By Tom Price

ILWU Canada packed four days of union democracy into its 2004 Convention beginning March 30, and the union came away with new commitments to political action, solidarity and internationalism. The 28th Convention/ 18th Biennial in Surrey, B.C. provided a working session for setting policies and goals and a forum for decision-making by member-elected delegates. Officers and members reported on their plans and activities, while guest speakers dropped by to discuss issues of the day, each with a recurring theme on the need for political action. Toward the end, members announced their candidacy for office in elections to be held in late April.

Officer reports

ILWU Canada President Tom Dufresne warned about the growing threat to civil liberties and workers’ rights promoted under the guise of national security. Bill C-55, the antiterrorism legislation that along with C-36 makes up Canada’s Patriot Act, puts unions at risk of being designated as terrorist organizations because of their advocacy for workers and the poor, he said.

“Bill C-36 was used to override the Charter of Rights [Canada’s Bill of Rights] in order to allow the RCMP [the federal police] to raid the home and office of an Ottawa Citizen report-er,” Dufresne said. “It could be used to raid any of our homes, without accountability.”

Left to right: Third Vice President Sabi Veriah, First Vice President Chad O’Neill, Second Vice President Al Le Monnier, Secretary-Treasurer Mark Gordienko, and International Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams.

The convention later resolved to continue the fight for labor and civil rights. In his political report Dufresne outlined a policy for the future.

“Political action will have to become a bigger part not only of ILWU Canada, but a bigger part of the locals’ and of the members’ lives,” he said. “The B.C. Federation of Labour’s political action plan starts this month. We will contribute to a $1.5 million fund the B.C. Fed. is putting into political action. The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) will also put up $1.5 million.” The convention voted to raise the annual political assessment by one dollar, to $4.

Dufresne reported on mutual support with affiliated unions. The Grain Services Union and the Retail Wholesale Department Store Union of Saskatchewan were instrumental in establishing the Labour Issues Campaign that helped save that province’s left-leaning government, he said. ILWU Canada helped B.C.’s Retail Wholesale Union fend off a raid by other unions. The RWU in turn aided the ILWU in organizing and education with people on the ground and cost sharing. The ILWU now has a seat on the CLC’s Executive Council and Dufresne sits on the CLC’s Political Action Committee, giving the ILWU added clout in the fight against anti-labor politicians.

First Vice President Chad O’Neill reported on organizing setbacks and welcomed several newly organized units to the union. As many as 11 organizing targets are still in the union’s sights, and the convention later voted to maintain the $4 per member per month organizing assessment for those making more than $25 an hour and $1.50 for those making less.

Second Vice President Al Le Monnier reported on the battles fought by the ILWU and the B.C. Fed. against the right-wing provincial government’s efforts to lower toxic exposure limits. The province would like to move to more corporate “self-regulation,” but labor will fight to maintain standards. Le Monnier reported on the health and safety conference of the International Labor Organization he attended last December. The ILWU also worked with the Canadian Maritime Advisory Council to maintain maritime labor, safety and regulatory standards. Le Monnier pointed out that the federal government “has the same agenda as the [B.C. Premier Gordon] Campbell government” when it comes to “voluntary” corporate regulation. Labor will fight hard against that, he said.

Third Vice President Sabi Veriah shared Le Monnier’s duties on safety issues and reported on member education. A number of courses are offered, including classes on arbitrations and safety. Veriah also helped educate employers and union representatives on their responsibilities for safety.

Secretary-Treasurer Mark Gordienko spoke on the union’s financial health and explained spending on member education, scholarships, or-ganizing, the women’s committee and political action. Delegates debated and approved assessments for them and increased funding for political action, the scholarship fund and for ILWU Canada’s operations.

Resolutions and policies

Delegates debated and approved a resolution giving the Women’s Committee voice but no vote on all motions before the convention. Each local may send a delegate to the Women’s Committee and that committee can send one delegate to the convention. Pensioners’ clubs will now have two voice-but-no-vote convention delegates per club, where previously they had only two such delegates representing all clubs. There are now three clubs, one for Vancouver Island, one mainland, and one for Prince Rupert. The convention also voted a one-time $5 per member assessment to host the coastwise Pacific Coast Pensioners Assn. convention this year. Other pensioner resolutions called on the union to support retiree benefits in negotiations.

The convention voted to oppose Canada’s participation in the U.S. “Star Wars” anti-missile program and, as the resolution put it, to oppose Prime Minister Paul Martin’s “corporate opportunism and disingenuous approach to rebuilding Iraq” through privatization while he ignores Canada’s needs. ILWU Canada also resolved to support worker and human rights in Colombia.

The convention resolved to support efforts to keep the work of loading and processing logs in Canada. Currently the industry imports workers to load the logs, and exports them before processing them into lumber, costing many Canadian jobs.

