Today’s announcement that the Canadian government intends to provide the owners of Air Canada with a $5.9 billion bail-out is the wrong decision for Canadians. It’s wrong for laid-off airline workers, and it’s wrong for the public who will pay a steep price for earlier Liberal and Tory decisions to privatize Air Canada and deregulate the airline industry in Canada.
The Communist Party of Canada is calling on the federal government to nationalize Air Canada and Bombardier now, without delay.
La décision des Libéraux de présenter une loi forçant le retour au travail et mettant fin à la grève du STTP, met en péril le droit à la libre négociation collective et le droit de grève de tous les syndicats et de toutes les travailleuses et les travailleurs du Canada.
L’argument du gouvernement à l’effet que la grève menaçait les petites entreprises et les consommatrices et les consommateurs au plus fort de la période des dépenses du temps des Fêtes, ne tient pas la route. Le STTP n’a jamais fermé le bureau de poste, les grèves étaient rotatives et le courrier était toujours livré.
The Liberals’ decision to introduce back to work legislation and end the CUPW strike threatens free collective bargaining and the right to strike for all unions and workers in Canada.
The government’s argument that the strike threatened small businesses and consumers at the height of the holiday spending season doesn’t hold water. CUPW never closed down the post office, the strikes were rotating and the mail was always moving.
Le Parti communiste du Canada demande aujourd’hui au gouvernement fédéral de retirer la loi ainsi que le projet de loi permettant d’accélérer son adoption, qu’il entend utiliser contre le Syndicat des travailleurs et des travailleuses des postes pour imposer leur retour au travail.
The Communist Party of Canada today demanded the federal government withdraw back to work legislation and an enabling bill to speed its passage, which the government will use against the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
The union has been forced to strike as a result of the employer’s refusal to negotiate a fair contract that takes into account pay equity for women workers, health and safety, staffing, over-burdening, job security, a reduction in precarious employment, pay for all hours worked, and a better work-life balance for postal workers.
After protracted intransigence at the bargaining table over fundamental human rights issues, a long over-due intervention by the government, and a united and militant fight against concessions put up by the union with the full support of the public, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers finally has a tentative two-year deal with Canada Post.
The deal halts managements vicious attack on the workers’ pensions, preventing two-tier pensions. It doubles paramedical benefits for Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers, who are predominantly women, raising extended healthcare benefits for these workers to the same level as urban operations. While the illegal gendered 28% pay gap between urban and rural employees remains, the union did win a major human rights victory, establishing a process to finally resolve this shocking pay discrepancy within nineteen months.
Our 38th Central Convention meets at a moment of escalating danger, from increasing war, environmental crisis and economic decay. As the systemic crisis of capitalism continues to deepen, and the effects of the 2008 economic meltdown continue to be felt, imperialist states and organizations are becoming increasingly aggressive. The standoff between nuclear armed states in Ukraine and the expanding war in Syria are powderkegs that threaten disaster. Millions upon millions of people in all parts of the world are being forced into poverty, hunger, homelessness and displacement.
But this is also a moment of rising working class and popular resistance. In all countries, albeit unevenly and with different characteristics, we see increased unity and mobilization. From online campaigns to mass demonstrations, general strikes, and political actions, people are using many different vehicles to advance these struggles. This is also expressed by the rising popularity of so-called democratic socialism, with all its contradictions, which is examined in detail in this report.
In Canada, the electoral defeat of the Conservatives in October 2015 represents a significant victory for the working class, Indigenous peoples, racialized communities, women, LGBTiQ communities, youth and students. While the victory of the Liberal party does not represent a break from the reactionary policies that are characteristic of the Canadian state, through a united, conscious political and organizational struggle we can open new space and possibilities in the fight for peace and disarmament, for immediate action to combat climate change, and for social equity and social justice. These advances can be realized – and can become concrete steps toward more fundamental change.
The 38th Central Convention of our Party follows a major political upheaval in the recent federal election, and a new escalation of the global economic crisis which emerged in 2007-08. Initially, the Canadian economy was buffered to some degree by exports of fossil fuels and other natural resources, and because Canada’s megabanks were somewhat less exposed to the collapse in value of leveraged (re-packaged) debt. Now, the dramatic collapse in energy prices and the Canadian dollar are causing new job losses and rapid increases in the cost of imported products. The working class is paying a heavy cost for the turmoil of the capitalist system.
Labour Day 2016 statement from the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada
Coming almost a year after the defeat of one of the most dangerously reactionary governments in Canadian history, Labour Day 2016 is an important point for the organized trade union movement to respond to challenges facing the working class in the changed political environment – and most importantly, to mobilize against the continued neoliberal austerity policies of governments and corporations.