WAM Conference 2021
Speech by Julius Arscott
Sunday, February 28, 2021
First, I want to thank all the wonderful speakers who have participated in today’s Workers’ Action Movement conference. We have gained much insight into current bargaining issues, into the fight against privatization, and the fight for equity. We have heard about rank-and-file initiatives in taking the struggle for collective bargaining rights to the next level, through actions deemed illegal by the boss’s laws. We have heard about the need to fight for Eco-socialist policies within our labour movement, and about the steps needed in the weeks ahead leading to the CLC Convention, and beyond. There is no doubt that there is an appetite for serious change our labour movement. What’s lacking is leadership. We strive to help build that leadership to change our labour movement for a better world for the working class and humanity.
The Canadian Labour Congress, the central labour body in Canada, will meet in convention in mid-June to adopt policy and to elect its officers for the next 3 year term. We need to ensure that WAM has a presence at the convention – however challenging that may be, since the convention will be online. One focus of the convention will likely be constitutional amendments. They address union representation at conventions. The proposed amendments may also address the issue of union raiding. A raid involves one union campaigning to recruit members of another union. Such attempts, which are rarely initiated by the workers themselves, serve only to divide the ranks of labour. The efforts of unions should go into organizing the unorganized. 68% of workers in Canada do not belong to a union. That’s what must change, which union raiding does not help.
So far, we know of one opposition slate of candidates, ‘Team Unite CLC 2021’ the so-called reform slate. It consists of Bea Bruske for CLC President, Lily Chang for CLC Secretary-Treasurer, and Siobhan Vipond for CLC Executive Vice-President. Like the previous so-called reform slate, headed in 2014 by the current CLC President Hassan Yussuff, the current ‘reformers’ present no meaningful program. They do not represent any real change to status quo business unionism. None of the candidates have championed the fight for no-concessions bargaining, for greater union democracy, for mass job action to fight capitalist austerity, for anti-racism, for eco-socialism, to de-fund the police, or for any substantial challenge to business unionism within their own unions. None of them calls for a break with so-called strategic voting, a rejection of the Liberal Party, and a commitment to support the New Democratic Party while fighting inside the NDP for socialist policies and a Workers’ Agenda. So why should we expect them to do so as leaders of the CLC, especially without any commitment or program for change as part of their current campaign? The election of the reform slate would result in the same old, same old class collaboration. What we need is exactly the opposite of the status quo. It is time for serious change. Only WAM can offer that alternative.
The actions of the current President of the CLC, Hassan Yussuff, are symptomatic of a deep problem. Yussuff’s reform campaign challenged Ken Georgetti’s leadership as a result of rank-and-file activists campaigning under the banner of Hassan Husseini. Sadly, Husseini withdrew his candidacy to support Yussuff. Yussuff’s election soon folded into the status quo. After UNIFOR, the union to which Hassan belonged, left the house of labour, the labour leadership quickly found a union card for Hassan. He was then beholden to the labour establishment. Hassan’s inaction in the face of the global pandemic and his endorsement of former Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau for the leadership of the OECD, reflect an indifference to the needs of workers. All of this happened after the CLC leadership succumbed to the pressures of Canadian imperialism and condemned Brother Donald Lafleur of the CUPW for visiting Syria for a labour conference, which he did on his own time.
Workers want a union movement that is engaged in the class struggle. We need a movement that takes a leading role in fighting the pandemic and eco-catastrophe head on. We see an example of this in the wildcat hospital support workers’ walkout by AUPE members in Alberta, in the no-concessions fight of the locked-out Molson workers of CUBGW Local 326 who rejected a rotten final offer and who are now on the picket line. We honour the workers of colour who continue to fight systemic racism in the workplace and in our unions without the support of union leadership, which Sandra is doing in PSAC. We are inspired by the millions of workers who hit the streets in support of Black Lives Matter -- the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States. WAM unequivocally supports the call for defunding, disarming and abolishing the police of the boss’s state. The CLC should echo the call made by the multiracial youth and working class of North America, led by Black youth, and crystalized in the slogans "Black Lives Matter", "Defund the police", and "fu@k white supremacy". There is a visible shift in consciousness in the workers’ movement as the material conditions of a public health crisis and economic depression unfold. Communities across North America demand an end to police repression and their invasive presence in our spaces. Recent analysis shows that someone is killed by the police every 12.6 days in Canada. Indigenous and Black youth are by far the most likely to be killed by police. White people in Canada are by far the least likely to be killed by the police proportionately. The police are not workers. They have no place in the union movement.
