Full employment

the only answer

by Ken Georgetti

uring the past decade, more than 120,000 workers in British Columbia \have joined unions affiliated to the wp J B.C. Federation of Labour. The Fed- < / eration membership is now just un- "der 340,000 workers, the highest in the history of labour in our province. Almost fifty percent of all non-agricultural workers in B.C. belong to a union. Never in the history of the province have we experienced such a rapid growth in union membership.

The reason for the phenomenal growth of unions is simple; working people recognize unions as the organizations in our society that best represent their economic and social in- terests in difficult times.

For the past ten years, workers in our coun- try have endured real unemployment levels well over 10 percent. Real wages have fallen steadily, and family incomes have been erod- ed to the point that, in 71 percent of families with children, both parents must now work outside the home just to keep family income steady.

Over 1.2 million Canadian children are growing up in poverty; over 4.5 million Cana- dians depend on food banks to survive.

But Canadian corporations and their politi- cal allies offer only one solution - more of the same. They have no alternative to “structural”

unemployment levels as high as 8 percent. In fact, even small im- provements in the em- ployment picture trig- ger panic in the invest- ment community. The markets thrive on the misery of workers.

Corporate Canada in- sists we can only enjoy economic growth if we choke off inflation, cur- tail government social spending, cut unem- ployment insurance and welfare, and end the minimum wage.

They say we must scale back environmental protection and eliminate health and safety regulations that pre-

prepared to accept their threadbare policies. They're turning to unions for alternatives.

Canadian unions insist that economic growth must benefit us all, instead of simply generating high returns and obscene salaries for the few. It’s not enough for Canadian busi- ness to haul in greater and greater profits while shedding more and more jobs.

We're lobbying government and business to join us in adopting full employment as a cen- tral economic and social policy goal. We must have job creation to maintain social harmony in Canada and place our country on a sound fiscal footing. Only a national commitment to job creation will protect our society from con- vulsive social unrest and violence that visits a society in which young people and the unem- ployed have lost all hope of sharing in even a small portion of the

vent workers from being crippled and killed on the job. Groups like the B.C. Business Coun- cil and the Mining Council lobby con- stantly for lower tax

Only a national committment to job creation will protect our society from convulsive social unrest

country’s wealth. Unions are lobby- ing for the training that will allow work- ing people and our children to adjust to the rapid economic and technological

levels, even though this will squeeze off revenue we desperately need for hospitals, schools, roads and sewers, and will make it more difficult for govern- ments to pay down debt.

These are the same tired economic pre- scriptions that now bring unemployment and poverty to 35 million people in the western in- dustrialized countries annually. If economic growth results from these policies, few Cana- dians will enjoy any of its benefits.

National surveys, like the recent EKOS poll, show the majority of Canadians don’t share the priorities of the business elite and aren’t

changes. We’re de- manding strong employment standards, im- proved health and safety, pensions and health care reforms.

Membership in unions is increasing because organized labour is the only force that can narrow the widening gap between those that have and those that have little or nothing.

Working people are looking for something different, something positive, something that works, and they are finding it in unions.

Ken Georgetti is the President of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Harris government hits working people in Ontario

What will happen to working peo- ple and their families if their NDP gov- emment lost to the Gordon Campbell Liberals or the Jack Weisgerber Re- formers? Ask workers in Ontario.

The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) is circulating information on some of the extreme right-wing mea- sures already made by the Mike Harris government. There are some very hard changes coming in the Spring budget.

Here is what is happening and what will happen to the province's Medicare system, according the the OFL.

e the Health budget has been cut by $132 million and there are $2 billion more in upcoming cuts.

° up to 38 hospitals will be closed, hospital budgets were cut by $20 mil- lion as of October 6.

e Senior citizens will have to pay user fees for medicines under the On- tario Drug Benefit Plan.

Looking at job creation, the view is equally grim.

¢ JobsOntario has been cancelled last July and training of welfare recipi- ents has been terminated.

e Jumpstart, the program for sup- port of 66,000 youth has been

scrapped.

e $200 million has been slashed from rapid transit, roads and high- ways.Cuts of $16 million in Municipal Operating subsidies have put the Wheel-Trans service for disabled per- sons on the chopping block.

e the Canada-Ontario Infrastructure job program has been cut by $287 mil- lion.

Looking at the tax system, the gov- ernment has vowed a 30% provincial tax cut which will benefit someone earning $100,000 annually for $6,000 but will benefit those earning under $30,000 only about $300.00.

