Category Archives: unions

CUPE 2262 members save a life

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   http://cupe.ca

In late May, the quick response of CUPE members working at the Castlegar and District Community Complex saved a man’s life.

According to reports from the Castlegar Source, Castlegar resident Greg Gritchin, was taking part in a National Lifeguard Service Course. The course was proceeding normally when staff and instructors suddenly noticed that Gritchin was lying face down in the pool. Without hesitation, the team leapt into action, pulling Gritchin from the water. CUPE members Vanessa Bloodoff, Josh Davis and Troy Bingham put their emergency training to good use.

They administered CPR and used the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) to start resuscitation. First responders were called, and when they got there, Gritchin was regaining consciousness. The paramedics acknowledged that the quick action of the Community Complex staff made all the difference in the first critical minutes. It turns out Gritchin had a sudden cardiac arrest from a blocked artery – a condition he didn’t even know he had. He has made a full recovery, and is very grateful to pool staff for their fast response.

“Lifeguards and other workers at public recreation facilities are well trained and very qualified to deal with emergency situations just like this,” said Mark Hancock, president of CUPE BC. “On behalf of all 85,000 CUPE members across B.C., I want to extend congratulations to all the staff members in Castlegar for helping save Mr. Gritchin’s life. It’s situations like this—and hundreds of others that aren’t quite as dramatic—that show the importance of strong public services in our communities.”

“Keeping municipal recreational services public means workers have access to training funds through their collective agreements. Privatized facilities don’t have the same emphasis. We are very proud of these heroes.”

Along with the course instructors, CUPE members Vanessa Bloodoff, Josh Davis, Troy Bingham have been commended for their actions.

CUPE 2262 represents 55 civic workers in Castlegar’s aquatic centre, arenas, and landfill.

New Report: Unions Shield Workers—and States—Against Recession

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Friday Jul 12, 2013 3:34 pm  http://inthesetimes.com

By Patrick James Drennan

Although the economy is improving, income inequality remains high in Illinois.   Neal Jennings/Flickr/Creative Commons)

A new report by Robert Bruno and Frank Manzo of the University of Illinois, The State of Working Illinois 2013: Labor in the Land of Lincoln, paints an all-too-familiar portrait of a state economy that has righted itself from free-fall to “tepid growth” but has yet to reach pre-recession levels. With decreased labor-force participation, nearly 10 percent unemployment, wage stagnation and the top 1 percent earning 635 percent more than the median employed worker, Illinois has a long way to go before true recovery.

But unlike other accounts of today’s economic woes, the authors don’t attribute the blame solely to the global financial collapse. The report’s findings strongly suggest that the decline of unionization has played a considerable role in the increase of income inequality in Illinois, which can in turn slow economic growth. The report also suggests that lags in union membership put a strain on the social safety net, sapping resources that could otherwise be invested to speed the state’s recovery.

The State of Working Illinois, released Tuesday, found the union membership among working-age Illinois residents has fallen from 20.6 percent in 2002 to 17.2 percent. The findings also suggest that this decline may have been a factor in pushing income inequality to extremes. The salary boost of belonging to a union worker—some $10,682 for workers making a median wage of $43,687—goes up for low-income workers. The bottom 25 percent of nonunion earners make an average of $15,471, while the bottom 25 percent of union earners makers $27,406. A similar gap appears in the bottom 10 percent of each group, with union workers earning an average of $14,685 and non-union workers earning an average of $3,701. The authors conclude that with the power to considerably boost incomes in the lowest brackets, unionization can prevent the lower-earning workers from descending into poverty.

At the other end of the spectrum, union gains are more modest: For the top 25 percent of union workers, incomes average $61,884, compared with $57,692 for nonunion workers. And, strikingly, the top 10 and 1 percent of nonunion workers actually make more than their unionized counterparts. Overall, this means that union wages are far more compressed than nonunion wages in the state, with a $100,319 discrepancy between the highest- and lowest-earning brackets of union workers, compared with a $296,404 gap among nonunion workers.

