Tag Archives: hassan yussuff

Job numbers highlight need for urgent EI reform

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Friday, February 5, 2016

Canada’s largest labour organization says today’s job numbers from Statistics Canada highlight the need for the kind of economic stimulus that urgently needed Employment Insurance (EI) reforms would produce now.

The job market was stagnant in January and unemployment rose to 7.2 percent. In Alberta, unemployment rose to 7.4 percent, the first time it has been above the national average since 1988.

Over the past year, unemployment has risen by 123,000 workers across the country: more than half of these (69,000) are in Alberta. Most job creation has been in Ontario, while other provinces continue to struggle with slack labour markets.

Self-employment has grown twice as fast (1.3 percent) as employment (0.6 percent). Private sector job growth continues to be weak, adding only 30,000 jobs over the past 12 months — a growth rate of only 0.3 percent. Two sectors account for most job growth over the last year — health care and social assistance added 90,000 positions, and professional, scientific, and technical services added 38,000 positions.

“These job numbers and the slow economic growth we’re seeing now demonstrate the need for the kind of immediate stimulus that would come from urgently needed fixes to the employment insurance program,” said CLC president Hassan Yussuff.

The Liberal government has promised to review and improve the program, but Yussuff says there are urgently needed reforms that can be immediately implemented.

“Fewer than 40 percent of unemployed Canadians – and fewer than 37 percent of unemployed Albertans – are receiving EI,” said Yussuff. “Part of the problem is that workers run out of benefits before they can find a new job.”

The immediate reforms the CLC hopes to see include:

  • Temporarily extending EI benefits for an additional five weeks to help displaced workers who risk exhausting their benefits while hunting for hard-to-find jobs. This would be especially helpful in hardest hit regions where jobs are especially scarce.
  • Returning to the previous definition of “suitable employment” and restoring the “best 14 weeks” pilot programs that created a single national standard for determining benefit levels.
  • Eliminating the eligibility requirement of 910 hours of insured employment for new entrants and re-entrants to the labour market to make access to EI fairer, especially for young workers and new Canadians.
  • Hiring staff to make up for years of devastating cuts under the Conservatives to help eliminate unacceptable delays faced by workers trying to get benefits approved, decisions on appeals, or questions answered.
  • Implementing the election promise for an increase of $200-million in funding for provincial literacy and essential-skills training aimed at those who don’t qualify for EI. While it’s not part of EI, it would help where it’s needed most.

“It takes time for infrastructure spending to kick in and create jobs, so let’s act now to stop penalizing unemployed workers, get them the benefits they paid into and so urgently need, and help them start contributing to their local economies again,” said Yussuff.

Issue: Jobs and the Economy
           Labour Force Survey

Source: Job numbers highlight need for urgent EI reform | Canadian Labour Congress

Yussuff calls on CUPE members to hold Liberals to account | Canadian Union of Public Employees

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The next four years present an opportunity to build the Canada we want, Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff told CUPE Convention delegates.

“The work you did and our movement did across the country was absolutely stellar,” he said. “We had to defeat the Stephen Harper government and it was such a pleasure to watch his sorry ass walk off that stage.”

While the outcome of the election may not have been ideal, it did end a decade of rule by a prime minister who used racism and xenophobia as an election tool, who attacked unions and who moved human rights backward a decade.

In the next four years, we must hold Justin Trudeau to his promises to repeal Bill C-377, to begin an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women and to restore card-check certification. We must convince Trudeau to repeal, not revise Bill C-51, he said, adding that we must prioritize electoral reform so everyone’s voice counts and we don’t end up with huge majority governments representing a minority of Canadians.

He closed by calling on CUPE members to leave Convention united and stronger.

“The enemies of this organization are not in this room,” he said. “When you leave, leave as 600,000-plus united, and tell the employers: You attack one of us, you attack all of us.”

Source: Yussuff calls on CUPE members to hold Liberals to account | Canadian Union of Public Employees

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.”