Nov-Dec 2008

I would like to thank the members of L.L.905 for sending me to W.W.W. Education & Technology Center this past week. Our group studied the benefits of belonging to the I.A.M.A.W., and how to help other workers get the same great things that we sometimes take for granted. It was determined that fairness and dignity were the two strongest driving forces causing workers to unite. Increased wages, (the most notable byproduct of being organized), benefits and pension come at a cost.

In my case at Messier-Dowty. I enjoy the fruits struggled for by our long-standing members, and of course some that are no longer here. This coming year we will be celebrating our 50^th year anniversary. Join with me to honour those before us by helping others. If you know of a worker not getting fairness and respect in their work-place, forward their contact information to ibtc@rogers.com.

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday.

Dave Thompson

Letter to the bank

Dear Sirs,                                                                                                                            In view of what seems to be happening internationally with banks at the moment, I was wondering if you could advise me. If one of my cheques is returned marked "insufficient funds," how will I know whether that refers to me or to you?

Internet

The most important profession

An architect, a surgeon and an economist were arguing about who was most important.
The surgeon said, “Look, surgeons are the most important. God is a surgeon because the very first thing God did was to extract Eve from Adam’s rib.”
The architect said, “Wait a minute, God’s an architect. The scriptures say God built the world in seven days out of chaos.”
The economist smiled, “And who made the chaos?

Internet/CALM

The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities have introduced a new apprenticeship course for Machining and Tooling trades people.

This course is designed for learning off the job. The in-school program focuses primarily on the theoretical knowledge and the essential skills required to support the performance objectives of the Apprenticeship Training Standards for CNC programming.

· This course consists of 84 hours of theory.
· This course can be taken on apart time basis (Night School)

Anyone interested or needing more information please contact Philip Kerr.

Apprenticeship Committee

Free online viewing of CSA standards

For the first time, workplace parties throughout Canada can access Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standards online for free.

Launched October 2008, this new two-year pilot program gives employers and workers  the ability to view CSA standards cited in federal, provincial and territorial occupational health and safety legislation without having to purchase the document.

According to the CSA, about 260 of the organization’s standards are currently referenced in Canadian occupational health and safety laws.

Federal, provincial and territorial regulators responsible for enforcing occupational health and safety laws say they are working with the CSA to “make it easier for employers and workers to comply with occupational health and safety requirements.

The CSA is a not-for-profit membership-based association that develops, among other things occupational safety standards and codes, and provides education and training to ensure standards are properly applied. They act in an advisory capacity serving business, industry, government and consumers in Canada and worldwide.

Viewers can access the standards by visiting http://ohsviewaccess.csa.ca and registering (without charge). The standards can be downloaded or printed for a fee.

WHSC/CALM

A lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.
Economists forecast nine of the last five recessions.
I asked an economist for her phone number....and she gave me an estimate.

Internet/CALM

A new study has found that a couple living in the City of Toronto and raising two children need an after-tax disposable income of $16.60 per hour each in order to earn a living wage.
The study entitled "A Living Wage for Toronto" was released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and co-authored by Hugh Mackenzie and CAW Economist Jim Stanford. It highlights the growing number of Ontarians working for less than $10 per hour and argues that minimum wage policies are not enough for workers to attain a decent standard of living. 
"For families with children, a $10 per hour job (even in a full-time, year-round position) is a recipe for continuing poverty - let alone for those workers who cannot find full-time, full year employment," the authors state.
More than 17% of Ontarians - or 1 in every 6 - earns an hourly wage that is less than $10. In fact, the study shows that Ontario is the only province in Canada where the proportion of jobs paying $10 or less increased in the past decade.
The report defines the concept of a living wage as one that allows workers not just to survive (in minimal physiological terms) but to enjoy a decent standard of living and participate fully in social life.
"We define the living wage for Toronto as $16.60 per hour (because) that is the wage level required for a family with two children, and two parents employed full-time and year-round, to meet a basic standard of living that allows for good health, education and entertainment opportunities, and full participation in modern life," the authors' state.
The authors consider living wages an important component in the broader struggle to reduce poverty in Ontario - a problem that is costing the province $38 billion annually according to a study released by the Ontario Association of Food Banks.
The Ontario government has committed to establish a provincial poverty reduction strategy, the details of which have yet to be released. Ontario is also set to increase the provincial minimum wage from $8.25 to $10.25 per hour in 2010.

CAW/LabourStart

Recession versus depression: A recession is when your neighbour loses his job. Depression is when you lose your job
Acceptable rate of employment: An acceptable level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.
Cost of living: The cost of living hasn’t affected its popularity.
Interest rates: There are two types of economists. Those who cannot forecast interest rates, and those who don’t know that they cannot forecast interest rates.
Number crunchers: Economists are number crunchers who, if they had any charisma, would have become accountants.
Different economic perspectives: If you laid all the economists end to end, they would never reach a conclusion.

Internet/CALM

A ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeals (OCA) handed down on November 17, 2008 will open the door for Ontario’s farm workers to exercise their newly found constitutional right to bargain collectively.  The Court held that the province’s Agricultural Employees Protection Act (AEPA) did not go far enough to protect farm workers’ collective bargaining rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and was therefore unconstitutional. Ontario was given 12 months to change its legislation to conform to the decision.
The case pitted the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada, a union that had been unsuccessfully trying to bargain on behalf of farm workers, against the province’s Attorney General and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
Farm workers in Ontario have been traditionally excluded from the province’s
Labour Relations Act (LRA) which gives other workers the right to form unions for the purpose of bargaining collectively with employers.  Some of the reasons given for this exclusion are the importance of protecting family farms, the perishability of agricultural products which allegedly makes the industry especially vulnerable to work stoppages.
In 2001 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Dunmore v. Ontario that workers had a constitutional right to organize and that the exclusion of farm workers from the LRA violated this right. In response to the decision Ontario enacted the AEPA in 2002 which gave farm workers the right to form associations which could take their concerns to employers.
But unlike the LRA, the AEPA does not impose on farmers the obligation to bargain with workers’ unions in good faith, nor does it include mechanisms to resolve disputes when bargaining reaches an impasse. These omissions have effectively prevented farm workers’ associations from successfully bargaining collectively.
This situation was destined to change after the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Charter: Health Services and Support – Facilities Subsector Bargaining Assn. v. British Columbia.  In that case the court held that not only was the right to unionize constitutionally guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but so was the right to engage in meaningful collective bargaining.
Basing itself on this decision the OCA struck down the AEPA and rejected arguments that the legislation was crucial to protect agricultural production and the family farm.  The Court was unconvinced that the unique characteristics of the industry (that is was time sensitive, seasonal, and produced perishable goods) required special protection  given  that collective bargaining had been extended to almost every other class of workers in Ontario, including those in other industries faced with similar problems.

Maquila Solidarity Network/LabourStart

Accept this special invitation: Pay money
Bear: What your trade account and wallet will be when you take a flyer on that hot stock tip your work mate gave you.
Bond: What you had with your spouse until you pawned their golf clubs to invest in that hot stock tip.
Brokee: Someone who buys stocks on the advice of a broker.
Broker: The person you trust to help you make major financial decisions. Please note the first five letters of this word spell broke.
Build relationships: Get money from people
Bull: What your broker uses to explain why your mutual funds tanked during the last quarter.
Commission: The only reliable way to wake money on the stock market, which is why your broker charges you one.
Convenience fee: Interest charge
Invest: Gamble
Margin: Where you scribble the latest quotes when you’re supposed to be listening to your stock manager’s presentation.
Misdeeds: Crimes
Multilevel business partners: Suckers
Stock: A magical piece of paper that is worth $33.75 until the moment you buy it. It will then be worth $8.50.

Internet/CALM
 

Canada’s labour unions want a say in the federal government’s plan to cushion the economy and protect working Canadians from the consequences of the recent meltdown of global financial markets.
Meeting in Ottawa, the executive council of the Canadian Labour Congress adopted a range of policy solutions it insists must be part of the government’s plan to protect the livelihoods and the savings of working people.
Topping the list of demands was an immediate meeting with Stephen Harper in advance of upcoming international summits called to deal with the global economic crisis.
“Hard working, responsible people who have played by the rules all their lives need to know that their savings, their pensions and their homes will not become the collateral damage of this financial crisis,” said Ken Georgetti, president of the CLC.
Georgetti says it is no longer good enough to feed working Canadians mantras about “the fundamentals being strong,” or brag about Canada having the best banks on the planet.
The United Nations has estimated the recent market turmoil could result in 20 million job losses worldwide. Since the end of the first quarter of 2008, Canadians have lost $100 billion from their pensions and retirement savings due to the Wall Street sub-prime mess. Before that, in the summer of 2007, Canadian retirees lost $13 billion because of the Asset Backed Commercial Paper fiasco. Meanwhile, Canada’s manufacturing and forestry sectors have lost almost 350,000 jobs in recent years.
“The question today is not whether we will see large job losses and rising unemployment in Canada, but rather how deep and prolonged the crisis will be and whether the federal government’s plan is just about protecting the banks or includes measures to help ordinary people weather the storm,” Georgetti says.
In addition to policy options for financial stimulus and tighter controls on rampant market speculation, the CLC wants to ensure any plan adopted by the federal government includes measures to protect private pensions, expand public pensions, ensure the availability of Employment Insurance to laid off workers and a cap on executive compensation.
At the heart of the labour plan is economic activism on the government’s part through investments in infrastructure, renewable energy and greater energy efficiencies, rebuilding the manufacturing and forestry sectors, and reforms to employment and labour laws.
“This is a problem with the potential to touch us all. It demands solutions that include us all and measures that are fair. Working people know there will be sacrifices. They should not be expected to make them all, or any for that matter without consultation,” says Georgetti.

CLC/CALM
 

Whether you drive a delivery truck, care for the elderly or stock shelves, fatigue affects your ability to perform work while increasing the risk of work-related injuries and fatalities.

A new resource published by WorkSafe Victoria (Australia) introduces the many work factors that contribute to fatigue along with prevention strategies.
Fatigue: Prevention in the workplace defines fatigue as “more than feeling tired or drowsy. It is an acute and/or ongoing state of tiredness that leads to mental or physical exhaustion and prevents people from functioning within normal boundaries.”
This exhaustion and inability to function can affect a worker’s capacity to concentrate, communicate and recognize hazards. This is a recipe for injury, and possibly death. One example that gets much media attention are accidents on busy highways involving transport truck drivers. Having to work long hours, fatigue is a safety issue for drivers and other motorists.

Fatigue can also lead to chronic health effects including heart disease, depression and anxiety.

A range of work-related factors contributing to fatigue include mental and physical demands and scheduling and planning work time.
Hazard assessment strategies, including consultation with workers, are identified to help workplace parties decide where preventive action is needed. For instance, workplaces are encouraged to avoid working arrangements that provide incentives to work excessive hours and move forward rotation shift schedules (i.e. morning to afternoon, afternoon to night).

The need to provide comprehensive training to workers, supervisors and managers along with ongoing consultation “between employers and workers and health and safety representatives and committees” is important.

WHSC/CALM
 

Mike Bennie
Pavel Blaha
Randy Crawford
Delfin Flores
Tony Jordi
Pauline Reilly