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  • authored by Members for Democracy
  • published Sat, Sep 11, 2004

Canadian Labour Congress Hush Order is Bush League

Can you imagine a labour organization like the Canadian Labour Congress having the audacity to issue a hush order demanding union leaders keep members' concerns top secret?

What do Saddam Hussein, George Bush and the Canadian Labour Congress have in common?

The use of deception, through secrecy and other means to retain control of their subject populations for purposes of advancing their own agendas.

Control requires loyal obedience from the subjects and that invariably requires suppression of free speech and free thought. Depending on the despot and the laws of the land that he inhabits, obedience may be coerced in unpleasant and very direct ways or it may be achieved more subtly - through manipulation of the media, vilification of critics and dissenters and - secrecy.

Under current President Ken Georgetti, the Canadian Labour Congress has evolved a cult of secrecy. Decisions that affect the lives of millions of workers are made by Georgetti and his small cadre of insiders and put to a larger circle of insiders for the rubber stamp of approval. Union leaders are encouraged to keep intra and inter-union problems (like disenchanted members, escaping members, leaders colluding with bosses, affiliated unions poaching each other's turf) "in the family". These important issues are labeled "dirty laundry" and the faithful are implored not to let it hang in public. Members who refuse to be silent and insist on speaking out on issues that are of high interest to them, are chastised for bringing embarrassment on the family... um, labour movement.

In the spirit of paternalism that is shared by oppressors - big and puny - throughout the ages, all of this supposedly is done for our own good. In the same spirit, the fact anything that curtails our most fundamental of freedoms - the right to think and communicate our thoughts - is bad for us, is not even worth mulling.

It's all about control by whatever means are necessary and can be gotten away with.

Why do we as dues paying members continue to faithfully follow blindly the anti-worker anti-democratic actions of Georgetti and his corporate-friendly Canadian Labour Congress? Why do we continue to let this organization and its affiliates to control our destiny? Why are we funding these organizations that have proven that they are willing to sell out workers for the sake of keeping labour peace within the labour market and the labour movement?

The Sell Out of the HEU members by Jim Sinclair President of the CLC affiliate, the BC Federation of Labour is legendary. It will go down in history as one of biggest sellout of workers and the workers initiative to take their concerns into the streets to effect change.

That's too bad because the BC Fed pitches itself as the voice of organized labour and, by extension, of working people in BC.

Some very committed and honourable locals have withdrawn their per capita from the BC Fed. More locals and their unions should follow. If they had the courage to withhold their monthly tithe to these archaic out of touch organizations, workers might be better off.

The word on the street is that Sinclair, like a consummate controller, told the disobedient locals and their members that they may choose not to pay their per capita now, but they will never get out of the BC Fed and at some point someone will have to pay all the back per capita. Where Sinclair gets that kind of authority is a mystery. But then again, when you're into controlling others you want them to think that you're omnipotent. Your authority doesn't have to come from the law - it comes from God or Allah or maybe from the Great Labour Messiah.

"You will never escape my control. Resistance is futile" is the message we are getting from our mainstream labour leaders. Is it a desperate attempt to keep the peons in line or deliberate brain washing?

Once your subjects have internalized your oppression of them, you've got control and will have it for a very long time. Getting them to believe that you're smarter than they are and that you know what's best for them is preferable but if they're losing their faith convincing them that escape is impossible will do.

This kind of brain washing goes on in any society or group where the many are dominated by the few. Hell, Bush uses brain washing, Hussein used brain washing. It works. So it's no surprise that lesser lights like the CLC's Georgetti and the BC Fed's Sinclair would be putting it to use.

We all know someone who tries to control us in our personal lives. It's not hard to relate or is it?

Members are waking up and it may be getting harder for union members to swallow what the organized labour "Fed" are dishing up.

Let's go back to a time we hope union members have not forgotten. It was only last year that IWA-Canada was raiding the HEU for members or - more to the point - well for their dues paying capacity.

After some pressure from CUPE, the Canadian Labour Congress went through the motions of chastising the IWA for being a bad boy. In the CLC's back rooms, however, plans were being made for a takeover of the IWA by the United Steelworkers of America, a move that would get rid of the IWA and, presumably, its bad behaviour without the CLC having to get tough with IWA-Canada's President Dave Haggard (a crony of Georgetti's from a long way back).

Grass root activists, labour groups and organizations called on the CLC executive to suspend the IWA. That never happened nor did CUPE's National President Paul Moist scream blue murder about it. Why was that? The newly appointed CUPE Pres was just going along to get along with the other old boys at the Canadian Labour Club.

This was followed in short order by the shocking backroom negotiations between HEU leaders and BC health care employers that put a lid on 43,000 members who were prepared to take a stand in the face of stepped up efforts to contract out their work. A pivotal opportunity to rally workers and their communities against the BC government's privatization agenda turned into a pathetic capitulation on the part of mainstream labour leaders. Upon getting out of the employers' bed the next morning, the lords of labour proceeded to try brainwashing the members into believing that the deal (which specifically allows for the contracting out of 600 jobs) was a good deal. The BC Fed's Sinclair was a major catalyst in that round of back room bargaining.

All that back room snuggling has led to further backroom fun that is sure to please the privatization happy provincial administration. Lest incredulous members get too vocal about their views, a secrecy edict has already been issued.

