Vancouver District Labour Council (VDLC) meeting notes for TSSU

November 18, 2014

** TSSU has four seats in the VDLC which is where unions from all over the lower mainland go to share updates and coordinate every month. For more information, email us at tssu(at)tssu.ca **

 Highlights: 
- Candidates for BCFed Elections Q&A
- President Report
- Upcoming events
+ (e.g. December 6: Nat'l Day of Remembrance and Action for Violence Against Women)

CANDIDATES FOR BC FED LEADERSHIP

-        Candidates spoke with their basic positions they are holding as candidates for the leadership of the BC Federation of Labour.

 

One candidate for secretary treasurer:

-        Aaron Ekman:

-        Used to be part of VDLC exec and chair of young workers committee

-        Focus on teaching young workers to be organizers in their workplaces.

-        Focus on teaching young workers on the importance of unions

 

Two candidates for president:

Amber Hockin:

-        Former flight attendant became president of her local in her early 20’s

-        Currently Involved with CLC

-        Need to rebuild union movement which has been broken down by BC Liberal rule, a decrease in unionization rate in BC from 40% to 31% over last 15 years.  Focus on an NDP platform that makes sense to workers.

-        Stop Harper in 2015, stop BC Liberals in 2017

Irene Lanzinger:

-        Former president of BCTF

-        Focus on building jobs for BC workers that align with environmental goals, health and safety on worksites, win young workers over to labour with better wages and conditions.

-        Wants more criminal prosecution of employers that break health and safety regulations

-        The union movement should work to improve the conditions of all workers (even if they are not in a union)

 

Discussion- Questions for the candidates

 

Q: What do you feel is more important lobbying or strikes?

-        Hocken: Balance.  Influence on issues at government before it is public. Be more effective in how we work with government. Must rebuild house of labour.

-        Lanzinger: We are facing right wing move here as globally. Lobbying isn't enough. We need political action to elect governments that support us. Can't use striking every month, but striking remains the single strongest thing workers can do. Probably need to use that more than we do these days.

-        Ekman: We don't do a good enough job of staying in touch with politicians who we support. On striking, we have different tools in our toolbox, but striking is our only hammer. BC has the highest number of anti-union laws in the country. Need to turn that around.

 

Q: How do you plan to support unions in their organizing drives? (Question directed at presidential candidates only)

-        Lanzinger: Organizing is the job of unions, the job of the Fed is to help train and support those organizing drives to overcome barriers set up by the BC Liberals. Also to lobby for better labour laws, get the NDP to support better laws.

-        Hocken: Have to keep our foot on the gas and keep organizing. Organizing is our lifeblood. As CLC director the first thing I did was create an organizers thinktank as part of our field school. When you put organizers together and they talk about the tough climate in BC, they can learn from others experiences. It's time to revive the Organizer's Institute, to reverse the trend of losing union density in BC.

 

Q: How can you ensure democracy and unity in the union movement? (Question directed at presidential candidates only)

-        Lanzinger: The CLC suffered divisions after the last election. I am determined to maintain the unity of the BC Fed after the election no matter the outcome. Whether I win or lose I will be here for the labour movement.

-        Hocken: We need a strong, united labour movement. When we're divided we all lose. I haven't picked up the sort of divided sentiment that we saw in Montreal. Maybe because we have two great women running.

 

Q: Approach to building trades: pipelines, LNG, Port Mann Bridge?

-        Lanzinger: Difficult for the Fed to take positions on things like pipelines because there are member unions that take hard positions in favour and ones that take hard positions against. But we can be in favour of good trades training. Some unions are unhappy about that, but both NDP and BC Liberals support some form of LNG. Also, some projects are not good projects, must be evaluated on a project by project basis. Resource jobs have been good places for young people to get skills and good placements.

-        Ekman: Irrespective of the job that's being done, every worker deserves to be in a union. CLAC representing workers on any workplace is unacceptable.

-        Hocken: We have very diverse opinions in the labour movement about environment and pipelines. We need to keep talking about it. When anyone is faced with the spectre of losing a job, it always feels bad. We also have a proud history of making environmentally more responsible changes by being part of arrangements to make resource industry cleaner, safer, more environmentally responsible. Need to train apprentices for LNG. Also need more conversations with municipal governments; there has been a breakdown in communications between the environmental direction municipal governments are going and the market share that building trades have been experiencing. Need to make sure the First Nations are involved and have ceded the land and are on board with the projects in the first place. Let's be hard on the issues and easy on the people.

