Convention Speech
Dennis Mol, President CUPE Alberta
March 25th, 2010
Lethbridge Alberta
Check against delivery
Thank you brothers and sisters.
It’s been a year since you gave me the pleasure and honour of serving as your President.
In the last year, I’ve put 45,000 kilometers on my vehicle, traveling to every corner of this province to meeting with local presidents, executive board members, and others. I especially enjoyed the ones that don’t often make it to this convention.
In the last year, we’ve enjoyed some victories, and we’ve suffered some setbacks. And of course, we’ve grappled with some issues that seem to grind on year after year.
And as is so often the case, most of our setbacks have the finger prints of our provincial Conservative government.
A government that has no real interest in engaging with working people. Our Government is lost, confused, and prone to wander.
We have challenges for our members working in Alberta public schools. In the last round of bargaining, our provincial government insisted that the wage increase for September 1st 2009 had to be set to the Alberta Average Weekly earnings index.
Many of our locals agreed to this, even though it was a gamble. To their surprise, it turned out to be a successful gamble. The AAWE turned out to be 5.99%. A very good wage increase by almost any standard.
And in the meantime, school districts who even budgeted for the increase, who just wanted to be prepared in case they lost the arbitration, were told no.
Most CUPE locals are still waiting for the arbitration to happen, but last month, they got a significant boost in their fight. Teachers, who had similar language in their contracts, took their case to arbitration and won.
Having lost the arbitration with the teachers, and facing the likelihood they will lose against CUPE, does the government put extra money in their budget for education?
Of course not.
In the budget speech, they talk about the lack of cuts to education. Look closer, and if those wage increase are to come from somewhere, there will be cuts.
In the last twelve, there have been 12 school shut downs, with five more coming.
At the same time, the government calls for more schools, more P3s.
It’s been one year since we stood on the front steps of the legislature. And I want you to all recognize the health care workers and paramedics as they stand up, they are still CUPE.
These sisters and brothers have gone through hell.
Our government has declared, with rubber stamp from the labour board, that the wishes of thousands of employees of Alberta Health Services don’t matter.
It doesn’t matter to the Conservatives that these employees want to stay with CUPE. It doesn’t matter that one of the groups, Local 408, actually voted, by a 2-1 margin to stick with CUPE, over AUPE.
It doesn’t matter to the Conservatives that they are injecting even more chaos into a health care system they have all but destroyed with reforms, restructuring, and re-organizations.
We’ve lost the first couple of rounds in this battle with the government, but the fight isn’t over yet.
It was a very good day, probably the best day I’ve had as President when I contacted those locals and told them that we won the stay.
I’ve spoken with representatives of all the locals, as well as with Paul and Claude, and CUPE is going to keep taking on this battle to ensure that the voices of our members get heard.
We saw some other examples of Conservative disinterest this year in the way they handled seniors care and long term care.
Remember before the last election when Ed Stelmach promised to build 600 new long term care beds?
The election was two years ago. Anyone know of any new spaces they’ve created?
Well, they haven’t created a single one. Not one.
Instead, the government is creating privatized, and very expensive, assisted living spaces, which rob seniors of their life savings while providing very little actual health care.
I asked Stephen Duckett how many long term care beds will you build in the next ten years, he said none. How many assisted living spaces – 13,000.
I told Duckett – you want to download the costs on to families. He said we are moving towards assisted living.
What I’m gathering as well, is that they are not talking to each other. The minister and Dr. Duckett.
Instead of the govt. creating publicly run long term care, they are creating private system. A system with charges to seniors for every service, like baths.
According to leaked documents that Brian Mason and the NDP got their hands on last fall, the Conservatives are planning more and more of this kind of expensive housing, and less and less actual care.
I was proud to go to the legislature in December and present the NDP with over 2,000 postcards that CUPE Local 8 produced and collected demanding that the Premier keep his promise to seniors.
These cards are being tabled in the legislature on a daily basis by the NDP, and that is keeping the issue on the forefront.
But I was disappointed, (although not surprised) to see the budget go by in February without any new funding for any long term care. But I know why.
