By Susan Zachem

Graphic Communicator photo by Susan Zachem

James J. Cowan, GCIU vice president in Canada, reports on recent organizing victories, bargaining, and economic and political trends. From left are GCIU Secy.-Treas. Gerald H. Deneau, Cowan, and GCIU Pres. James J. Norton.

Organizing, bargaining, and the economy are looking up in Canada, and unions and their allies are trying to protect and expand these gains through political action, according to James J. Cowan, the GCIU's vice president in Canada.

Addressing the Coordination of Negotiations Conference in Pittsburgh, Cowan said that many of the trends in Canada are similar to those in the United States.

"Our economy is in pretty good shape," Cowan said. "We have the lowest unemployment that we've had in many, many years. We also have very low inflation – it may be lower than it is in the United States. So in those terms, we're very similar."

Another similarity, Cowan said, is the development of budget surpluses in the United States and Canada and the debate over what to do with them. "That is exactly what is happening in Canada. The labor movement and the working people in Canada are claiming that the budget surplus we have should go back into social programs that were stolen from to create that surplus and not to corporate tax cuts," he said.

Also as in the United States, Cowan said, the Canada Pension Plan, which is the federal program similar to the U.S. Social Security system, is under attack from conservatives. Unions and their allies beat back an attempt to raise the CPP retirement age and other attempted cutbacks, he said.

For the first time "in a long time," Cowan said, the last quarter of 1998 showed a slight increase in GCIU membership in Canada. He noted that the first Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Canada hit GCIU membership in Canada hard, as it did other unions in goods-producing sectors. Also contributing to the membership loss in the late 1980s and 1990s, he said, were recession and technological changes.

However, now, "we have very little unemployment" in the printing industry, Cowan said. "Most of the shops are very busy. In fact, we're now having difficulty filling jobs in certain areas which is something that hasn't happened in a very long time."

Cowan said "there's some optimism on organizing in Canada, too, for the first time in a long time." He said he finds the picture brighter because the gains are spread across the country, with recent victories in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Regina, and Toronto. "So, everybody is out there working" on organizing, he noted.

Bargaining "has been fairly positive lately in terms of increases," Cowan said, and GCIU locals in Canada are benefitting from coordination during contract talks with chains.

Cowan cited the example of a recent contract reached with a Quebecor plant that involved three Toronto 500M units and one Toronto 100M unit. As per GCIU Canadian policy in dealings with Quebecor, he said, an International representative sat in on the negotiations and each local sent a representative to sit in on the other local's contract talks. "It seemed to work because we came up with an agreement that is in the range of the norm," he noted.

Cowan urged this kind of coordination be pursued across the border when it comes to multinational giants like Quebecor and Mail-Well, a company that is rapidly expanding in both the United States and Canada.

With labor legislation under the jurisdiction of provincial governments, Cowan noted, upcoming provincial elections are very important to unions in Canada.

Polls show the New Democratic Party holding its majority in Saskatchewan, Cowan said. In Manitoba, where Conservatives have been in power for years, polls also indicate that the NDP is ahead, he said.

In Ontario, where some 35 percent of GCIU members work, Cowan said, defeating the extremely right-wing Conservative Party is very important. The Conservative government's record on labor legislation is "absolutely atrocious" with reversals of nearly every progressive change made by the previous NDP government, he said.

An example of the Harris government's anti-worker attitude is its action on behalf of Wal-Mart, Cowan said. Wal-Mart's multiple illegal actions during the Steelworkers' organizing drive in Windsor resulted in a certification for the union awarded by the Labour Board. The certification – the first union victory at Wal-Mart – was upheld after a judicial review.

However, Premier Harris called the legislature back into session to pass a bill that eliminated the reasons underlying the Wal-Mart certification, Cowan said. The bill also made the legislation retroactive to the day the Wal-Mart decision came down. He said all pending union cases with unfair labor practice objections similar to those at Wal-Mart – including several GCIU cases – "were thrown out of the window" by the legislation.

"So, that's the sort of mentality that we're dealing with in the government," Cowan said. The Harris government's attacks on schools, hospitals and other social programs have tightened a coalition of union and allied groups that are working hard at turning the government around in this election, he said.