merge with CEP union
Source: m.theglobeandmail.com
Canadian Auto Workers delegates have voted unanimously to merge with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, combining two of Canada’s largest private-sector unions.
The union said Wednesday all of the 1,000 delegates voted for the merger at the CAW’s constitutional and collective bargaining convention in Toronto. read entire story
Not Your Mom and Dad’s Labour Movement
Source: thetyee.com
Young workers prepare to re-shape unions for the 21st century.
They sign up new members, they organize picket lines and demonstrations, they conduct high school classes in labour rights and workplace safety, and they cook meals for fundraising events to send young workers on solidarity trips to Cuba, South Africa and Central America. One even came back from a vacation in Las Vegas with a tattoo declaring their commitment to the cause. (You’ll find out where in a minute.) Read entire story here
Conservatives launch new attack on unions with ‘grossly unfair’ public disclosure bill
CWA Canada is calling on members to help fight passage through Parliament of a private member’s bill that would introduce onerous reporting rules for unions that are not required of other dues-deducting organizations.
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) says Bill C-377 in its current form would be the “most costly and discriminatory bill faced by the labour movement” in this country.
Every labour organization and all unions, including locals, branches, councils, lodges, etc., would have to disclose detailed financial information, salaries, supplier contracts, loans, accounts receivables, investments, spending on organizing, collective bargaining, education, training, lobbying and all political activities. The information would be made public on a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) website.
“This bill is grossly unfair and hypocritical,” says CWA Canada Director Martin O’Hanlon. “It’s just plain wrong to single out labour groups for special scrutiny, especially when even taxpayer-funded MPs don’t disclose full details of their spending.
“This is nothing but yet another ideological Conservative attack on unions that comes right out of the Republican party playbook in the United States. No fair-minded Canadian should stand for this, regardless of what party they support.”
The CLC points out the bill is backed by such anti-union groups as the Fraser Institute, the Merit Shop Contractors and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business because they would have access to detailed information about everything a union spends money on and allow them to assess a union’s strength. The information, provided at taxpayer and union expense, can be used to threaten collective bargaining rights and organizing drives.
CWA Canada is urging its members to contact their MPs as soon as possible to let the government know that it’s wrong to single out labour groups for such scrutiny. The bill is currently at an early stage of proceedings in the House, with debate scheduled for today, March 13. A vote would likely occur next week; if passed, it would be referred to the Finance Committee for consideration and potentially public hearings.
The bill’s sponsor, Conservative MP Russ Hiebert, conforms to his party’s now standard practise of introducing legislation to deal with non-existent problems. A slick website that has been created in support of the bill (almost certainly at taxpayer expense) contains misleading and incorrect information, which the MP apparently hopes will be believed if it’s repeated often enough.
Although he acknowledges that unions already disclose financial information to their members in accordance with their own bylaws and provincial regulations, he seeks public disclosure because of “tax benefits these institutions receive” which he has pegged at $400 million a year.
There is not a shred of truth to that claim: Unions do not receive any public subsidy. It is workers and their families, not unions, who receive an income tax deduction related to their dues. The tax treatment of these workers is exactly the same as that for dues-paying members of the law societies, medical associations or employers who belong to industry associations.
Opposition House leader Joe Comartin called the proposed legislation “a frontal attack on the labour movement” when the bill was given second reading in February. The NDP MP said it would, in fact, threaten rights to privacy, association and freedom of speech.
The strategy behind similar, but less onerous, legislation in the U.S. was that “every dollar spent on disclosure and reporting” was a dollar not spent on other union activities, said Comartin.
While the website dismisses as negligible the expense to unions to assemble and report such information, the CLC estimates it would take the average local union — most of which are run by volunteers — 200 to 400 hours annually at a significant cost to their treasuries. Some estimates say it would add 20 per cent to the current costs, and for some of the pension funds, it would require them to file returns “the size of a large city’s phone book.”
Hiebert also glosses over the cost to taxpayers, which will amount to millions of dollars to create a massive database, related materials and hundreds of CRA staff to administer it all.
Local 2000 applies for certification at StarPhoenix
Source: mediaunion.ca
This morning CEP Local 2000 applied for certification of a new bargaining unit at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, a Postmedia-owned newspaper in Saskatchewan’s largest city.