Workers here support Land Back initiatives in support of indigenous peoples. Workers want to fight for a better world. Indeed, the unionization rate increased during the pandemic, with efforts to unionize precarious workers who don’t belong to unions. Companies like Amazon are in the telescopic cross hairs of union organizers.
Workers across the country are on the front lines fighting COVID 19 with inadequate support from our labour movement. The vaccination delays, the lack of personal protective equipment and paid sick leave, the overall priority of profits over human needs, with the spotlight on the most precarious and vulnerable workers keeping the economy moving, have all shown the need for a dramatic change in labour union priorities and leadership. Workers want to fight against concessions bargaining, against 2 and 3 tier wages and benefits, against attacks on our pension plans. We see how difficult it is to live in a society with such a high cost of living while most of our union leaders continue to tell us to settle for less, insisting that we cannot win by standing up.
A common phrase we are now hearing is that after the pandemic, we must ‘build back better.’ Many of the problems that we face today are the result of the conditions working people faced for decades. It is not realistic to assume anything will change as a result of the status quo leadership. Change does not occur without struggle -- like some mythical gift from the boss. It comes through working class struggle, as it always has. The mis-leadership of our movement has proven unwilling to mobilize the ranks of labour to fight to defend our rights, let alone to fight for substantial gains.
WAM is working with the Toronto-based May Day Committee, a movement of labour and left activists and organizations. We have been able to tie International Workers Day to the working class in a way which has not been done in generations, and we encourage all of you to get involved as well. Major unions and labour bodies such as the OFL have endorsed May Day Rally 2021. We in WAM support international working class campaigns such as the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign against the Israeli Apartheid state, and for solidarity with the huge struggle of India’s farmers!
It's undeniable. The Workers' Action Movement made a major impact on the Ontario Federation of Labour Convention in November 2019. WAM played a leading role in defeating a constitution amendment to hold OFL Conventions every 3 years instead of the existing frequency of every 2 years. The change would have further undermined the democratic process in our labour movement, further weakening our ability to take on the Doug Ford-led Tories and their Bay Street backers. This was a big blow to the labour bureaucracy, which usually gets its way. WAM candidate for OFL President, Barry Conway of CUPE Local 5167 received 36% of the votes cast, and WAM candidate for OFL Executive Vice-President, Kurt Young, from Sheet Metal Workers' Local 30, received 33.5% out of the votes cast. Barry's support doubled from the 2017 OFL convention when he ran independently for President. This substantial vote for each of the two WAM candidates set a high-water mark for class struggle politics in the Ontario labour movement.
The convention atmosphere was electric during the debate on the so-called ‘OFL Action Plan’. Our supporters were able to extend the time for debate on the Plan of Action until every delegate who wished to speak on it was able to do so. We narrowly lost a vote to include General Strike language in the text. WAM played a leading role in organizing on the floor, working alongside allies and friends to challenge business unionism in a way not seen at an OFL convention in many years.
Establishment forces, led by school support worker Patty Coates who won the presidency, were visibly shaken by the sizable support won by the WAM ticket. WAM campaigned for an end to concessions bargaining, two-tier wages, undemocratic union practices, and for building towards a general strike to "Dump Thug Ford." (See http://www.theWAM.ca )
During the convention, dozens of delegates signed up to join WAM. To this date, the OFL leadership has not acknowledged the existence, let alone the significance, of the opposition team. But we thank everyone who propelled our remarkable campaign at the OFL.
Now, we believe, is the time to organize an electoral slate for the CLC Convention, which will occur in June this year. As resolutions must be submitted by the top officials of affiliated unions, it is almost impossible to get WAM resolutions on the agenda. We will change that in the future. For the time being we encourage all our supporters who are in unions to contact their unions, to ask to become a delegate. Please let us know if you are, or can become a delegate to the CLC. We can intervene in debates on issues as they come to the virtual ‘floor’ of convention.
We plan to run candidates for the top 4 CLC executive positions: President, Secretary-Treasurer, and the 2 Vice President positions. We want a strong, militant, grassroots team that reflects the diversity of our movement. The number of candidates we run will be determined by the folks who step forward now to run. It is preferable that candidates be delegates to the convention, however it appears that it may not be necessary, as long as you belong to a union affiliated to the CLC.
I am a member of the OPSEU Executive Board. OPSEU is a component of NUPGE. I am prepared to run for a top CLC executive post. And now WAM needs to know this:
Who here is willing to join me to be a candidate on the WAM team? Dare to struggle. Dare to Win! Let’s build WAM together!