Category Archives: canadian labour congress

New Canadian Labour Congress chief vows aggressive approach

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Grant Robertson The Globe and Mail    May. 08 2014

Hassan Yussuff is secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress. (Handout)

The Canadian Labour Congress has chosen a new president for the first time in 15 years, in a move that suggests a deeper shift within the organization that represents most of Canada’s unions.

Hassan Yussuff, who served as secretary-treasurer of the CLC since 2002, defeated incumbent president Ken Georgetti in a close vote held Thursday at the organization’s annual convention in Montreal.

Mr. Yussuff becomes the first minority president of the labour congress, defeating Mr. Georgetti by a slim margin. Mr. Yussuff received 2,318 votes, which was 40 votes ahead of Mr. Georgetti’s 2,278.

The CLC represents 3.3 million workers and includes many of the largest unions and trade organizations in the country. Mr. Georgetti held the president’s job since 1999 and won the endorsement of several large groups, including the Telecommunications Workers Union, which publicly backed his bid for re-election last month.

However, Mr. Yussuff is said to have amassed support among a number of unions that were unhappy with the congress in recent years, and wanted the organization to employ new approaches to guiding the labour movement.

Born in Guyana, Mr. Yussuff came to Canada to work as a heavy truck mechanic and joined the labour movement through membership in the Canadian Auto Workers. He joined the CLC as executive vice-president in 1999, becoming the first person of colour to serve at the executive level of the organization. He also served as an observer in the 1994 South African elections, which saw Nelson Mandela named president.

Mr. Georgetti, who is from Trail, B.C., was the longest-serving president. The CLC grew by 750,000 members, or almost 30 per cent, during his presidency. But that growth came at a time when Canadian economists and academics have debated whether the power of unions has been eroded in Canada, due to shifting industries and changing legislation.

Conversations within the labour movement have questioned whether new approaches are needed, and Mr. Yussuff has said he wanted to bring a more aggressive approach back to the CLC and its membership.

“There is a wind of change blowing in Canada’s trade union movement,” Mr. Yussuff said in a statement on his campaign website. “There is a desire and a demand to return to the offensive for rights and progress for workers after decades of retreat and decline.”

While the race was close, the victory was helped considerably when challenger Hassan Husseini ended his campaign this month and threw his support behind Mr. Yussuff. That move gave him enough votes to unseat the incumbent.

Mr. Yussuff has been a vocal critic of the federal government’s approach to labour negotiations and its interventions in several public sector disputes, which he argues has unilaterally stripped rights from workers in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia. He has also been vocal about conditions in the private sector, particularly as pensions come under fire.

“The reality for private sector unions is that the manufacturing base has been weakened, pensions are under severe attack, and union density has declined,” Mr. Yussuff said on his website.

“An entire generation is being offered lower wages, fewer benefits, and a less stable future than their parents before them.”

CLC Convention Discuss Policy Papers

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27th Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress May 5-9, 2014

Policy Papers

Discussion Paper – Organizing for a Fairer Tomorrow

Our Challenge: Completing the Deal

At the core of the labour movement stands our capacity to negotiate a fair deal in the workplace, one that delivers both incredible value to workers as well as positive social and economic spin-offs that benefit their communities and Canadian society as a whole. That often overlooked contribution was recently praised by Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, who declared that active unions and free collective bargaining have been critical to the establishment of a stable and prosperous middle class, making Canada “a better place to live.”

At the bargaining table and in the public policy sphere, unions have won gains and benefits that have lifted the living standards of all Canadians. For working people, the collective agreements delivered by the labour movement are the great equalizer, producing higher wages, workplace pensions, health benefits, job security, health and safety protections, and fair treatment at work.  Read more…

Policy Paper: Setting the stage for union renewal: Changing demographics in the workforce

Newcomers to Canada, Aboriginal peoples, youth, racialized employees, and persons with disabilities represent some of the largest groups of currently unorganized workers who stand to benefit from the Union Advantage. Because these workers struggle daily with issues like pay inequity and discrimination – matters that unions are well placed to tackle – the “together FAIRNESS WORKS” initiative could not be more timely for them.

Recognizing that the demographic changes occurring across Canada will need to be understood and reflected in the labour movement, the changing face and subsequent growth of union membership will be determined in large part by our ability to address the most pressing issues facing these communities. Read the entire paper.

Policy Paper: An economy for a fairer tomorrow

The task of each generation is to adapt Canada’s economic and social foundations to meet new realities while remaining true to our core values such as fairness and broadly shared prosperity. The labour movement, often in the face of fierce opposition and attacks from powerful and privileged interests, has embodied those values as it helped build Canada’s middle class and fought for fairness on behalf of all people.

Together, we have fought for and won many things that improve the quality of life for all Canadians: decent jobs, fair wages, and pensions; public Medicare and education; minimum wages, unemployment insurance, and safer workplaces; weekends, statutory holidays, and paid vacation time; and maternity, adoption, and parental leave. The record is clear: when workers get together and stand up for fairness—they get results.  Read more..

What Did Corporate Tax Cuts Deliver?

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Canadian Labour Congress 

Jan 29, 2014

It has become the norm to believe that cutting corporate income taxes is good for the economy. We have been led to believe that cutting corporate income taxes to increase after-tax corporate profits would lead companies to re-invest in operations like research and development, machinery and staff training to boost productivity. This in turn would stimulate economic growth, and create better paying and more secured jobs.

But what did corporate tax cuts really deliver? What has happened to those tax dollars that were given away to corporations? Learn more: canadianlabour.ca

Bringing the Union Advantage to Those Who Need it Most

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Thursday, May 8, 2014   http://www.cope378.ca

Wednesday at the Canadian Labour Congress Convention centred around bringing the benefits of unions to people who don’t currently have access: unorganized workers, particularly young workers, racialized workers, migrant workers, women, and people with disabilities.

On a morning panel, “The Labour Movement is About a Better Life for Everyone”, activists from other organizations talked about labour’s ability to make positive change for everyone.

Acting General Secretary of the Bangladesh Free Trade Union Congress Repon Chowdhury talked about the positive impact of the union-driven Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.

“We must work together and the Accord is one of the best things around the world that we have, from trade unions working together,” Chowdhury said. But he also noted there are companies that have not signed on, and he urged Canadians to pressure companies who have not yet signed the accord.

Vice-President of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) Susan Eng said they rarely use their organization’s full name anymore, “because so few of our members can afford to retire.”

She thanked the labour movement for leading the drive to expand the Canada Pension Plan, even though many union members have workplace pensions: “The key is that we put our shoulder to the wheel, even when it doesn’t benefit our organizations.”

She advised unions to join with allies and to focus their efforts on one thing at a time: “The need is to mobilize, to concentrate, to get that specific thing done first, even if you have ten other things you must do, you must do this one thing first.”

Finally, Anthony Pizzino from the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers said a key role unions can play is helping raise awareness of issues that affect all working people.

“In Canada…five workers a day don’t come home,” he said, adding that Canadians most aware of the shocking numbers of workplace injuries and deaths.

Another afternoon panel, “Bringing the Union Advantage to Those Who Need it Most”, had labour academics and activists talk about helping unorganized workers to join unions.

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Brock University Labour Studies Professor Dr. Kendra Coulter (right) began by talking about how unions can reach out to people to show how important they are to a fair society.

Coulter said we need to look to countries like Sweden that have high union density, which came about because “workers in the past collaborated, not just in solidarity at work but also a sense of social solidarity, which is that we all do better when things are fair at work.”

“We need to reclaim [job creation] as a workers’ agenda and creating good jobs,” Coulter said, “If we don’t raise this low wage floor, if we don’t tackle this scourge of precarious work, in 20 years we

Acting Director of the AFL-CIO Department of Investment, Brandon Rees, said unions have to work globally, because the growing inequality we see in Canada is growing in the rest of the world too.

“The challenge is that capital is global and corporations are increasingly global…that means that we too must be organizing on a global scale to address these economic challenges that globalization presents,” said Rees.

Next, AFL-CIO Organizer Chloe Osmer talked specifically about how we need to change strategies to organize in the service-based economy, with the proliferation of precarious work.

“The lack of regulation, the shift to a service sector has made it more challenging to organize but it has also given us a lot of opportunities,” Osmer said.

Osmer talked about her experience organizing car wash workers in Los Angeles, and how it was important to mobilize younger organizers and students.

“We have to use every tool that we can to turn people’s public perceptions of unions around, because most people you’ll run into in the workplace haven’t had the experience of being in a union. They don’t know what the reality of the situation is. The more that young people are reflected in our unions and the way we operate and our organizers the more young people will see it’s about them.”

During the day delegates to convention debated several resolutions. In the morning, delegates passed a resolution on mental health, one opposing the end of Canada Post home mail delivery, and another committing the Canadian Labour Congress to developing an educational module on violence against women and other steps on this issue, including supporting a federal inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and the creation of a national action plan on violence against women.

In the afternoon the convention passed the final convention policy paper “Organizing for a Fairer Tomorrow” and passed more resolutions, including one on labour rights and another directing the CLC to develop a national young workers’ strategy, including opportunities for young workers in the workforce and the labour movement.

Near the end of the day COPE 378 Human Rights Committee Chair and Executive Board Member Joyce Galuska spoke on a resolution on human rights. She wanted to particularly highlight the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women.

“I’m kind of sad to be standing here three years after the last conference knowing my CLC hasn’t been bold enough to fight this issue,” Galuska said. She thanked COPE 378 for their campaign, which allows members to send messages to Harper in support of justice for these women.

“I want to inundate the Harper government with a mountain of shame letters because I wanted the CLC to encourage every one of their affiliates to write to Stephen Harper, either by creating their own campaign or joining the Amnesty International Stolen Sisters campaign.”