Tag Archives: union workers

State of the unions

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Konrad Yakabuski piles up the negative adjectives in his description of unions (A Radical Idea For Union Leaders: Partnership – Aug. 19). He also talks about us representing “working stiffs,” which is a gratuitous insult to the 4.6-million unionized workers in Canada. Furthermore, he suggests we are wedded to confrontation and uninterested in productivity or our employers’ economic health.

I can tell him that more than 99 per cent of our collective agreements with employers are settled without strike or lockout. We are, indeed, interested in seeing employers do well because that is the basis of family-supporting middle-class jobs in Canada. Unions are involved, often with employers, in workplace training and apprenticeship programs, which lead to productivity gains for employers. For example, we have a joint venture with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters to do research that looks into effective remote learning and also promotes new occupational credentials in manufacturing. These initiatives are hiding out in the open for reporters to cover.

Ken Georgetti, president, Canadian Labour Congress

Canada: Billions in profit, cuts for local workers, scab-brewed beer for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians!

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http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net

The war to set global labour standards in the brewing industry is being fought in the Canadian city of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

On one side, the Canadian division of the world’s largest (and very profitable) brewing corporation, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev).

On the other, one of the global giant’s smallest and most vulnerable local unions in what appears to be an attempt to establish a pattern of concessions and roll-backs that the corporation could then try to impose on all of its other unionized workers around the world.

The workers, who are members of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public Employees (NAPE/NUPGE), have been on strike since April 10. Before they were in a legal position to exercise their right to strike, the company attempted to force the workers to train the scabs who are now doing their jobs.

AB InBev and its shareholders enjoy their massive profits thanks to the loyal and careful labour of workers around the world, just like those in St. John’s. But if the corporation sees fit to demand that they accept concessions for the sake of a tiny bit more in profit, what will stop it from demanding similar concessions from its workers around the world?

Please go to:  http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1867 and write to AB InBev and demand that they treat their workers, and their workers’ communities, with fairness and respect.