IWACONVENTIONO1

° CLC president Ken Georgetti said that during the decade of the 90’s, the average industrial wage

in Canada only rose 1.8 per cent.

Standard of living must debated

CLC president Ken Georgetti informed
delegates that at the next Congress’ national
convention in Vancouver in June, 2002 he
intends to see the organization sharply focused

utting workers’ standards of living and
quality of life at the forefront.

“You can say ‘working people’, you can say
‘taxpayers’, you can say the ‘above ground
economy, whatever you want — but it’s time to
put the standard of living that we have and we
want for our families into the centre of the
public debate in Canada and in this country,”
said Brother Georgetti.

“For far too long workers have been forgotten
by governments and by business,” he added.
“We know business forgets us. The only time
they actually pay attention is when we go to
the bargaining table and make them.”

The Congress is publicizing its new campaign
to inform the public about unions — it’s called
“Is Work Working For You?”

He said during all of the 1990’s workers, both
union and non, have seen an increase in the
average industrial wage of only 1.8 per cent.
The average for union worker was higher and
was lower for the unorganized.

During the same time period, labour
productivity rose by 12 per cent.

“So we get an average increase of one-tenth

of 1 per cent a year, a tiny, tiny improvement,
while business did 12 times better, off our
backs and shoulders, and our toil and sweat,”
said the CLC president.

The CL' has posted a_ website
(www.workingforyou.com) which has a survey
for workers to fill out, asking about their wages,
benefits and their workplaces.

Aseries of billboards, paid for by the Congress
and its affiliates, have gone up across the
country.

“It’s only a first step to change the focus in
the public debate,” said Georgetti, who added
that working people are saying they’ve heard
enough about competitiveness, market indexes
and the direction the economy is going for
employers and CEO’s.

He said that most union members he talks to
want to see a public debate about their issues.

“They want to talk about their standard of
living and the quality of life, not the stock
market report (and) not whether or not Nortel
can sell another telephone in some foreign
nation,” he said.

Georgetti said there’s lots of workers who
want to hear about the I.W.A. and other unions
in order to get ahead.

He said non-union, part time male workers
earn an average of $9.77 per hour versus $15.79

per hour in the unionized labour force. Part
time non-union women get $6.61 per hour less
than their organized counterparts.

The speaker said the labour movement should
never be shy about advertising that union and
collective agreements improve the standard of
living and quality of life.

He said one of the greatest achievements of
the union movement, establishing the weekend,
has been totally undone in Ontario with the
Harris governments’ legislation of the 60-hour
“voluntary” work week.

“You have to sign this card that the employer
hands in front of you,” he said. “Imagine, you
ney what happens if they don’t sign that
card.”

Georgetti said it’s important for the union
movement to become a greater force in Canadian
society.

“It’s time we started to brag, my friends,
about what we do and about what we’ve
accomplished,” he said. “It’s time that every one
of you, along with every one of us up here
continues to go out and have, as a mission in
our life, the opportunity to ask other pesple to
gain the same benefits as we have (had) the
privilege of gaining.”

“It’s too long we've stagnated, too long we’ve
let people take us for granted,” he said.

Unity needed
says Teamster

For the first time, Teamsters Canada vice -
president Larry MacDonald spoke at an I.W.A.
national convention. A former native of Ontario,
Brother MacDonald worked his way up the

rin the Teamsters and spent seven years
in Washington. Now he’s back in Edmonton,
working for an preapization that has greater
in Canada.

_A few years ago he met national I.W.A.
president Dave Haggard in Zimbabwe, Africa
of the International Federation of
Woodworkers. The Geneva-based
anization, of which the I.W.A. is an affiliate,

considerable work in the Third World.
Americans workers
s, closures, and

people in Thi
tries are dealing with issues such as
ante labour, and the imprisonment
‘union organizers. .

people take a stand in Somalia and

up a picket line to fight for their rights,

e Larry MacDonald, Teamsters Canada

the company hires goone and guards and they
come out and they shoot them,” he said.
Brother MacDonald said North American

unions need to belong to organizations to assist
the repressed workers of the world — to help
them financially and morally.

He said that this year the Teamsters changed
its international constitution to acknowledge
Canadian sovereignty and allow the Canadian
membership the centralized policy-making
power to deal with multinational corporations
and political events that transcend Canadian
borders.

He predicted that the tragic events of
September 11 will serve to further unite the
Jabour movement in North America.

“Solidarity has become the crisis buzzword in
America, with a new twist,” he said, adding
that “it is no longer labeled as labour rhetoric,
but a powerful saying that binds.”

He remarked on how September 11 has
brought together business and labour in the
United States, as the American Federation of
Labour and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
held a joint news conference to announce some
policies to work together to improve the economy
for the good of America.

MacDonald said both the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters and Teamster Canada
are on side for the I.W.A.’s struggle for fair
trade with the Americans and will support the
union through political action in Ottawa and in
the U.S. 8

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER 2001/21