FTQ fighting Charest on bills

@  Aseries of anti-union bills
= introduced in Quebec by the
——_ Liberal government of Jean

Charest intends to destroy
certain sections of public sector
unions, says the Quebec Federation
of Labour. FTQ president Rene Roy
says that the provincial labour
movement is going to fight back
against the contracting out of jobs
from the public sector. WA National
First Vice President Norm Rivard
says that “it didn’t take Jean Charest
very long to show his right wing
Tory stripes.”

Federation calls impartiality
of labour board into question
In September the Alberta Federation
of Labour called into question the
impartiality of the LRB after it refused
to grant a freedom of information
request to shine light on directives
the board may have been receiving
from the government to implement
Bill 27, Ralph Klein’s new health care
sector labour law. The LRB said the
requested docu-

ments would reveal
“..the substance of
deliberations” of

within the government cabinet and
between the cabinet and the board.
AFL president Les Steel said there
should not have been communica-
tions between government and the
LRB in the first place.

Liberal government called on
its ‘independent’ advisor ploy
The Liberal government is feeling the
heat over its plans to sell-off BC Rail,

according to the B.C.

Federation of Labour.
BCFED

In September the
Campbell govern-
ment requested pro-
posals for an
“Independent Fairness Advisor” to over-
see the sale. “This government is feeling
the heat about negotiating the sale of BC
Rail behind closed doors,” says Fed
president Jim Sinclair. “But instead of
opening those doors to allow the public
to judge the merits of the deal, they
invite another private company to come
into the room to review the deal.”

SFL holds OH&S conference
and annual convention
Between September 21-23 the
Saskatchewan Federation of Labour
held an Occupational Health and
Safety Conference in
Fort Qu’Appelle.
Among the work-
shops offered were
(4 Occupational Health
and Safety Act and
Regulations, and the
Duty to Accommodate. Between
October 29-31, IWA Local 1-184 pres-
ident Paul Hallen, a vice president of
the SFL, led a full delegation of local
union activists to participate in the
federation’s annual convention in
Saskatoon. There was considerable
debate and support for the NDP in
the November 5 election.

FILE PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA

= Only about thirty-eight per cent of unemployed Canadians were eligible
for El in 2002, a program that workers contribute to.

Off the backs of the unemployed

WHILE THE CANADIAN
government boasts of a fis-
- cal surplus, much of the
country’s unemployed are
without federal assistance.
A report, entitled Falling Unemployment
Insurance Protection for Canada’s
Unemployed, released by the Canadian
Labour Congress on September 3,
reveals that only 38 per cent of the
nation’s unemployed are actually eligi-
ble to collect employment insurance. A
series of legislative changes since 1990
have cut more and more people off of
the social assistance program, putting
greater strains on provincial welfare
programs and resulting in destitution
for many workers and their families.

In 1990 about 74 per cent of the
unemployed were eligible. That
dropped to 57 per cent in ‘93 and 51 per
cent by ‘94. In 1996, the rate of jobless
covered dropped to 42 per cent and,
two years ago, that dropped to 39 per
cent.

Qualifying times have been made
tougher and the lengths of EI entitle-
ment have dropped. The country is
split into 58 different regions which
peg coverage ratios to those regions,
provinces and cities. Thirteen of 24
cities surveyed have rates where less
than 30 per cent of the unemployed
can qualify for EI.

Meanwhile, proceeds from EI premi-
ums, paid for by both employers and

employees, are increasingly not going
into helping the unemployed. It is
going into the federal government's
general revenue flow to balance the
federal budget and create surpluses. In
short, EI is being used as a federal
slush fund while the jobless go hungry-
The federal surplus is being built off
the backs of workers ~ mostly unem-
ployed workers who can’t draw from a
program that is supposed to help them.

“The EI coverage issue is an impor}
tant one for our membership,” says
IWA National President Dave
Haggard. “This past year has been one
of the worst ones on record for our
union’s core membership in the forest
industry.” In late July the WA estimat-
ed that over 10,000 of its members
across Canada were affected by a series
of factors, including the softwood lum-
ber tariffs, the rising Canadian dollar
and low lumber prices.

Nationally the percentage of unem-
ployed women who are eligible for EI is
even lower — about one-third of the job-
less. More women have had to look for
jobs in sectors that provide part-tim:
work, mostly in lower-paying service
industry jobs. In . Saskatchewan,
Alberta and British Columbia only
about about 25 per cent of women who
are unemployed can get EI benefits.

“Times have changed. Work has
changed. The EI Program needs to
change too in order to be there when
today’s working men and women need
it to get them to that next job,” said
CLC President Ken Georgetti, who
added that working people pay for the
program.

At the September 3 press conference
with Brother Georgetti were CLC
Executive Vice-President Barb Byers
and Quebec Federation of Labour gen-
eral secretary Rene Roy.

“Right now, it looks as if the govern-
ment has been operating this insur-
ance program in its own interest rather
than in the interest of the working peo-
ple who pay for it,” said Brother Roy.
“It is unacceptable and to the millions
of workers we represent, to have rules
that prevent the majority of people who
pay for the coverage from accessing

their insurance. It is particularly offen

sive when these rules victimize
women.”

Fed boycotts WHSCC annual
NBFL affiliates boycotted the annual
convention of the Workers Health
and Safety Compensation
Commission between October 19-
22. Some union
members set up
information pickets
outside to spread the
word the commis-
sion is being operat-
ed in an unfair manner, says |WA
Local 306 financial secretary John
Richard. The Conservative govern-
ment has ignored recent joint rec-
ommendations on improving safety,
saying that it won't do anything
which increases costs on employers.
“These types of decisions make the
commission‘s work a farce. We think
that the new minister responsible,
Margaret Blaney, is beginning to sit
up and take notice,” says Richard.

Safety regulations committee
to review final draft version
In Manitoba, the federation of
labour, expects the recommenda-
tions of the tripar-
@ tite Workplace
INMFRHIL Safety and Health
Committee, to be
filtered into law by
the end of July
2004. IWA Local
830 president Jack Alexander, a
member of the committee, says the
recommendations on health and
safety regulations, are now sitting
as Orders-in-Council. During this
year’s election campaign, NDP pre-
mier Gary Doer vowed to pass the
new regulations. “We expect the
changes to go through without diffi-
culty,” says Brother Alexander.
“The legal language should be in

place by Spring.”

Mushroom boycott is called
to help workers in sector

In mid-September the Ontario
Federation of Labour endorsed a
UFCW-led cam-
paign to boycott
mushrooms pro-
duced in Kingsville,
Ontario produced
by Rol-Land Farms
under the brand names of Essex Kent,

Essex Continental and Unionville @

Farms. Although over 70 per cent
voted to join the union, the employer
refuses to negotiate. Despite a 2001
ruling in the Supreme Court of
Canada, which successfully argued
that farm workers have the right to
bargain collectively under the Charter
of Rights and Freedom, the Ontario
government has, since 1995, denied
this sector of workers those rights.
“We support the boycott and its objec-
tives,” says IWA national First Vice
President Norm Rivard.

20 J THE ALLIED WORKER NOVEMBER 2003

ee ———

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