| Workers’ Solidarity Conference Opening Remarks - October 16, 2004 |
Welcome and Opening Remarks by Chair, Elizabeth Byce
Sisters and brothers, fellow workers and social movement activists, welcome to a conference to officially launch the Workers’ Solidarity and Union Democracy Coalition. My name is Elizabeth Byce and I am a member of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. I have been asked by the Conference Organizing Committee to chair this meeting.
Across Canada and around the world, more and more, we see working people and the poor under attack. Called by various names (globalization, de-regulation, free trade, competition, or just plain ‘progress’), the attack is widespread. It has put the working class on the defensive, and has caused many labour officials to run for cover. There is resistance to the corporate agenda, but often workers who choose to resist it first come up against their own labour leaders who would rather settle for concessions than lead a fight for justice. To fight is to risk defeat. But to give concessions without a fight is to guarantee defeat.
We know that most working people want to defend rights and economic gains achieved in struggles past. Last Spring, public service workers across Newfoundland went on strike to resist concessions; but when the provincial government of Danny Williams threatened back-to-work legislation, union leadership collapsed and ordered members to abandon the struggle without reaching a deal. In British Columbia, 40,000 hospital workers revolted against wage and job cuts. For four days they defied strike breaking legislation. Other workers walked out in solidarity and the province was on the verge of a general strike. But BC Federation of Labour brass leaned heavily on leaders of the HEU, and the strike was ended without even taking a membership vote on the 15% wage cut. In Quebec, for the past year mass protests against the Charest government’s anti-labour laws and cutbacks have rocked the scene, but no decisive showdown occurred. At Air Canada, the owners plea poverty and the union leaders, including at the CAW, delivered massive pay cuts to rescue the company and its stock holders. At Canada Post, management implicated in the infamous federal sponsorship scandal got the union to give up its members’ severance package and other clawbacks. The Toronto Local of CUPW voted 2/3 against the deal, but there was little national coordination of opposition, so the rotten deal carried. As we speak, the Public Service Alliance is still engaged in strike action across Canada against a tightfisted federal government. There’s been little concrete organizing in support of the PSAC by the rest of the Labour movement, despite the need to counter a long tradition of federal strike breaking legislation.
In the giant grocery chains, a two-tier wage and benefit structure is becoming the norm; new hires get paid less and get less work, and the general membership doesn’t get to vote on new contracts – just in case they might vote the wrong way. Hotel workers, with a high percentage of immigrants amongst them, face serious racist and religious discrimination, not to mention unsafe conditions, at the Metropolitan Hotel. But their union, UNITE-HERE, often refuses to help them; even worse, it collaborates with management to isolate and remove workers who stand up for their rights. Teachers unions have opposed 20 years of severe cuts in education funding, but teacher union officials have decided to cut corners by sacrificing the rights and benefits of its non-permanent members and support staff. When Toronto substitute teachers resisted this pro-management agenda, top OSSTF officials moved to conduct a purge of elected local officers. Provincial bureaucrats gutted the best collective agreement for substitute teachers in Ontario, wrecked the democratic local constitution, and imposed a hand-picked group of retirees to run the local unit by means of a bogus mail-in ballot procedure.
But as we say in the postal workers’ union, the struggle continues. It is now taking on a new form: in BC there is a broad and dynamic Workers’ Fight Back Caucus, which includes participants from a dozen unions; rank and file activists in Toronto launched the Metropolitan Hotel Workers’ Committee. The Toronto Substitute Teachers’ Action Caucus is waging a fierce struggle to restore job security and union democracy. These and other forces, including the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and several political groups including the NDP Socialist Caucus, are coming together to create a movement for change. We intend to stop and reverse labour concessions. We intend to take back our unions and turn them into fighting organizations for their members, and for all working people, employed and unemployed.
This is happening across Canada and around the world. This week end in London, England some 20,000 people are at the European Social Forum, a massive gathering in opposition to the global capitalist agenda. Tomorrow is the Million Worker March on Washington, D.C. It is called by sections or locals of the International Longshore Workers’ Union, the Teamsters’ Union, AFSCME, Steelworkers, Labour Against the War, National Association of Letter Carriers, the American Indian Movement, National Immigration Solidarity Network, and the Coalition Of Black Trade Unionists. Those groups are going to Washington on Oct. 17, whether their concern is about jobs, or decent wages, or layoffs, or union busting, or the battle to protect pensions and Social Security, or to make health care a universal right instead of a privilege for the wealthy. They are marching in Washington to give voice to the independent interests of the working class, instead of relying on the November election or on the next president, whoever that will be. The march, a rank and file initiative, is taking place because of the failure of the union leadership to do the job.
We face a similar problem here. This conference is about assessing the scope of the problem we face, and deciding what we can do about it. Before we get underway, I will ask you to approve the rules of order and the agenda. The proposed rules are these:
1. Unless otherwise specified, Robert's Rules of Order will prevail.
2. To speak and vote at the Conference, one must be registered as a participant.
3. Speakers have three minutes on first round, one minute on second round. The chair will endeavor to achieve gender balance in the floor discussion by alternating between male and female speakers when possible.
4. Resolutions and amendments will be considered when presented in writing, with a mover and seconder. The chair is entitled to limit discussion of specific motions to two speakers in favour and two speakers opposed. At the conclusion of debate on specific motions, the conference will vote.
Concerning the Agenda, there is one small change: we propose to add 30 minutes to the Workers Speak Out session, so that there can be floor discussion. Once again, welcome to this important founding conference for the Workers’ Solidarity and Union Democracy Coalition.
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