This tax break will increase Ontario public debt by over $30.8 billion over the next five years.

"Everybody but the wealthiest 10% of the population of Ontario will suf- fer because of these cuts," says Gor- don Wilson, President of the OFL. "It's easy to tear things down, dismantle whole service areas like: shelters, group homes, the Royal Commission on Workers' Compensation, welfare and community projects. It's not easy to build, develop and create - to posi- tion Ontario to survive in the new global economy."

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Dues Balloting

A national referendum ballot on the issue of a National Per Capita formula is now being taken in I.W.A. CANADA. The new Per Capita formula would eliminate inequities between local unions who currently pay almost 50% of their montly dues to the National union and other local who pay only 23% of their dues.

A resolution which passed at the union’s National Convention in early October calls for local to pay 73% of one hour of the base rate in each indi- vidual operation to the national office. Of the money sent, 70% would go into

REED LUDO ELE BLES LTE:

16/LUMBERWORKER/NOVEMBER, 1995

the National Union's general fund and 30% would go into the Strike Fund.

In a message to I.W.A. members, National Union President Gerry Stoney says the the ballot is of great importance to the future of the union as is provides a fair and equitable for- mula for payment of dues to the Na- tional.

The formula will allow the National union to maintain existing services and expand in the future. The Strike Fund, which now has an all-time high of $13 million in it, will have over $15 million in it by the time B.C. provin- cial negotiations begin in 1997.

See Message from President - Page Four

Here's what's happening to Work- ers' Compensation.

© benefits will be cut 5% for work- ers while premiums for employers are being cut by 5%.

e a bi-partite Board of Directors with equal labour and management. membership will be replaced with an employer-dominated Board.

e an estimated 20,000 employers who should be paying into WCB re- main undetected.

In other moves by the Harris gov- ernment, the Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, Judith Mc- Cormack was fired in July. Then in July the Workplace Health and Safety Agency was disbanded, to be taken over by the WCB.

"Why is the Minister not addressing the real problems in the system..such as the thousands of workers who are disabled and unemployed whose WCB. benefits are so low that they must re- ceive social assistance?" asks Wilson.

Ontario's minumum wage has been frozen for likely five years and will not be increased until U.S. border states have increased their minimum wages to Canadian levels.

In the areas of labour laws there is bad new for workers. Bill 40 reforms will be wiped out this fall with the in- troduction of a Bill 7 by the Harris government. Here are some of those changes.

e the sign-up card system of union certification will be placed by manda- tory certification votes, allowing em- ployers to organize anti-union cam- paigns.

° employers will be allowed to insti- gate anti-union petitions and not be disciplined for intimidation and inter- ference.

e union successorship rights for Crown employees are being stripped away, while workers in the contract service sector will also lose those rights. That will also Harris to further privitize Crown corporations and strip workers of their collective bargaining rights.

¢ the Ministry of Labour will have a 46% cut in its budget resulting in stag- gering layoffs of 20% of Health and Safety Inspectors, and one third of Employment Standards Inspectors, meaning that employers will be under

less pressure to maintain safe work- places.

¢ employers may instigate decertifi- cation procedures.

The Harris government is also tak- ing aim at the province's education system. Minister of Education John Snobolen has told his bureaucrats to "invent and education crisis."

° grants to school boards were slashed by $32 million this past July with more huge cutbacks coming in the spring budget,

° community college budgets have been cut by $6 million and universities have been cut by $17 million.

e junior kindergarten programs have been made optional and the ND- P's program to make all child care centre into non-profit operations has been ended. :

¢ the Ontario Training and Adjust- ment Board has had its 1995-96 train- ing budget chopped by $10 million.

In the area of welfare, social assis- tance rates have been cut by 22% as of October 1. That will take food off the table of 500,000 children across the province.

"Workfare" will be introduced for all able-bodied welfare recipients, raising the question of which jobs will be for welfare-level wages in the fu- ture.

Special assistance to municipalities with high welfare caseloads is termi- nated and has been shifted onto the property taxes.

Union workers across Canada should understand that this assault on workers’ rights and benefits is not

something that the Harris government dreamed up on its way to office. It is much like the program of Alberta's Ralph Klein government and like the

programs of B.C.'s Bennett govern. ment in 1983. on

Just as I.W.A. CANADA members want to buy more groceries for their families for less money, so too do right-wing supporter want to buy cheaper and more obedient labour, This is the thread that ties these

spending and program cuts together,