According to an HEU news release, in July of this year representatives of the BC Nurses Union (BCNU) along with some HEU members from the Executive Board of the Licensed Practical Nurses Association of BC met with Rick Connolly, the B.C. Deputy Minister of Labour. They requested that LPN's, who are currently represented by HEU and the BCGEU be transferred into the Nurses Bargaining Association (NBA). Oddly enough, this is exactly what health employers demanded one day after the Liberal government was elected in 2001.

CUPE/HEU and NUPGE/BCGEU filed raiding charges against the BCNU with the Canadian Labour Congress on July 14th, 2004.

Several days later, Fred Muzin, President of the Hospital Employee's Union (HEU) publicly stated his views on the CLC's past performance with dealing with raids.

"Our previous experience when the IWA-Canada violated the CLC constitution by signing voluntary recognition agreements with multinational contractors left much to be desired. The case dragged on for over a year and so far, we have received more relief from a BCLRB decision than from the processes internal to the house of labour."

On August 25th, 2004 David Rice sent a letter to BC Labour Councils asking that everyone involved refrain from public comment on the issue and that people were working out a solution to the matter in BC.

"I would ask that your Labour Council allow us to try to find that solution without complicating the issue by discussing it on the floor of your Council. I know that this is an emotional issue for many members, but any acrimonious debate at the Labour Council level can easily be considered "public comment", especially if the media are present or otherwise report on your meeting."

Wow, that's being none-too-subtle about it: Let's not complicate an important issue that affects many thousands of members by letting them talk about it. They're emotional and we don't need any of their acrimonious debating. If the public finds out that we're letting the members say stuff we're going to look like idiots.

The August 25th letter amounts to nothing more than a directive from the Canadian Labour Congress ordering all its little families to "shut the f**k up and make like there's nothing wrong". It's a secrecy edict and a deception, intended to enable the leaders to control the outcome of a dispute between two unions all the while giving the members and the public the impression that there's no dispute.

Imagine the audacity of a labour organization like the Canadian Labour Congress demanding that Labour Councils - which are supposed to be grassroots organizations - keep their members in the dark about an issue that it acknowledges is of high interest to many of them?

What is wrong with grass roots labour activists taking an interest in issues that affect their lives like perhaps taking to the streets in masses?

Well, if you let'em do that then they'll want to be even more involved in other important stuff that affects their lives. Next thing you know they'll start telling the leaders what to do! You can't control anything that way, least of all people.

The CLC's officious pronouncement sheds a lot of light on its lack of respect for union members and its desperation to keep them quiet and obedient. It also tells us that the CLC has no desire to resolve this dispute through its own constitution resolution process.

Why? Because it doesn't want to piss off the leaders of either CUPE or the BCNU to the point where they might do something drastic - like pull their members out of the big umbrella org, a move that might compel other unions to do the same.

The CLC is a club that depends upon good relations among its privileged members. The constitution is just a prop to give the underprivileged members the sense that they're part of some kind of democratic "peoples" organization. Yes, it says that affiliated unions can be suspended, even expelled, from membership but that isn't really ever supposed to happen except in the rare case of a union without any allies in the house of labour.

This latest action by the CLC is a true indication that the CLC is dead, ineffective, and toothless. It's bad enough that the business community stopped taking it seriously ages ago but it affiliated members are now able to flout the house rules without much to fear except a few days in the backroom working things out under the cone of silence.

On Labour Day 2003, Georgetti the Great had the audacity to suggest that union members should celebrate their leaders. Georgetti you still mock us every day in every way.

But the ground is giving way under your house. An uprising is inevitable. The curtains that hide your secrets are in tatters and workers are catching on to what you're all about.

Celebrate you and your leaders? You're dreaming. Why should we honour your pork chopper affiliates when they sell workers to the lowest bidder? Perhaps you should spend less time hanging out in your glass house-of-pork-chopping and more time changing what's wrong with our unions.

One union member wisely summarizes your game thusly: "Why would any union continue to pay dues to any organization when constitutions and principals mean nothing, what good are they? Are they only a tax collector? We have enough of that from the government."

If we are to effect any change we must protest relentlessly and in the streets if necessary. We must withdraw our hard earned money from labour organizations like the CLC and its affiliates until they get the idea that they must change or new organizations are born.

It might seem a drastic maneuver to some loyal union members, but tough times call for drastic measures. We hear that from the bosses all the time (the ones at work and the ones at the union office). It's time they heard it from us, from you and I.

It should be the moral responsibility of every union member to break their mandated silence and let their voices be heard. We must all encourage and promote dissent and openness within our unions for the betterment of all workers. We must not willingly and blindly cling to the status quo. We must ask questions and be willing to demand the answers despite the admonishments of our spoof union leaders.

Regardless of your views about the dispute between the HEU and BCNU, you have a right to express them. Workers must take the initiative and learn how to protect themselves from Brainwashing by biz unionists.

The biz unionist CLC and its affiliates are dead. Get active and stop supporting these so-called labour organizations that gush sympathy for corporate interests and leave their members' priorities in the dust under a pile of lame excuses.

Start your campaign now. Stand up and do something-be an activist. Spread the mighty word. Mass email friends and associates. It is time to stop this labour sympathy for pilfering profiteers.

The CLC and its affiliates are dead, please stop supporting them and start supporting workers.

An uprising is inevitable. Perhaps what workers need is mass coordinated work stoppages across this country if we are to get the attention of our employers and or more importantly our union biz sympathetic leaders.

We must not tolerate hush orders from Bush or any of our spoof union leaders, now or ever. It is time for activists like you and I to stand up and do something about it.

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