 

Q: How do you engage young people in the union movement and politics?

-        Lanzinger: Wants to see more civic engagement, if young people voted more we would have much more progressive governments.  Schools could be a great place to start teaching the young about civic responsibilities

-        Ekman: We should learn from the environmental movement. Example: David Ebby’s victory in election was thanks largely to the environmental movement and young people

-        Hocken: We should talk with our families and friends engage the young people we have around us encourage them to vote

 

Q: How will we track the performance of politicians after they are elected?

-        Lanzinger: Need to build stronger relationships with all levels of government, more communication

-        Ekman: More liaising with labour council endorsed candidates that get elected so that if we start to see issues with their policies we talk with them before the next election- give them a chance to fix problems

-        Hocken: make researchers available to small affiliate unions to help them study the performance of politicians

 

 

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

-        VDLC was more involved in the municipal elections than in the past.  Lost ground on the schoolboard but held it in Council (meaning Vision). 47% of endorsed candidates were elected, this number does not include acclaimed

-        Professor Mark Leier will be holding a 4-night series of night schools on labour history

-        Delegates to the BC Federation of Labour convention will be Joey Hartman, Murray Martin, and (missed the third )

-        This Friday November 21, the VDLC is celebrating its 125th year celebration at the Maritime Labour Centre.  Wine and cheese party.  Please RSVP by calling the VDLC office.

-        Protein for people at Queen Alexander School - Thursday Nov 20^th – union caught and processed salmon for food bank.

 

RESOLUTION

-        That VDLC call on members to fight for “defined contribution” / “defined benefit pension plans”

(Discussion)

-        Older workers have good pensions because of benefit plans of old. These new plans allow bosses to determine the pension benefits you receive

-        Young workers need to stand up and fight for a decent pension plan or it will be gone.

-        With some employers it can take baby steps to get to the defined benefit pension plan, though RRSP or other contribution plans

-        Get our members elected to the pension boards

-        (Passed)

 

REPORTS FROM UNIONS

-        UBC CUPE: Entering bargaining. Part of coalition to fight 10% increase in international student tuition and 20% increase in international student residence costs

-        Education & Training Assn Local 1: New school being organized now but at secrecy stage, provoked by owner wanting to scam the workers. Need to pay attention to coming Bills including regulating of tourist ESL (under 6 months). 100-teacher school being bought out by US oil corporations.

-        CUPE 3906, Child Care: Child care is the best way to support lower income children, it pays for itself with improved access to jobs and standards of living.

-        CUPE National: Major resolutions to defend public health care, and to unite public sector unions against cuts and privatization

-        TWU: Vote to merge TWU with United Steelworkers has passed with 86% member support

 

COMMITTEE REPORT

-        Women's Committee: December 6 is Nat'l Day of Remembrance and Action for Violence Against Women. This year's event will be Saturday December 6th, 10:30am at Thornton Park. It will commend those women killed at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and also all murdered and missing Aboriginal women. Also preparing for International Women's Day which will feature JB the First Lady, a fabulous Indigenous woman hip hop performer.

-        Solidarity in Action: The Teamsters dispute at Ikea in Richmond has finally ended and they have ratified a collective agreement, although the details of it have not yet been released.

 

CANADIAN LABOUR CONGRESS REPORT

-        Townhall meeting: Are you worried about retirement? We are too! Retirement security townhall, Thursday December 4th, 2pm at West End Community Centre, 870 Denman Street.

-        Elections: CLC considers that there were 300 progressives elected BC-wide in the municipal elections. Most of them supported with 180,000 voter support cards sent out province wide.

-        Majorities and sweeps of labour-council endorsed candidates in New West, Vancouver, Burnaby, North Van, Kitimat, Prince George, Saanich, Parksville, Langley City, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Kamloops, Campbell River

-        Where we did not do well: Lost a mayor in Victoria by 89 votes, and therefore also lost the majority on council, lost a councilor in Coquitlam, did poorly in Nanaimo and Surrey.