Union pushes new responses to neo-liberalism

Canadian Auto Workers:

CAW National Secretary-Treasurer Peter Kennedy reminded delegates about the continuing challenges facing the labour movement in Canada and around the globe.

Since the last CAW convention and the election of CAW President Ken Lewenza, the global economic meltdown has meant storm clouds over the entire economy and especially tough times in the manufacturing sector.

He outlined the many challenges and the response of the union in fighting back against three decades of the neo-liberal, anti-worker agenda. In the last decade alone more than 800,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost. Since the last convention three years ago and the culmination of that agenda, GM and Chrysler have gone through a major restructuring and there were 110 workplace closures and 11,000 members’ jobs have been lost at CAW workplaces alone, he said.

As a result the CAW and the entire labour movement have looked at new ways of representing the interests of working people. A key event at the CAW’s 1st Constitutional and Collective Bargaining Convention is the writing of a new chapter in union renewal under the new union project of CAW and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP).

Delegates to the CAW Convention will vote on the report of the New Union Proposal Committee in the afternoon of the August 22.

Kennedy blasted the Harper government for its increasingly hostile attacks on the labour movement, unions and working people.

Government interference in collective bargaining at Canada Post, Air Canada, CP Rail, the introduction of Bill C-377 on union finances, as well as several Conservative provincial parties pushing US style “right to work” legislation to limit unions, show the Conservatives and business interests know that unions are the counter balance to unfettered capitalism.

“But we’re not gone – and we’re not going away” Kennedy said. “This week we will show we have plenty of fight left,” he vowed.