Tom Dufresne Photo by: Mike Isinger.
Tom Dufresne has been president of ILWU Canada for the last ten years. It is comprised of mostly longshore locals in British Columbia, the West Coast of Canada, from the port at Roberts Banks just north of the U.S. border to Prince Rupert and Stewart in the far north of B.C. It has other affiliates that are not part of the ILWU International, but have voice but no vote within ILWU Canada. Local 400 is its marine division, the tug and tow and ferry workers of B.C. and, out in the inland provinces, the Retail Wholesale Department Store union and the Grain Services Union
As president Dufresne has brought ILWU Canada actively into the B.C Federation of Labour and into local and national politics. He has become a leading national figure in the fight against government repression of workers in the name of port security. All the while, the ILWU Canada ports are booming and setting records for amount of cargo moved, especially in Dufresne’s home port of Vancouver, Canada’s largest port.
While in Vancouver for the International Convention, Dispatcher editor Steve Stallone sat down with Dufresne for this interview.
How did you come to work on the waterfront?
Strictly fate, fluke, whatever you want to call it. I was walking down the street and I was working at Bristol Myers warehouse unloading boxcars. We ran out of work. So I was walking along and I ran into a fella and he said, “Well, they’re hiring up at the dispatch hall.” So I went up there and they called me back. I went back the next day and put a name in the box and got hired.
Let’s talk about port security. Things are stricter in Canada than in the U.S. How much more is being demanded from longshore workers in Canada?
Well, in Canada, on port security, what we’ve been fighting for is to have the threshold raised, the threshold where they can deny you a port pass or port security clearance. The threshold currently is “reasonable suspicion,” which is a very low threshold. We’re fighting to get that raised to a minimum of “reasonable cause” to deny you or “reasonable belief.” Then they’d have to justify it if you’re turned down.
We’re also trying to have included a privacy provision so that the information collected cannot be shared with any other government departments in Canada or any foreign governments. And we want a proper, transparent appeals procedure put in place because currently there is none.
The type of information being collected is on not only the individual applying—they want your credit history, your educational background, your work history. But they also want access to the information on anybody you’ve had a conjugal relationship with during the last five years that’s lasted more than a year. And then they’re going to run a credit history check against you and against your spouse or any ex-spouses that you may have had. If you got divorced, for instance, in the last three years, and for any ex-spouse in the last five, they have to also agree to have their background checked and that of their relatives.
And it’s very far-reaching. In our opinion it borders on fascism. It’s certainly not a very far step from ending up in a fascist state.
And they have the right to be wrong, and you have no recourse other than the federal court of Canada, which is a long, cumbersome, expensive procedure. And ultimately the Transport Minister has the right to be wrong as do his bureaucrats.
When you say the right to be wrong, you mean they can still deny you even if they haven’t got something solid on you?
That’s correct. They could say they have a suspicion. They read a newspaper story, or this whole thing is tied in with the concept of interference with the marine transportation system. So if you’re a person who has participated in a picket line or in a demonstration against the government or in a demonstration against transportation, you could be denied under reasonable suspicion that you are interfering, or you might interfere with the transportation system. And, you know, it’s just a totally unacceptable situation.
ILWU Canada has been lobbying heavily to try to deal with this, working with other longshore unions…
The ILA on the East Coast and CUPE 375 in Montreal. We formed a coalition called the Canadian Maritime Workers Council to deal with this issue and labor code issues or any issues where we have a common problem that may be arising. We have resolutions of support from municipalities and from the local shipping community and a lot of big businesses that see this as an unwarranted intrusion into people’s personal lives. And, when you can get people in business turning around and joining the union, you’ve got to figure, hey, there’s something wrong here.
You hold a seat on the British Columbia Federation of Labor?
Yeah. Also I’m a vice president of the Canadian Labor Congress [CLC] through a small union caucus. There are four seats reserved for small unions and the ILWU was elected to one of those positions in the last two conventions, so I’m in my fourth year there now representing the small unions in Canada. I’m also on the executive council of the New Democratic Party of Canada [NDP].
How does working with other unions affect and support ILWU Canada?
Well, it helps keep us in contact with other unions throughout the province that may be having problems with their employer, but also gives us some clout whenever a problem might come up on the docks the ILWU needs to address. We can have the support of other unions, we can explain our position to them and have them join with us to make presentations to the government.
For instance, a lot of people are opposed to port development and the number of trucks crossing the city streets. So we’ve got a chance to get together with them and explain the benefits that are gong to come out of the port expansion, you know, more jobs for us, but also more jobs for them, and that is good for the economy. So it helps us in getting our case out there.
You mentioned you were on the Executive Council of the NDP, a decidedly pro-labor party. What advantage does that bring the labor movement?
Well, the advantage is in the situation like we’re currently in with a minority parliament. [No party in Parliament won a majority in the last election.] The NDP could hold the balance of power. So we have a right-wing government in office right now with a minority number of seats. The NDP can hold them accountable. For instance, if they want to start coming forward with some laws like in Australia, anti-union or anti-labor laws, the NDP can threaten to withhold their support for the party and actually cause the Parliament to collapse. And a lot them also introduce bills that’ll help workers.
In the last minority parliament, they passed a bill that makes it a criminal offense for the officers of a corporation to knowingly operate an unsafe work place. They can be fined or jailed. It hasn’t been used, but it was put in place. They also proposed a law protecting workers’ pensions in the event of bankruptcy. We’ve seen the same thing in Canada as in the U.S. with Chapter 11 bankruptcies and courts coming in and slicing up collective agreements and slashing pension plans. So the NDP managed to sponsor a bill that would protect workers’ pensions.
What other things have you accomplished because of the NDP?
Right now we’re fighting for anti-scab legislation to be introduced in Parliament. It was introduced in the last Parliament. It was just barely defeated. There are anti-scab laws in three provinces currently, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. It has been found that having anti-scab legislation lowers the number of days lost due to strikes in all sectors because employers have a tendency to focus their attention on the bargaining disputes instead of trying to operate and keeping the union outside.
Also you have card-check recognition which makes organizing a little easier.
Right. In certain of the provinces, you have card-check recognition and under the Canada Labor Code, you can show that you have 35 percent of the members of a bargaining unit signed up to cards, you’re automatically entitled to a vote. If you have more than 55 percent of the members of a plant signed up, you get an automatic certification. And you also get an automatic certification if your employer interferes in the bargaining and it can be proven in front of the Canadian Industrial Relations Board that the employer has interfered to such an extent that it’d be impossible to get a collective agreement. The board can order a certification and impose a first collective agreement.
What do you see in the future for ILWU Canada?
Well, I see us working to get certifications at the container freight stations inland. The land around the waterfront is very, very expensive no matter where you are in North America or in the world. And so the tendency of big corporations like Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire is to want to move their storage facilities inland where they’ll load their containers on trains and take them to the midpoint, the prairies, and discharge them and take them to big distribution warehouses and then distribute from there rather than going all the way back east to Toronto or Chicago, what have you. So we believe there’s an opportunity there to organize those warehouses, distribution hubs, and also to organize container freight stations where they’re shuffling containers and where they’re loading trains and unloading trains of containers.
Is there anything else that you’d like to mention to the members?
Just the fact that we enjoyed having the International Convention in Vancouver, Canada once again, and we look forward to it being here again in 18 years. It’s good because our members, many of whom may not get to travel to the distant places that the convention is held, it gives them an ability to come downtown here and sit in for a couple hours or come to the social in the evening and then meet their brothers and sisters from the International, from different locals up and down the Coast. And it gives people a chance to realize that we are one big family and that people, whether it be in Seattle or San Pedro, have many of the same problems that we have, and that we have a common enemy and that’s the boss, and we have a common fraternity and that’s the ILWU.
For full interview with Du-fresne, see www.ilwu.org/about/Convention/2006/index.cfm
