nies

AROUND THE LABOU

R MOVEMENT

FTQ policies call for reforms

®@ As part of its platform for

& the upcoming provincial

——_ election, the Quebec

FTO Federation of Labour has
called for legislative changes to
facilitate the unionization of forest
workers. “The federation has recog-
nized that working conditions have
gotten worse, especially with
owner/operators working longer
hours,” IWA second VP Norm
Rivard.” Our union also recognizes
the fact that thousands of these
workers have no ability to negotiate
without union representation.”

Local to attend AFL annual

Local 1-207 will send seven dele-
gates to the AFL convention on
May 1-4. President Mike Pisak, an
AFL V.P., says the federation will
debate ways of

halting the privatiza-
tion of medicare.

“We join with the
Friends of Medicare coalition,” he
says. “We will also be pressuring
local MP Anne McLellan, the federal
health care minister to, implement
the Romanow report.” The AFL will
also pressure the Klein government
to back down on its move to ban
strikes in the entire health care field.

Union joins Fed protest

IWA delegates to the
provincial wage and
contract conference

BCFED joined B.C.
Federation of

Labour affiliates on February 21 to
protest against the privatization of
B.C. Hydro. Union activists gathered
outside the Hotel Vancouver where
Premier Campbell was being bought
lunch by Bermuda-based Accenture,
the American company awarded
one-third of the Crown corporation.

Prairie website links to
Saskatchewan issues

IWA Local 1-184 president Paul
Hallen, a vice president of the
Saskatchewan Federation of labour
encourages local union members to
visit a website posted by the CLC
and prairie affiliates. The website is
www.tappedintolabour.org \WA

members can link into the issues of
the day that working people face,
ing election in
Saskatchewan, work-
ers rights, health care
issues, sustainable
and “right to work.” The local union
has become more active in the SFL
in recent months. Financial secretary
Harry Groenen serves as an alter-

including the upcom-
environment issues
nate vice president on the fed.

PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA

= Union wages, notes a CLC report, are one of the major factors that get
rid of wage discrimination for all workers.

Wage mobility tied to race says CLC

CHANCES ARE THAT
that if you are a new
~ Canadian and a person of

colour, your wages are

going to be lower.
According to 1999 figures from
Statistics Canada, workers of colour
make about 16.3 per cent less than all
other workers. That’s up from a 15 per
cent wage gap in 1996.

Ina report entitled Is Work Working
for People of Colour? the Canadian
Labour Congress says that little
progress has been made in bringing up
wages for visible minorities, even
during a period (‘96 - ‘99) of relatively
strong job growth and declining unem-
ployment.

The report points out that today’s
generation of new immigrants, which
virtually constitute all of the growth in
Canada’s labour force, is being more
more poorly paid than previous genera-
tions of immigrants.

“The report is a wake-up call for
trade unions across this country,” says
IWA national president Dave Haggard.
“There are workers out there that are
clearly being discriminated against, by
employers, because they are relatively
new to this country and that is an
abomination. That’s why our organiz-
ers are out there to bring more and
more minorities into our organization.
It’s to get rid of wage and other forms
of discrimination in the workplace.”

Today only about 22.1 per cent of
workers of colour belong to trade
unions while about 32 per cent of oth-
ers hold union membership.

Even though most recent immi-
grants have higher education levels
(higher than the average Canadian and
previous immigrants) they are getting
paid less. People of colour are underep-
resented in the teaching profession and
skilled trades, while being overrepre-
sented in unskilled or semi-skilled job
fields - including taxi drivers, child
care workers, janitorial and cleaning
services, garment workers and agricul-
ture labour. In Canada about 56 per
cent of people of colour work in semi
and lower skilled jobs, compared with
40 per cent of the general labour force.
About 90 per cent of people of colour
were born outside Canada.

CLC senior economist Andrew
Jackson wrote in the report that “the
fact of the matter is that economic gaps
between immigrants and all other
Canadians have widened as immigrants
have been increasingly drawn from
racialized groups.”

Brother Haggard notes that during
Canada’s history, governments have
fine-tuned their immigration policies
for largely one reason: to bring in cheap-
er Jabour and help corporations drive
wages down.

“That's why it’s so important for
unions today to continue to reach out to
new Canadians,” he says. “As we have in
the past, the IWA will continue the
struggle to eliminate inequality among
all workers, no matter what race, creed
or colour. A worker is a worker is a work-
er and, at the end of the day, we must
keep up the fight for the rights of all
workers in this great country.”

According to 1996 stats, the most vis-
ible minority group is people of Chinese
origin (at 27 per cent), followed by a 21
per cent mixture of South Asian ethnic
minorities (ie. East Indian, Pakistani,
Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan), followed by
an 18 per cent black mixture (largely
from Carribean, African and South
American nations). Other expanding
minority groups of workers are migrat-
ing from countries in the Arab Middle
East, the Phillipines, Central and South
America, Vietnam and other south east
Asian nations.

Fed to vote on new structure
At the New Brunswick Federation of
Labour's upcoming convention in
May, affiliate members will be vot-
ing on whether or not to adopt a
new executive struc-
ture. In addition to
electing a president
and a treasurer, dele-
gates will decide
whether or not to
change from regionally-elected vice
president to a new forumula: unions
with over 5,000 members would
appoint two v.p.’s, those with less
than 5,000 would be entitled to one,
and all unions with under 1,000
members would collectively elect
one v.p. IWA Local 306 financial sec-
retary John Richard says the |WA
supports a new structure and will be
attending the convention at the
Hotel Beausajour in Moncton.

Local president sits as MFL
rep on review committee
IWA Canada Local 830 president
Jack Alexander of Winnipeg has
© been appointed by
the Manitoba
me" Federation of
7 Labour to sit as a
-—’ labour representa-
tive on a tripartite
committee which is
reviewing the province's health and
safety regulations. Brother
Alexander, who works at the
MacMillan-Bathurst Inc. corrugated
plant has been working on lock-out
and tagging systems.
“What's in the Manitoba regulations
now is limited and has to be
changed,” says Brother Alexander.
He is also helping to examine the
safe use of some tools including
skill saws and grinding equipment.

OFL calls for Employment
Standards Act Amendments
The Ontario Federation of Labour
has called upon the provincial gov-
ernment to sub-
stantially raise the
minimum wage
which has
remained frozen at
$6.85/hr. since the
Conservative gov-
ernment took power in 1995. The
OFL is demanding that it be indexed
to the average wage in Ontario. The
fed is also concerned over 60 hour
work weeks in the province, which
are supposed to take place only on
an employee's written request. “The
OFL has received many calls from
non-union workers who are putting
in long hours without any legal
paperwork being involved,” says
national second vice president Norm
Rivard. “What little rights they have
are being ignored.”

16 | THE ALLIED WORKER APRIL 2003