According to coauthor Frank Manzo, some degree of income inequality isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can “encourage hard work, the acquisition of skills and education, and innovation.” But “when income inequality gets too high, like the levels we see today, it can negatively impact economic growth.” This is because “the ‘marginal costs’ of inequality—such as lower equality of opportunity and lower class mobility, declining middle and working class wages, higher chances of financial crises, and even decreased national happiness—are outweighing the ‘marginal benefits,’” Manzo explains.

Given this, the report’s findings indicate that higher unionization could help shrink Illinois’ income gaps and lead to economic growth.

There’s another way that unions can be a powerful agent to combat the detrimental effects of weak economies. Despite some improvement, Illinois workers still have only “somewhat more financial security and slightly higher prospects for finding a job” than during the darkest days of the recession. Even under these grim conditions, unionized workers generally have higher wages and have more financial security for their retirement—benefits that nonunion workers don’t always enjoy, rendering them more vulnerable to the dire effects of economic recession.

This means that lower unionization rates not only hurt workers, but also put a strain on Illinois’ social safety net. With union membership on the decline, the authors hypothesize that the growing ranks of nonunion workers are sapping public resources that could otherwise be used to boost the economy by, for instance, “subsidizing college education and investing in early childhood education programs”—investments that the authors suggest would improve Illinois’ long-term labor market prospects.

The authors conclude by recommending that Illinois help combat the decline of unionization. The state could, for example, require employers to post notices in every workplace detailing the “collective acts to improve pay, working conditions, and job-related problems that are lawful even if workers are not in a union” so that workers know it is their legal right to seek justice and improved working conditions.

Although the authors make clear that cooperation from the state—in the form of investments in public infrastructure, increases in the minimum wage and reforming the tax code—is vital for positive economic growth, The State of Working Illinois shows that unions can provide workers and economies with invaluable armor to withstand crises like the Great Recession.

Success of Federal NDP Great For Labour But Will Unions Make Most of It

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At the recent Canadian Labour Congress Convention in Vancouver I was pleased to hear words of solidarity and urging by delegates for union activists to rally around the recent Federal election success of the NDP and ride the orange wave and re-establish the significance of unions and labour in the lives of all Canadians and Canadian society in general.

It was recognized by CLC delegates that the influence of labour and union membership over the last twenty five years has waned and is in need of a healthy shot of resurgance.

Much has changed and much has to be done if labour and unions in general are to once again to be a positive force as they were in the last century.

Ken Georgetti, President of the CLC in his opening remarks to the Convention said, “We have to move much more quickly to use the tools that are available to us now and recognize the demographic shift if we’re going to be successful and more influential”.

While that is true, the CLC Executive Board, made up of the major Canadian Union leaders, seemed to have embraced diplomacy and forgotten the early beginnings of the labour movement in Canada by being less militant, and hesitant to get their hands dirty.

To be more blunt: our union leadership have gone from being the strong, vocal, wearing dirty work clothes, lunch room militantism, to diplomatic, boardroom, three-piece suits, lobbying and being polite and coming up with “spin”, then banging the table and striking fear in their opponent.

There needs to be a renaissance of that ole’ time union spirit, a visit from the ghost of union past to remind all unions and union members of those early struggles and sacrifices that were made; that have made the lives of all Canadians, union and non-union, better than it would have been without the influence of labour and unions.

Is it just me? I think not.

Fred Wilson of Rabble.ca, in his article titled, “How the NDP gave Canada’s unions a new opportunity to organize” on May 26 says and I quote:

The election has potentially changed the ground game for labour by moving the centre to the left. After decades of a political centre somewhere between pro-corporate Liberals and hard right social Conservatives, there is now an official social democratic opposition that redefines social consensus. This can have profound implications for industrial policy, social policy and labour law — as well as for public attitudes about unions and collective rights.

The opportunity, however, is not by any means automatic. It will require the party to be firm in support of its labour base and to take a page from right-wing and Republican strategies of using values and principles to shift politics towards its base.