The application covers all employees at the StarPhoenix, except those in the distribution department and some management personnel.
“This is great news for all Postmedia employees, union and non-union,” said Local 2000 Vice President Gary Engler, who has been helping out with the organizing campaign for the past month. “It shows that people are prepared to stand up for themselves despite all the industry woes. You can only push people so far before they fight back.”
The union submitted membership application cards from a significant majority of StarPhoenix employees in all departments except distribution to the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board. The proposed bargaining unit will have over 130 members.
The company will be given 10 days to respond to our application and sometime later the Board will conduct a vote. If a majority of employees vote yes to the union, the process for bargaining a first collective agreement will commence.
Local 2000 has created a website, www.cepatstarphoenix.ca, for the campaign.
“Congratulations to everyone who signed cards and helped out in the campaign,” said Engler. “We had a really good group of hard-working people who made the card-signing part of the campaign a tremendous success.
“But, it’s important to stay focused on our goal: gaining a strong voice in dealing with Postmedia or whoever is the next owner of the StarPhoenix. We have taken an important step, but it is only the first of many.”
JOB 1: 180 DEGREES
Organizer faces monumental task of growing the membership
Source: cwa-scacanada.ca
It’s day two on the job for Dave Bosveld and he can barely contain his enthusiasm for the monumental task ahead: Help to turn around the precipitous decline in union numbers across North America.
He begins as Organizing Director for CWA Canada by blazing trails in relatively unmarked territory.
Rather than wait for disgruntled workers to come to the union, he says, his goal is to have CWA Canada be proactive and select specific targets for organizing. It’s time that things were done differently, he says: “All unions are at a critical juncture. We need to change or die.”
Bosveld, 37, has been an activist for eight years and an organizer for four. He cut his union milk teeth from 2007 to 2009 as president of a local that represents 1,300 Bell Canada workers in the Toronto area. Last fall, he wrapped up a campaign to organize 1,600 workers at a Bell Mobility call centre that culminated in an application, which is now before the Canada Labour Relations Board along with Unfair Labour Practise charges that were filed in September.
Although the “resistance from that company (Bell) was incredible,” it only served to whet his appetite. When he was made aware of the CWA Canada position, he didn’t hesitate to go for it. “Good union jobs don’t come up often, especially full-time organizing,” he says.
It’s organizing that’s going to save unions, declares Bosveld. He notes there has been a lot of economic growth, such as an explosion in call centres operated by communication giants such as Rogers, Bell and Telus, and “we’re on the sidelines.”
It is important for a union to grow, says Bosveld, not just for financial reasons, but because it needs to become more powerful.
In his experience, the most common issue that comes up in a non-unionized workplace is fairness or rather, lack of it. Favoured treatment for family or friends is often a bone of contention. But other issues, such as pay, job security and hours — all of which can be addressed in a collective agreement — are major factors in a group of workers’ decision to seek a union’s help.
Bosveld says that, while the Web and social media are great tools for organizing and he intends to use them, he still favours “face-to-face and one-on-one meetings with workers.”
“It’s crucial,” he says, “to have two-way communication and encourage workers to understand that it’s about them and they have to build an organization that takes ownership of their issues.” What these people need, says Bosveld, is CWA Canada’s support as they create their own union.
He acknowledges that employers “clearly have the upper hand in North America” thanks to right-wing agendas and regulations that favour business, all of which has a negative impact on workers.
Bosveld also knows that he’s up against anti-union sentiment that is characterized by an attitude of ‘I don’t have that so you shouldn’t get it.’ “We have to flip that,” he says, “and get workers saying ‘Why am I NOT getting that?'”
He faults our education system for not teaching the “labour side of the story in history class” with the result that students don’t realize that “this weekend is brought to you by organized labour.”
They also need to understand that celebrities they idolize, such as Michael Jordan, would not be as well off as they are without associations and unions that protect their interests.
Bosveld is passionate about organizing and draws inspiration from legendary figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights activist who was a strong advocate for the labour movement. While his “I Have A Dream” speech has become a defining moment in American history, his addresses to labour organizations such as CWA Canada affiliate AFL-CIO also invigorated activists in the 1960s.
Like King, Bosveld has a dream and he hopes his efforts will bolster the faltering Canadian labour movement.