Relevancy of the Labour Movement

Labour Day is a very important day for all people; for some it is a celebration of the Labour Movement and its history of improving the lives of working people and for some it is their annual invitation to question the relevance of Unions. This question is the hallmark of those not educated about unions, but perhaps, even darker, it may the annual call of those who through fomenting this controversy propagate misunderstanding such that people are denied the opportunity to receive an unbiased view of what Unions have done for workers and what is possible going forward. The only purpose served by denying people the information is to intentionally prevent people from establishing an educated understanding of trade unionism such that they will seek what is rightfully theirs; fair compensation, pensions, safety, fair wages and respect as a few examples.

The most ironic facet of this debate is that unions are all around us yet it seems that it is only labour unions that are the victim of the question of relevancy. A union is but the conscious choice by a group of people to work together for their collective good. On the macroscopic level this is represented by the union of the provinces of Canada or the states of the USA who came together to make life better and to protect their citizens. On the smaller scale the gathering of stores on Main Street to form a business improvement organization is nothing more than a union of stores that advocate for improvements in local regulations such that their profits may increase.

The differences between the trade union movement and these other such examples are defined by things such as the Labour Relations Act here in Ontario, but the essence of coming together collectively to work to improve the lot of everyone in the collective group is as much a pillar of the trade union movement as it is in any number of other such examples of collectivization or unionization. When the question of the relevancy of unions is thrown out each Labour Day it is very easy to see through the facade and to see the question for what it is and to realize that the question is the pet of those afraid that workers will come together collectively and ask for education such that they will ask for what we are entitled too; fairness in the workplace and a place in the policy making process of government such government policies work to protect jobs instead of sending them offshore.

Just for the record, the trade union movement is more relevant today than it has been since the very inception of the trade union movement.

Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council

People Can Achieve the Change they Want, A Labour Day Message

Labour Day is about celebrating the contributions made by all working people, but is also an opportune time for people to rededicate themselves to securing the respect that is often lacking in so many arenas when referring to working people. For instance; when was the last time a corporate or financial leader or member of any sitting government called for the first priority to be the well being of their employees or their constituents? We know all too well that the easy platitude for these same corporate people is to say things such as "people are our most important asset" or "we are in the people business". In the world of government the words are different, but just as hollow and insincere. Overwhelmingly, the evidence demonstrates that corporations find it easy to put just about anything ahead of the needs of their employees-even in spite of legislation that would not support such behavior- and that the basis of existence for the majority of politicians is re-election or shameless pandering to their corporate benefactors.

The leading edge of social change is very often the domain of Labour activists. This is easily demonstrated by the involvement of organized labour in the creation of such necessary legislation as the Occupational Health and Safety Act, various Human Rights Legislations, the Labour Relations Act and the Employment Standards Act. Of course this does not happen because corporate leaders or governments have a desire to see progressive legislation enacted, but because workers took their rightful place on the social agenda of the day and took the argument and battle for worker's rights to election campaigns and the ballot box in collaboration with other partners of social conscience.

People often call for change, but can't seem to reach a place where the fundamental changes needed are actually acted on and it is this challenge that must be picked up and acted on as we look forward from the upcoming Labour Day Celebrations. The control that corporate leaders exercise on the political agenda of the day is entirely based on the comfort provided by a history of voter complacency where the status quo or another version of the status quo is implanted in the seats of government; term after term. The biggest fear of the corporate and financial leadership resides in an educated electorate making choices at the ballot box that they know will improve the life of working people. Examples of making such choices would be a TOTAL rejection of policies that diminish defined benefit pension plans, that support free trade policies as compared to fair trade policies, that support privatization and deregulation ahead of public ownership and adequate regulation to name but a few such items.

How do workers, and for that matter all people of social conscience, do this? They reject the recent history of elections at all levels and educate themselves on all issues and vote as educated voters to prescriptively vote in people that put workers and the rights of workers ahead of corporate greed. This may sound to some degree to be revolutionary, but it is only by doing so will we put ourselves once again in a place where we can establish and sustain such ideas as universal health care which if you will remember was initially rejected by the mainstream of the establishment, but to-day is part of the Canadian identity.