If it’s any consolation, it’s not just areas of CUPE jurisdiction in which the Stelmach government ignores the needs of working people.
Look at what they did to minimum wage earners.
A few years ago, the Conservatives did something worth supporting. They indexed the minimum wage to inflation so it would go up every year.
This year, it was set to increase by a whopping twelve cents.
But the Conservatives showed once again which side they were on by cancelling that twelve cent wage increase.
Every economic study ever produced on the subject says that the best way to boost an economy in hard times is to increase the wages of the working poor. If you boost the minimum wage, those workers don’t buy travel vacations – they spend the money in their communities – creating wealth and jobs here at home.
But once again, the Conservative government ignores what is best for working people, and for the Alberta economy.
This is going to keep happening as long as Albertans keep re-electing these guys. And as long as voter apathy keeps people from the polls.
Until the Conservatives know defeat is a real option – they will continue to ignore working people.
It’s time that we in CUPE, become more involved in politics at all levels.
In CUPE, we’ve voted in the past to support the NDP. And it’s never been more important to do so.
Brian Mason and Rachel Notley do a fantastic job of representing working people in the legislature. But we need more than two MLAs fighting for us.
We need to turn two MLAs into eight, and then turn eight into 20, and then 20 into a new government.
We have to stop being shy about political action, and start being loud and proud about the fact we want a new deal with our governments.
And we have to educate our members that the Wild Rose Alliance isn’t a good option for working people. If anything, it’s probably worse.
Changing one conservative government for another is a recipe for more of the same. Danielle Smith is bought and paid for by big oil. She leads a party captured by the far right – and the interests of working people fall pretty low on her priorities.
I was very excited to see how many new activists attended our Political Action workshop.
The theme of this year’s convention is ‘Strength and Solidarity’ because it’s only by sticking together, and sticking by our allies in the labour movement and the legislature that we will ever make life better for working families in Alberta.
At the bargaining table, during our lobby efforts, and in the upcoming municipal and school board elections, CUPE has to be united and focused on common goals.
Look at what we’ve accomplished so far. Even with a Conservative government in power, we’ve seen some victories in the last year.
We joined with the NDP, the Friends of Medicare and the AFL to fight for health care. We held public meetings on the subject, made presentations to government and NDP committees, and made sure the voices of working families were heard.
And as a result, the last provincial budget saw a substantial increase in funding for health care.
That’s a victory for working people.
We sent Ron Liepert packing, and I’ve got a feeling Stephen Duckett isn’t far behind.
Over the last year, we welcomed many new groups of employees into the CUPE family in our region, including Peace River School Bus drivers, Red Deer Museum employees, Foothills school division and Woods Homes in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. Let’s welcome them.
We’ve had some huge victories at the bargaining table, and I want to mention a few:
Those were only a few of our victories at the bargaining table. I’m sorry I can’t name them all, but we settled over 60 contracts in 2009, all without job action.
In the City of Edmonton, my home local, Local 30, was successful in convincing the city to abandon plans for a privately funded recreation centre, recognizing that public workers could do it better, and cheaper.
It’s now owned and operated by the city of Edmonton.
We’ve made presentations to the Federal government about pension reform, making sure more people have access to a good pension plan, and that those plans are protected when private companies get into trouble. And while that battle is far from over, we are seeing some movement on this issue.
Strength and Solidarity: when we work together, when we get along and unite behind common goals, and when we partner with our political parties, the AFL and community groups like the Friends of Medicare, working people win.
My friends, it’s been a busy year for us all. I’ve been honored to represent CUPE this last year, and look forward to another year driving the roads of our beautiful province, building our union, bigger, better, stronger.
If there was ever a time to put aside our petty issues in our union, and re-focus our energy on what the fight is all about – the time is now.
I want to thank you for all the support you’ve given me, and I pledge to you that I will do all I can to keep fighting for our members in every corner of the province.
I would like to thank our National Reps, for the work that you do on a daily basis.
I also need to thank our treasurer and recording secretary, and our entire executive.
This isn’t a one person show. And if anybody thinks we can win it with one person, we need to chat. It’s a team sport.
Together, Strength and Solidarity.
I move my report.