by Tom Price

Celebrating its 60th anniversary and its proud role in Canada’s labor history, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union met for its 34th Convention June 6—8.

The Convention, held in Watrous, Saskatchewan, passed resolutions favoring all workers in the province. These included supporting anti-scab laws, increasing the minimum wage, and advocating laws that require employers give four weeks vacation after five years of service. It also resolved to oppose unfair corporate trade agreements and to oppose Prime Minister Steven Harper’s plans to sell Canadian resources to the corporations.

In her President’s Report, outgoing President B. Diane Melrose, a Safeway worker, expressed the union’s thanks to those who came before.

“There is no doubt that building the fine organization we have today was a long and difficult job requiring the efforts and commitments of our pioneers and senior members,” she said. “How else would we have the strong and democratic union that serves its members so well today?”

The convention elected Rocky Luchsinger President.

The RWDSU’s pioneer members fought for Canada’s first single-payer health care system, which their province established in 1962. Saskatchewan’s Premier Tommy Douglas then led the fight to bring health care to all Canadians as a Member of Parliament in Ottawa.

“We took a strong opposition to Canada’s role in Afghanistan, we want our troops out,” RWDSU Secretary-Treasurer Chris Banting told The Dispatcher. “They never got permission from anyone. The current prime minister, [Steven Harper], who we hope will not be around long, actually makes speeches about how happy he is in the direction the Bush government is taking the U.S.”

International Secretary-Treas-urer Willie Adams discussed what is happening to people in the U.S.

“We have 46 million without healthcare,” he said. “We’re the world’s richest country and we don’t take care of our own. We got lied into a war that should have never happened. It’s really sad that we’ve got an administration that’s clever but clueless.”

The union now represents 6,986 workers, mainly in the retail trade. It has grown by more than 600 members in the last two years, though many work part time. Reports to the Convention stressed the need to be politically active and outlined the many battles the union fought, and mainly won.

One particular struggle, that of the Sobeys’ grocery workers in Saskatoon, attracted national attention in Canada when Local 454 workers walked the line through two harsh prairie winters and won 450 days. When the strike ended last December, the workers came away with $2.00 to $4.00 raises. Their efforts won the hearts of their community as many customers refused to cross the picket line. The raise will apply to Sobeys’ workers across the province.

 “RWDSU members have brothers and sisters who work in hotels, pineapple and sugar in Hawaii, and in warehouse and longshore,” Adams said. “They have brothers and sisters in the Mohave Desert. We work on tugboats and in bookstores. We may all look a little different, act a little different, but we represent the working class, we’re a bottom-up union, a democratic union, we are the vision of the people who came before us.”

The 130 delegates and guests also included ILWU Canada’s President Tom Dufresne; Saskatchewan Federation of Labor President Larry Hubich; Grain Services Union, ILWU Canada General Secretary Hugh Wagner and ILWU Canada First Vice President Bob Ashton. Provincial Premier Lorne Calvert, a member of the labor-supported New Democratic Party (NDP), also spoke. He holds a position equivalent to a governor of a U.S. state. RWDSU member Sandra Morin, an elected member of the provincial legislature, also attended. The NDP enjoys the qualified support of Canadian labor and many workers vote for NDP candidates who support workers’ interests.

“I think folks came here to say we need to be more aggressive at the bargaining table,” Chris Banting said. “There’s never been a better time for workers to demand a better share of the economy, with unemployment low and profits out of this world, even though we have never met an employer who claimed he had a nickel.”