The Canadian identity has always been one of inclusiveness and the collective good and it is only the establishment and sustaining of an educated and active electorate that stands between us and this lofty ideal. Take the time to re-affirm the rightful place of the real wealth makers of this country, workers, on this Labour Day and resolve to be the most educated and active electorate in a few generations and let us take the agenda back to a place where working people are the focus of corporate and governmental policy.

Happy Labour Day

Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council

Public Sector Unions / Corporate Tax Cuts

When did it become an axiom for governments to put pandering to business before representing citizens in general. The latest attack on public sector unions by the McGinty government has far less to do with government sorting out budget issues and more to do with ensuring that corporate dollars will flow to the provincial liberals in the 2011 election.



McGinty's cowardice towards putting the citizens of Ontario first is the equivalent of Harris' venomous frontal attack on the same people. These activities are easily hidden behind the attack on public sector unions as sadly and incorrectly people in public sector unions are portrayed as somehow unworthy of the benefits that have only been derived through decades of hard fought collective bargaining done within the confines of such legislation as the labour relations act.



McGinty and Harris the 2nd, Hudak, should stop hiding their pandering and catering to business by trying to make themselves seem somehow noble by hammering public sector union members. If these same governments realized that wealth is in the hands of the people they would turn every legislative initiative on its respective head and make only trade deals that keep manufacturing, resource and high tech jobs in Ontario while vigorously supporting our public services and public sector workers. Hot on this would be encouraging people to unionize to ensure that wealth is shared and to enforce regulations that protect people and jobs ahead of corporate coffers.

It may be time for the people of Ontario to revisit the election paradigms of the past and vote for not only a socially responsible change in 2011, but a change in the representation format such that we will finally elect a government that is elected by a true majority.

Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce
Labour Council

Fortress Toronto Not So Bad

This coming week-end will see what has been called "fortress Toronto" put into action. The security measures as we know have been sold to us as necessary to protect the leaders of the twenty most industrialized countries and largest economies in the world. By this late date just about all that can be said about this colossal waste of much needed public money has been said.

The irony of all this is that the security measures are put in place to protect the very people that can do little or no more harm to us at this summit than they and their predecessors have done everyday for decades as they hammer into existence more and more legislative policy that hurts ordinary working people around the world.

I would like to suggest an alternate use for the security measures and the fence; it is better used to protect the people that will rally and protest from the leaders that will be in Toronto at the summit. If we assume that virtually every protester has designs on making sure that their actions hurt no one during the week-end then we already know their designs are more honorable than the leaders who will continue to act in a way far less honorable as they return home next week and seek out new ways to deregulate economies in the interest of globalization with virtually no interest in seeing workers around the world protected and secure in a future that provides living incomes and social safety networks such that their retirement may be with dignity.

Keep the fence up and lets just hope it keeps the protesters safe from the G20 leaders.

Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council

Deregulation Still Haunts Us

This often referred too "first week-end of summer" is a time of awakening for many Canadians as we reopen cottages, light Bar-b-Cues for the first time since last fall and wax our cars, but this awakening is also a time of re-awakening the pain of grief and suffering as the wonderful people of Walkerton Ontario mark the tenth anniversary of the Walkerton water tragedy.

This avoidable tragedy brought to the people of Walkerton suffering and death; suffering and death of family, friends and loved ones. Yes it was avoidable on more that one front; a couple of the operators of the water treatment system received much of the blame, but it must never be forgotten that deregulation of our public services such as water treatment and sampling greatly accelerated the trip to disaster and tragedy.

