convention __

e CLC President, Ken Georgetti

Stop global
exploitation
says Georgetti

Globalization should be a good word and not a
bad one, said Canadian Labour Congress Presi-
dent Ken Georgetti.

But he said its the kind of word that corpo-
rate CEO’s use to justify tax cuts for them-
selves, deregulation, privatization, contracting-
out and layoffs.

“It’s a word the right-wing politicians have
grabbed onto and they use when they try to roll
back the gains that working people have made
in North America and your union has made in
this country since the end of World War II. It
seems to be an all-out sort of assault on every-
thing that’s public. Health, education, safety,
our infrastructure, the water system in Walker-
ton — all of those are victims of an onslaught
that says globalization has to work the way they
define it,” said Brother Georgetti.

He said that corporations are analyzing and
dissecting health care in Canada and are trying
to roll back Medicare and take the universal
system away.

Georgetti came face-to-face recently when he
went to a free trade zone in Szechuan province

in China where workers, by the thousands live

Continued on page twenty-seven

° Darrel Wong

° George Deschene

Delegates urge support
for New Democratic Party

Union members expressed their concerns at
the convention about supporting the New Demo-
cratic Party and why it is important for work-
ers to rally behind the party.

Local 1-184’s Paul Hallen said that in
Saskatchewan, labour’s support for the NDP is

essential.

“Let there be no secret — if you step back-
wards and you think that some other govern-
ment is going to help you, it’s not going to hap-
pen,” he said.

In Meadow Lake the union still spoke in
favour of the union in spite of the NDP govern-
ment’s lack of ability to get wood to keep an
I.W.A. sawmill open.

“When you go into the lunchrooms, instead of
us always getting beat up, maybe we’ve got to
continue blasting and work harder at it. We’d
rather have New Democratic governments to
look out for working people,” he added.

George Deschene of Local 1-424 said that a
Liberal government in B.C. would ruin the
labour code and likely introduce “right to work”
legislation.

He said the I.W.A. and other working people
should step forward in the party to show it
what the demands of working people and par-
ticipate more.

Andrew Parry of Local 2171 said that the
I.W.A. should point out the positive things that
the NDP is doing like opening up a school in
the province every 19 days.

“It’s not a matter of looking at the fear in
people (of the Liberals) and saying this is the
alternative,” he said. “This (support for educa-
tion) is excellence and that’s what we should be
putting forward to our members, not fear.”

Sister Debbie Edelist of Local 700 in Toronto,
said that there are big problems for working
people in Ontario.

“In order for people to strike in Ontario, it’s
almost impossible,” she said. “The scabs and
management can work.”

She said that people fought against the
provincial government of Bob Rae in the public
sector when Rae was asking unions to take a
day off, yet everyone would keep their jobs.
Then she pointed out that the Harris govern-
ment eliminated many jobs altogether and also

took it out on the unemployed and those on wel-
fare.

“I would switch with anybody that has an
NDP provincial government versus the garbage
that we have in Ontario,” she said. “And you
guys really better open your eyes and think
very, very seriously on getting anybody but the
NDP...”

Bob Hird of Local 1000 told the delegates
that the NDP has information that the union
can get out to its members about the issues.

He said that society is bombarded with cor-
porate and commercial messages and the mes-
sage of social democracy is not getting out.

“There’s is no vehicle that’s telling them that
it’s all right to stand up and fight, not for only
yourself or your family, but it’s all right to
stand up and fight for your neighbor. There is
nobody telling them that. It’s our job,” he said.

“These people need — the NDP needs the
people in this room because we already possess
the skills that they need to get those cam-
paigns running,” added Brother Hird. “So get
out there and give them a hand, even if you
can only give them a week or a day. The people
in this room have skills that the average Joe
doesn’t have and the NDP needs it.”

Local 2171 president Darrel Wong told the
convention that his membership is fed up with
the party and that there is a huge job ahead to
educate them.

“The other problem we’ve got is that we’ve
also got to talk to our social democratic party
and we've got to get them to wake up and real-
ize they’re supposed to be working with us for
all ce the people that we represent as well,” he
said.

“The way to fix the problem is to get involved
with the party, to get inside of the party, and
to make necessary changes. It’s not on the out-
side. It’s not kicking the party out of power. It’s
getting involved, getting active and getting the
direction of where we want it to be.”

Delegates to the convention passed a resolu-
tion calling on all union members to become
active in the NDP, the union to reaffirm its
support for the party and for all locals to affili-
ate with it.

el

26/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 2000