Commit an Act of Democracy 

Stephen Harper is in St. John’s today, Thursday, March 31^st, for a gathering and announcement at the Delta Hotel. It is currently scheduled for 5pm.

So today we will be there - standing up for democracy, for working people, for the kind of Canada we want and for the kind of province we desire. We will not be held in “contempt” by this Prime Minister.

And we want you to join us – "coalition" of citizens who disagree with his vision for our country.

Our plan is to meet in front of city hall at 4:30 pm where we will distribute placards and organize our “act of democracy.”

So please come join us and bring a friend or many friends. See you there!!!

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians against Stephen Harper

Sisters and Brothers,

Below is the NLFL’s news release responding to the Transportation Safety Board’s report on the crash of Cougar Flight 491. Seventeen workers died from the March 2009 crash.

TSB’s recommendations must be implemented, NLFL calls on Transport Canada and CNLOPB to act immediately

The Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour (NLFL) is calling for the full implementation of the Transportation Safety Board’s recommendations based on its investigation into the crash of Cougar Flight 491.

NLFL President Lana Payne said we need to ensure helicopters transporting workers to the offshore have adequate dry-run capability which may be longer than 30 minutes. “The federal government and Transport Canada must move immediately to implement the recommendations of the TSB.”

In the meantime, Ms. Payne said the CNLOPB, as the regulator for the offshore, should require a 30-minute dry run capability until the broader assessment is completed by the Federal Aviation Administration regarding whether 30 minutes is sufficient.

Extra steps must also be taken to ensure the safety of workers, including a permanent ban on night flights and a ban on flights in sea states that prevent safe ditching and successful evacuations.

The labour leader said she expects Commissioner Robert Wells will examine these matters in his second report for the C-NLOPB, “but in the meantime the TSB report certainly confirms why an independent, powerful offshore safety authority with helicopter expertise is desperately needed.”

While there are 16 factors which either caused the crash or contributed to the loss of these workers’ lives, “I think it is also fair to question just how much the role profit and the bottom line play in decision-making and just how much more vigilant we need our regulators to be, especially those regulators charged with the safety of workers.”

Ms. Payne said the stunning revelations in yesterday’s Transportation Safety Board report raise many questions, including why this helicopter was certified without 30-minute dry run capability even though that was the standard the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was said to be seeking.

The TSB report notes that the FAA had wanted civilian aircraft to meet the 30-minute dry-run capability that was already in place for military helicopters. But the S-92 failed that dry-run test. It was at that time that the manufacturer and the FAA reviewed the rules and decided with some changes to the gearbox cooling system, the possibility of a total oil loss was “extremely remote.”

The TSB reported that the S-92 is the only helicopter to be certified using the “extremely remote” provision and these are the helicopters that were purchased to operate in what has been described as “the most difficult operational environment in the offshore helicopter world” (Wells report – page 59).

The facts of this tragedy are that 17 workers died, and if just one of 16 factors was different, these workers may very well be alive today.

“Sixteen factors! That is a lot of things going wrong and every single one of them speaks to why we need a powerful, independent safety agency regulating health and safety in the offshore as was recommended by Commissioner Wells in his report last fall,” said Ms. Payne. “What we don’t need is what we have had: a too cozy relationship between the operators and the regulator and too little attention paid to the concerns of workers.”

If anything, the TSB report confirms Commissioner Wells’ conclusions and recommendations, including recommendation number 27 which says our offshore regulator must be funded and involved in studies and research on offshore helicopter safety locally and in other jurisdictions.

What is equally unpardonable and supports the need for a powerful safety authority is the fact these workers did not have underwater-breathing apparatuses. The TSB has confirmed that the chances of survival for the 17 workers who died were seriously diminished because they did not have the apparatuses.

This issue of underwater-breathing apparatuses was raised during the Wells Inquiry by lawyer Randell Earle who represented the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union and its members working offshore at the Inquiry.

The discussion about these devices was first raised in 2000 by the CNLOPB with the operators. “Nine years later, workers in the offshore still were not equipped with them. It was not until the crash of Cougar Flight 491 and the death of 17 workers that this was acted on and yet what we heard yesterday confirmed that had the regulator been more vigilant, had the companies operating in our offshore acted as those did in the North Sea and Norway, it may very well have made a difference.”

This is not about hindsight. “This is about the delay tactics we see all too often when the issue is making improvements for the health and safety of workers,” said Ms. Payne. “This is exactly why we need a vigilant, independent and powerful regulator.”

Ms. Payne said the TSB report also confirms that the health and safety rights of offshore workers, including the right to know, have been consistently violated.

Sisters and Brothers:

Time to stop the corporate giveaways.

In my recent Telegram column http://www.thetelegram.com/Opinion/Columns/2011-01-29/article-2182050/A-federal-election-about-taxes/1 I outlined why billions of dollars in tax cuts that benefit Canada's most wealthy corporations - including multinationals like Vale - don't make any economic sense if the objective is to create jobs. Now if the objective is to increase corporate bonuses or starve the federal treasury of the funds Canadians need for things like health care and other vital public services than that's another matter.

I am not the only one who thinks so. Even the Canada's top StatsCan economist questions the real benefit of another round of corporate tax cuts. Philip Cross says corporate tax cuts are such a small factor in how business shapes the Canadian economy that the agency can't reliably measure their impact.

"A couple of billion dollars (of savings from tax cuts) is a drop in the bucket of corporate income here," Cross said in an interview. "It's trivial."

