Jan 2009

The world is in an economic crisis. Our federal government will be introducing a revised budget on the 27th. Contact your MP with issues that are important to you. Write phone or visit! Labour activists have identified five ways the federal government can stimulate our economy,
1)   Made in Canada procurement policy
2)   Increase access to Employment Insurance and Training
3)   Protect Workers Pensions
4)   Maintain and expand Services for Canadians
5)   Save Good Manufacturing and forestry Jobs
 
Log on to www.canadianlabour.ca for a complete explanation on how and why the federal government must address these issues to help us rebuild our communities. Get involved!

In Solidarity

Dave Thompson
 

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Dec. 11, 2008 — Seven foreign agriculture workers  
 recently fired and evicted by Canada’s largest mushroom producer, Rol-Land Farms, joined members of UFCW Canada, Justicia for Migrant Workers, and academics to speak about the problems of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program and its impact on workers.

 

The seven workers are the remainder of more than 70 Mexican and Jamaican agriculture workers at the mushroom grow house outside of Guelph who were fired without notice on December 6, by Rol-Land Farms — a multi-million dollar a year, privately owned industrial agricultural corporation. The workers were in Canada on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, championed by the Harper government.

They were also evicted from the housing rented to them by Rol-Land Farms. Many of the workers have already been repatriated. A few have remained in Canada to share their stories. 
Jorge a 28-year-old farm worker stated, “They didn’t give us a choice to stay, I know that they have more places to go other farms and ranches but they didn’t do nothing.”

Carlos, another one of workers added, “I think this is unfair, first because I’m not treated as a human being, I’m just treated as a commodity.  I demand respect and respect for everybody.”

Stan Raper, National Coordinator of the Agriculture Workers Alliance and a UFCW Canada national representative explained that “workers that come here are under the mercy of the employer. There is no monitoring and no enforcement.”

Chris Ramsaroop from Justicia for Migrant Workers stated “We all know the slogan Good Things Grow in Ontario, but good things grow in Ontario through bad working conditions.”

Jenna Hennebry, the Associate Director of the International Migration Research Centre at Wilfrid Laurier University spoke about the culture of fear in Ontario corporate farms. “There’s a great fear of replacement, reprimand, of forced repatriation, of loss of pay, of loss of deposits to unregulated recruitment agencies, in some cases of immediate evictions, and it’s creating a culture of fear. There is fear in Canadian work places.”

On November 17, 2008 UFCW Canada gained a landmark victory for agriculture workers in Ontario at the Ontario Court of Appeal. The decision struck down the ban on farm unions in the province as a violation of the Charter rights of Ontario's more than 100,000 agriculture workers.

The court has given the McGuinty government until November 17, 2009 to provide farm workers with sufficient legislative protections to enable them to bargain collectively as other workers in the province.

UFCW/CALM

They stood their ground for over a year – 260 CEP members at the Montreal refinery of Petrocan – to defend their national pattern agreement. Within weeks of a country-wide boycott being launched by the labour movement, Petrocan relented and ended the lockout. The workers are back on the job with their standards intact, and a commitment to tie in to the next pattern contract as well. Congratulations to CEP for taking on corporate power and winning! Visit www.cep.ca

CEP/Toronto & York Region Labour Council

Any Local Lodge 905 member who would like a free 50th Anniversary Golf shirt and have not done so should contact your Shop Steward before the next monthly meeting.

Leonard Yeung LL905 Communicator

After having failed his exam in 'Logic and Law', a student goes and confronts his lecturer about it.

Student: 'Sir, do you really understand anything about the subject?'

Professor: 'Surely I must. Otherwise I would not be a professor!'

Student: 'Great, well then I would like to ask you a question. If you can give me the correct answer, I will accept my mark as is and go. If you however do not know the answer, I want you give me an 'A' for the exam. '
Professor: 'Okay, it's a deal. So what is the question?'

Student: 'What is legal, but not logical, logical, but not legal, and neither logical, nor legal?'

Even after some long and hard consideration, the professor cannot give the student an answer, and therefore changes his exam mark into an 'A', as agreed. Afterwards, the professor calls on his best student and asks him the same question.
He immediately answers: 'Sir, you are 63 years old and married to a 35 year old woman, which is legal, but not logical. Your wife has a 25 year old lover, which is logical, but not legal. The fact that you have given your wife's lover an 'A', when he really should have failed, is neither legal, nor logical.'

Internet
 

Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next."
They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

Internet

A 30-nation report found the gap between the world’s richest and poorest people has widened over the last 20 years, particularly in the U.S.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says that with many countries now facing recession, “policy making must act quickly to prevent a surge in populist and protectionist sentiment as was seen following the Great Depression.”
The U.S. has the highest inequality and poverty rates in the OECD after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000.
The richest 10 per cent of Americans earn an average of $93,000—the highest rate in OECD. The poorest 10 per cent earn an average of just $5,800—about 20 per cent lower than the OECD average.
“Wealthy households are not only widening the gap with the poor,” the report declared, “but in countries such as the U.S., Canada and Germany they are also leaving middle –income earners further behind, with potentially ominous consequences if the global financial crisis sparks a long recession.”

UCS/CALM

Ottawa's Millionaire mayor and city council have refused to get back to the bargaining table to put an end to a destructive public transit labour dispute that has dragged on now for over 45 days. The citizens of Ottawa have endured losses and suffering from the mayor’s singled minded obsession with union busting and the destruction of local ATU 279. Working people have lost jobs, seniors and the disadvantaged have suffered great hardship. Last week the Mayor rejected ATU Local 279's offer of resolving this dispute through a mediated/ arbitrated process. The offer was promptly rejected by city council and again the city refuses to bargain.

LabourStart/ACT NOW
 

As we watch the global financial meltdown and the wild daily gyrations of the stock market, a common question is “what will the effect on pension plans and other retirement savings?”.

If I am in a pension plan, will the stock market decline affect my pension? What is happening to the money in my RRSP, or other savings? Should I be moving my money? Will it affect my retirement?

The safety of your retirement income depends a lot on where you are expecting it to come from.

The safest source of retirement income are public benefits – the Old Age Security, which pays around $500 a month to virtually every Canadian 65 and over, the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (C/QPP), payable from age 60 with benefits based on employment contributions, and the Guaranteed Income Supplement for low income seniors.

In spite of all the slagging that public plans get from right-wing privatizers, the current crisis shows that public benefits are the most dependable source of retirement income. Even the largest private financial institutions in the world are dependent on governments for support and bail-outs. While the CPP and QPP are partially invested in the stock market, they are set up to ride out market storms without major damage.

The next safest place for your retirement savings are government-protected vehicles.

If your savings (in or out of RRSPs) are in accounts or guaranteed certificates with chartered Canadian Banks and other institutions insured by Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation, up to $100,000 in each institution is fully insured by the federal government. These generally don’t provide great returns on your investment, but they are safe.

If you are a member of a Defined Benefit (DB) pension plan (in Canada, that’s mostly union members), those plans are generally invested in stock and bond markets, and are vulnerable to changes in those markets.
DB plans do offer some protection, by sharing risks, with plan sponsors, and among plan members. Poor investment returns may require higher contributions (by the employer, or both the employer and plan members, depending on the plan), but promised benefits will generally be maintained. DB plans can more easily ride out poor markets than individual investors. Their size also generally allows them to diversify for better returns, with less risk and lower costs than individual investors.

The most vulnerable are people investing directly in the markets, in RRSPs, mutual funds, and in Defined Contribution (DC) pension plans, if they have invested in non-insured vehicles to get higher rates of return. In that case, they personally carry all of the risks. In periods of market instability, they have to make hard choices about whether to sell, buy or pray.

Another downside of being a small investor is that Canadian mutual fund fees for individuals are the highest in the western world. When you are paying 2%+ in fees every year (good or bad), it can take a third or more off your pension in the long run. Pension funds generally pay much lower fees (usually under 1?4%, depending on their size).

We need better rules and more transparency on investment fees in this country. As we come up to end -of - the -year RRSP - selling season, make sure you know what the fees and risks are before you do anything.

As for DB pension plans, there are things that should be done to make them even safer. All jurisdictions should require employers to cover unfunded benefits when plans terminate (as some, including Ontario and Quebec, already do). Only Ontario has a Pension Benefit Guarantee Fund to support pensions if an employer goes bankrupt. This needs to be extended across Canada.

We need tighter regulation of financial institutions, in Canada and internationally, to cut out the cowboy capitalism that got us into this financial mess. We need to return to a closer regulation of pension fund investment to insure that our pension money is not sucked into arcane and opaque high-risk instruments.
There are lots of things to worry about in this tough economic climate – your job, maybe the value of your house. How worried you are about your retirement will depend on where your savings are.

Louis Erlichman/IAM
 

Toronto, ON – The first female president in the 116 year history of IAMAW Local Lodge 235 is stepping down. Laura White has come full circle as a member of the IAMAW, serving in a variety of roles on numerous committees before taking on the responsibilities of president three years ago. “She has always risen to the task of representing and empowering women in our union,” said IAMAW District 78 Directing Business Representative Gary Hynes.

‘When the Local Lodge was in dire need to fill the position of President, Laura stepped up to the task,” explained Hynes. “Her dedication as a unionist never faltered and our members have benefitted from her leadership.” The Executive of IAMAW Local Lodge 235 honoured Laura at its regular monthly week earlier this week.

IAM
 

Hamilton, ON – Ontario Patient Transfer workers in Hamilton-Wentworth Region are the newest members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

The one hundred new members of IAMAW District Lodge 78 provide non-emergency ambulatory patient transfers from Hamilton to Toronto in the east and as far west as Niagara Falls.

“Most of the credit for this organizing victory goes to Apprentice Organizer Ralph Martin,” explained IAMAW District 78 Organizer Scott Jackson. “Initially many of these people were very secretive about their views of joining a union and were scared of company reprisals if their intentions became known. But Ralph eased their suspicions and once they learned many of their fellow workers held similar opinions, the group became more cohesive and the union became a reality.”

IAM
 

Montréal, QC – Members of IAMAW Local Lodge 1660 employed by Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) Incorporated of Lachine, Québec, have a new collective agreement.

The three-year deal provides for wage increases of 3 per cent in each year. Other agreement highlights include:
A signing bonus upon ratification of the agreement
New classification of Fitter
Creation of a summer schedule
Three sickness days paid at 80 percent and if not used the days will be paid at 130 per cent

The nineteen members ratified the agreement by a margin of 88 per cent. The IAMAW also represents ABB employees at the St Laurent facility in suburban Montréal.

IAM
 

ROMANCE MATHEMATICS
Smart man + smart woman = romance
Smart man + dumb woman = affair
Dumb man + smart woman = marriage Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy

OFFICE ARITHMETIC
Smart boss + smart employee = profit
Smart boss + dumb employee = production
Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion
Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime
 
SHOPPING MATH
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.

GENERAL EQUATIONS
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

HAPPINESS
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.

LONGEVITY  STATISTICS
Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to die.

PROPENSITY TO CHANGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

Internet

28 Years James Wilson
25 Years Bryan Heroux
24 Years Michael Gatenby
24 Years Daryl Rowe
23 Years David Mette
22 Years Aly Elassal
22 Years Peter Ward
21 Years Ross Walmsley
19 Years Brian Greenslade
18 Years Christopher Rhodes
13 Years Gary Nemisz
12 Years Shawn Ferguson
12 Years George Vanin
11 Years David Swerdfeger
4 Years Robert Curtis
3 Years Glenn Gaffney
2 Years Ken Ngai
1 Year Martin Bessel
1 Year Justin Vongprachanh
 

Ian Cardwell
Randy Crawford
Delfin Flores