Local 400, ILWU Canada’s marine division, noting that Canadian steamship companies will be expanding their fleets, proposed a campaign to get Canadian ships registered and flagged in Canada and to allow seafarers to choose representation by Canadian maritime unions or the International Transport Workers’ Federation. It passed unanimously.

Guest speakers

Angela Schira, Secretary-Treas-urer of the B.C. Federation of Labour, led off the guest speeches. A true coal miner’s daughter, she is the first woman in that position and in many others in the Canadian labor movement. With the neo-conservatives in office, she said, there has never been a stronger connection between the ballot box and the paycheck. Her criticisms of Prime Minister Martin, who sold his ownership in Canada Steamship Lines to his sons last year, brought the delegates to their feet.

“His steamship company uses flags of convenience to help him avoid the same taxes he collects from you and your members,” she said.

Martin is putting profits first by contracting-out healthcare while his party in provinces like B.C. tries to sell off public water, hydroelectric plants and B.C. Railways. New labor laws Martin and his party are proposing could allow employment for children as young as 12 in what she called “a perverse form of class-size reduction in schools.”

International Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams and Coast Committee-man Joe Wenzl received warm welcomes as they stressed coastwise unity and the urgent need for political action on both sides of the border.

“I talked to a key Democratic Senator and he made it clear,” Adams said. “He said ‘If Bush gets another term, you guys are done.’”

That drew boisterous applause from the Canadian members. Their own government under the Liberal Party wants to weaken labor laws and make it harder to organize.

“At the end of April we’re taking 50 of our members and our officers and we’re going to Washington, D.C.,” Adams said. “We’re going to hit the Hill and lobby hard.”

Adams and Wenzl spent many hours with the Canadian sisters and brothers, sharing stories, problems and solutions.

“I talked to the younger people at [longshore] Local 502,” Adams said. “They’re on fire over there. They’re organizing. They are doing things we at the International are going to work harder on.”

Wenzl received a standing ovation when he spoke of ILWU cross-border solidarity.

“I want to publicly acknowledge the vital role ILWU Canada played in our historic 2002 contract negotiations,” Wenzl said. “Your solidarity was crucial to our success. You were there for us, and we will be there for you.

“We were with a group of shippers and they were talking about how they would get around the troubles during the 2002 negotiations,” Wenzl said. “And they said, ‘Yeah, we could go through the Panama Canal and British Columbia.’ We didn’t say anything, but just smiled among ourselves because we knew the solidarity of our sisters and brothers. They weren’t going to get any cargo through British Columbia.”

Wenzl pointed to a common struggle in this year’s elections in English-speaking, Pacific countries:

“Workers in the U.S. and Canada have to take our governments back,” he said, “because the rich people have it and they’re taking tax cuts for themselves. It’s time to give it back to the workers who built the U.S. and Canada, and to remind them that we did that. You have Mr. Martin, Australia has Mr. Howard, and we have a son of a Bush. They will all be defeated this year when labor rises up and takes back our countries.”

CLC President Ken Georgetti, leader of the 2.5-million-member federation, blasted Martin’s federal budget as having “more good news for cows than workers.” “It’s true,” Georgetti said. “One billion dollars in aid for the cattle industry, and almost nothing for working people.”

He complimented Dufresne’s nine-month stint on the Marine Security Labour Caucus and criticized the government’s proposed background checks on workers.

“As you know, the draft regulation was so invasive into personal privacy that it could check your bank accounts and possibly subject your family to interviews by the RCMP,” he said. Georgetti went on to ask all workers to support the New Democratic Party, whose candidate for Prime Minister, Jack Layton, spoke later.

“When it comes to senior issues, why are we not protecting workers’ pensions?” Layton said. “Why do we allow banks to line up [for payment] ahead of pensioners when a company goes bankrupt? They’re stealing workers’ money. Unions bargained for this money and put it into a fund for retirees. We [the NDP] put a bill before the House of Commons to put pensions in first place for payment.”

Layton attacked free-trade agreements that would prevent Canada passing legislation to keep log processing in Canada.

“We have proposed a moratorium on raw log exports so we can develop a processing industry here and keep these jobs in Canada,” he said.

Layton also criticized Prime Minister Martin’s plan to publicly fund a privatized health care system and blasted the pharmaceutical companies that make huge profits and spend more on advertising than research.

Towards the end of the convention nominations for national offices were held. Longshore Local 500’s Dave Pritchett challenged Tom Dufresne for President; Local 500’s Glenn Bolkowy challenged Local 502’s Chad O’Neill for the First Vice Presidency; Local 500’s Tim Footman and Barry Washburn will run for the open Second Vice Presidency position; and Local 500’s Ken Bauder will challenge Local 500’s Mark Gordienko for the Secretary-Treasurer’s post.