As important, it will require labour to demand recognition and rights in politics and in the workplace and economy. Trade unions have powerful new supporters in Parliament, but without a much more visible, militant and forceful movement making demands on politicians and employers alike, that political support won’t mean very much.

The new NDP opposition has a very strong labour group within it, including many who have served as staff or elected leaders in the trade union movement. In addition to re-elected MPs like Yvon Godin (USW), Carol Hughes (CLC), Wayne Marston (CEP), Don Davies (Teamsters), Pat Martin (Carpenters), Libby Davies (HEU), the new caucus includes Peggy Nash (CAW), Nicole Turmel (PSAC), Jenny Sims (BCTF), Tyrone Benskin (ACTRA), Robert Chisholm and Alexandre Boulerice (CUPE), and Guy Caron and Mike Sullivan (CEP). Others like Joe Comartin and Jack Harris are labour lawyers, closely associated with the trade union movement.

Preaching to the choir at a labour convention, to those that are supposedly converted in the ways of union activism is one thing. Motivating the membership as a whole and getting them inspired and energized is another thing altogether and one of the big challenges. Another big challenge, is to increase union density which has been hit hard over the last twenty-five years and get more Canadians organized as union members.

Days of action and general strikes seem to be nothing but a concept that has gathered dust in Canadian labour history and union folklore. Sung about in song and passed down over the ages.

Has the union movement forgotten where it came from, in spirit and action.?

I am not the leader of the Canadian Labour Congress; or the President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees or the President of the Canadian Auto Workers. They can lead as we have elected them to do, but are union members willing to follow?

I am not talking about the union activists “that get it”. I am talking about the union membership that is oblivious to the forces that are threatening to risk their future, their retirement, their security, their livelihood.

Will union members stand up and help their union leadership help them keep their union job, protect their pension, allow them to get to retirement, enable them to contribute to their communities and society and protect what they and others have taken for granted through the hard work, sweat and sacrifices of others in the union movement, past and present?

In this day and age with the social media and internet along with television, tv, radio, newspapers, and so forth, has this all just become “noise” and union members across all sectors just have not got the message that their way of life and future is at risk?

The 2011 CLC Convention in Vancouver represented an opportunity for labour in Canada to begin a so-called “rebirth” of unionism, echoing what occurred 100 years ago. Did that resonant to those listening to many of the 2500 delegates in attendance?

I am not sure. But from where I sat, I did hear the word solidarity used, and sometimes practiced, but also I witnessed the lack of solidarity amongst my Sisters and Brothers.

“Needless to say, these elected labour activists and the 103 social democrats in Parliament cannot by themselves stop the Conservative majority from further weakening what remains of trade union power. That reality explained the mix of sentiment at this month’s Canadian Labour Congress convention where 2,500 delegates cheered and cried for Jack Layton in an hour-long emotional outburst, but spent the rest of convention at microphones with foreboding of great danger to come.

It is difficult to avoid comparing the Harper majority to the Republican sweep in the 2010 U.S. mid-term elections. After the political defeat, the new right wing legislators quickly launched a massive assault on the last bastion of U.S. unionism — American public sector unions. Anti-labour legislation was introduced in 20 U.S. states after the U.S. mid-term elections — although most attention was focused on the massive fightback in Wisconsin.”, Wilson commented.

Leadership should be strong at the top of the CLC and filter it way down to its affiliate Unions, Locals and the membership. Labour should be endeavoring to reach a consensus gathering itself together in a room; locking the door, and not leaving until there is an accord that clearly includes militanism of a type that stands up for social justice, human rights, proper working conditions, just to mention a few and is demonstrated in such activities as days of action and general strikes.

Instead what happened at the recent CLC Convention was no debate or adoption of an Action Plan to deal with the Harper majority government in Ottawa, and the detriment to labour that the majority government will have; and the difficulties it will present to working people from coast to coast to coast, union and non-union, and to Canadians in general, with such things as CETA for example, and which I have opined  on in my blog if you care to search for and read up on.

As stated by Wilson, Canada’s trade unions suddenly have more political support than they could have imagined only months ago. It’s now up to trade unionists to give the politicians something to talk about.