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