If one needs more examples of where deregulation governments such as the former Harris government in Ontario and the current McGuinty government fail to represent and care for the people in their jurisdiction just think back to the privatization of TSSA inspections and the deadly propane explosion in north Toronto of a couple of summers ago. Fast forward to to-day and the McGuinty government is entertaining the possibility of privatizing Ministry of Labour inspections. Just imagine the disservice that workers in Ontario will be subject too if this privatization and deregulation exercise dose for workers what the privatization of TSSA inspections and water sampling did for the public safety.

Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce
Labour Council

Federal Conservative Party Intolerance

If there was much doubt about the agenda of intolerance that the federal Conservative party subscribes too the last few weeks should have cleared up that doubt. In the past few weeks the federal Conservatives have excluded abortion, in contrast to the rest of the G8, as part of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's G8 maternal-health initiative, have witnessed some raw political advice on the same abortion issue from a Conservative senator to women's groups “shut up” or it could get worse and, lastly, the removal of funding for Toronto's pride celebration.

Take these last few items, which are only a small subset of numerous other attacks on a wide variety of progressive groups and unions, and add them to the contempt for parliament that Harper has and a clear picture of intolerance emerges.

Canada is built on a long standing foundation of tolerance and understanding and in light of this should Harper ever have the courage to face the electorate the voters will need to give thorough consideration to this most important consideration; what type of Canada do we still want and who do we want to represent that Canada.

Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council

Sunshine List, $100,000 High Rollers ?

Mainstream media, or should I say media that has long forgot the necessary balance between being a successful business and selling papers or advertising space and being true to journalistic standards that report on a subject while leaving out the unnecessary right wing and short term thinking bias that is so much part of most mainstream media to-day has once again lived up to its reputation by unidimensionally reporting on the public sector employees who were compensated in excess of $100,000 in 2009; the sunshine list.

The first important piece of the report that is never discussed is that this mandatory reporting commenced only when the government of Mike Harris implemented this requirement. The Harris regime in its manic fear of a functioning and educated public service insisted on this report to further the Harris mantra of demonizing the Ontario Public Service to swing the so easily manipulated electorate of the time to believe that Harris' goal of privatization was not only financially prudent (which we know not to be true then nor is it today), but more sinister was the dark propaganda genius of not only requiring the reporting, but mounting the greatest campaign of misinformation about all unions in a generation or more. The reporting in concert with the campaign of misinformation lead those easily lead into a dislike of the public service thus requiring the dedicated public service workers, largely unionized, to fight to maintain their jobs and unable to provide the necessary public oversight that would have been provided to the public such that they would have seen the dogmatic direction of the Harris regime that certainly had no desire to look at anything in a broader social context for the general good in anyway shape or form.

In support of the poor reporting of this story lets examine the facts of those actually listed on the sunshine list. According to the Toronto Star, who seemed to report the story with some editorial conscience, most of the 63,671 Ontario public employees who made more than $100,000 last year aren't high rollers. They're nurses, police officers and garbage collectors who worked a lot of overtime, or mid-level bureaucrats who were pushed into the six-figure club by inflation. They certainly did better than the average Ontarian – who made $45,400 last year – but they weren't egregiously overpaid. And, as the government noted, if the annual "sunshine list" were indexed to inflation, the threshold would now be $130,000, not $100,000, and the list would be 70 per cent shorter.

By the way the overtime is often associated with the underhiring of full time staff.

While the sunshine list is still in existence and in reality still doing a great deal of harm to dedicated public service employees and unions in the public service the omission of such items of interest as the minimum wage is now only poised to reach $10.25 an hour. It took over 1,000 days to reach $10 and hour from the day the ten dollar minimum wage legislation was enacted almost three years ago. Further to this is the short term memory experienced by so many in the Ontario electorate; the three days of debate the Ontario government under Dalton McGinty took to give itself a 25% raise while continuing to attack the rights and benefits that were collectively bargained with Ontario public service unions while the minimum wage debate was still on.

The sunshine list has outlived its usefulness in its current structure and context as it puts the focus unfairly in only one area and was created out of malicious intent instead of a desire to provide fair and equitable disclosure.

Dave Trumble
President
Grey-Bruce Labour Council