Trivial to the corporations, but not so to the public purse and public services. http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/headline_news/article.jsp?content=b5814614

CAW Economist Jim Stanford's analysis of the corporate tax cuts shows that they could actually end up costing the Canadian economy 46,000 jobs rather than creating jobs as the Harper Conservatives would have us believe. http://www.caw.ca/en/9837.htm

If you are interested in debunking the corporate tax cut myths, here are a few other interesting articles or websites:

Five reasons to say no to corporate tax cuts, by Armine Yalnizyan, economist with the CCPA:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/the-economists/five-reasons-to-say-no-to-more-corporate-tax-cuts/article1886449/

The Progressive Economic Forum: http://www.progressive-economics.ca/

And you might enjoy, like I did, this commentary by Radio host John Moore in the National Post:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/01/27/john-moore-you-can-cut-corporate-taxes-too-far/

In Solidarity

Lana

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

            Working people continue to fight back at the collective bargaining table in our province. Sometimes, as we have seen in the past two years, this fight back results in a group of workers withdrawing their labour and walking a picket line.

            Workers never take job action lightly. But when employers bring concessions to the table, it becomes tougher and tougher to reach agreements and keep the labour peace.

Our sisters and brothers employed at VALE’s Voisey’s Bay, Labrador mining operation have for 18 months (and counting) stood up against the power and wealth of the second largest mining multinational on the planet. Concessions were also at the heart of this strike – concessions demanded by one of the wealthiest corporations in the world.

An Industrial Inquiry appointed by the provincial government to investigate this dispute continues its work. The NL Federation of Labour made a submission to the inquiry, highlighting the labour movement’s concern with how globalization is impacting on the labour rights of our citizens. We recommended righting the imbalance in power faced by working people through a modern set of labour laws that take into account the growth in corporate power..

Before Christmas, our movement was inspired by the courage of a group of 14 women workers (NAPE members) from the Burin Peninsula who after 377 days on strike were successful in reaching a fair collective agreement. Just weeks after that strike ended, workers at Purity Factories in St. John’s, also members of NAPE, reached a new collective agreement with their employer after being locked out on the eve of Labour Day weekend.

Workers and their unions go to the bargaining table every week in this province, and many reach collective agreements without the need for job action. But the demand for concessions by employers in both the public and private sector is for the most part at the heart of the labour unrest we’ve been experiencing – from Voisey’s Bay to Metrobus.

            On November 4^th, 2010, our brothers and sisters employed by Metrobus (ATU 1462) went on strike over the employer’s demand for two-tiered of health benefits.

            Ironically, these concessions are being sought at a time of great prosperity in Newfoundland and Labrador, with the exception of the fishing and forestry industries. For example, corporate profits as a share of our provincial GDP have steadily climbed since 1999. In fact, corporate profits as a share of GDP are 2.5 times higher than the national average. At the same time, the share of our GDP going to workers wages and salaries has been steadily declining since 1999 and is far less than the national average – 30% in NL compared with 51% nationally.

            No wonder workers and unions are frustrated by the conventional wisdom that somehow their collective agreements are the problem. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This month, I responded to an article in Memorial University’s student newspaper, The Muse, regarding the ATU strike, unions and collective bargaining. The article was quite derogatory towards workers.

I felt it necessary to tackle this misconception that unionized workers and their hard-fought collective agreements are somehow the problem. CAW Economist Jim Stanford has also written a number of thoughtful articles on this topic, including a recent commentary in the Globe and Mail asking society to redirect their rage at the real gravy train. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/redirecting-our-rage-at-the-real-gravy-train/article1871148/

 Below is a summary of the Letter to the MUSE Editor.

As President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour (NLFL) representing 25 affiliated unions, 500 locals and 65,000 working women and men in every sector of our economy and from every community of our province, I felt compelled to offer a response to the nasty, derogatory, classist and ill-informed opinion article entitled “Right to fight: A (would-be) message from the ATU” by Paul Hussey.

            Normally, I do not respond to such offensive, ignorant and disrespectful diatribes, but I believe the readers of your newspaper deserve to at least have the record set straight with respect to “the facts.” I will leave your readers to pass their own judgment on Mr. Hussey’s clearly stated prejudice against “blue-collar workers,” persons with disabilities, and any citizen who uses public transit.

            I understand that there are those who do not like unions, who do not understand the role unions play in our democratic society but this kind of disparaging attack is completely uncalled for.

            I also understand implicitly how this strike has impacted on the students who have come to our city to study and to work. I know how devastating this dispute has been for the thousands of citizens who rely on this service everyday to participate in daily life.

And I readily acknowledge that my empathy will mean little to those so adversely impacted by the strike and nor do I expect it to. 

            I will point out that many of the things we enjoy in today’s society were first negotiated at a collective bargaining table, because someone fought for them, and then became a minimum standard for all also because someone fought for it. For example, it was a union that first negotiated equal pay for women. It was a union that first negotiated same-sex benefits – long before the courts ruled to extend such benefits to same-sex partners. It was unions that fought for and continue to fight for safe workplaces and pensions for all. And it has been the labour movement working with others, including the student movement, that fought for and achieved a $10 minimum wage in our province.

            Metrobus’ message throughout these talks is the next generation of workers should be satisfied with something less than their parents.  Is this really something young people want the labour movement giving into without even mounting a challenge?

            The union has a right to be worried. As unions, we know how divisive two-tiered benefits and wages can be in a workplace. We do our best to fend them off. We also know that the demand for two-tiering won’t end here.  It is a slippery slope and it is a slope that will affect the next generation of workers.

Lana Payne

President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour