05) BC FEDERATION ELECTS NEW LEADERSHIP

 

By Peter Marcus, Vancouver

 

            Late November saw the last convention of the B.C. Federation of Labour to be led by Jim Sinclair as President in his tenure of 15 years. The new contest leadership became the prime focus of the attending delegates.

 

            In his final speech as President, Sinclair brought the house to its feet, condemning government attacks on health care, education and social services, tax cuts for big business and the rich, and the assault on workers and unions. He talked of the Federation's legacy over the last fifteen years of supporting workers inside or outside the house of labour, such as IKEA workers, teachers, North Shore Winter Club employees, the mushroom farm workers killed on the job by poison gas, women farmworkers killed in an unsafe van accident and a night gas station attendant murdered trying to stop a thief, leading to Grant's Law which was to protect such workers.

 

            But the tone for the convention was set by the debate over a resolution to reject strategic voting in the next federal election, by supporting only the NDP in order to defeat the Stephen Harper Conservatives. Despite opposition from the majority of unions represented on the Executive Council, delegates narrowly voted in favour after three attempts.

 

            Both NDP leaders, John Horgan (provincial) and Tom Mulcair (federal) spoke to the convention. They supported a child care campaign and the $15 an hour minimum wage (which was the focus of a lunch-hour rally), but neither spoke about more substantive issues, such as the demand for "living wage" jobs.

 

            The convention also endorsed resolutions to oppose the Canadian European Trade Agreement (CETA), without mentioning NDP support of these so‑called trade agreements, which have caused massive job losses to the Canadian working class. The anti-strategic voting resolution gives a blank cheque to the NDP to do as it pleases once in office.

 

            Many progressive resolutions were passed, mostly on social justice and labour issues, including one unanimously opposing Kinder Morgan's application to twin its pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, told delegates he would go to Burnaby Mountain to confront Kinder Morgan's test drilling for the pipeline. Chief Phillip was among those arrested, but the company later ended its drilling and all charges were dropped.

 

            What was missing was any substantive element of class struggle. Most resolutions talked about lobbying, instead of engaging the working class and its allies with extra-parliamentary action. A good example was the Canada Pension Plan, which has not been improved through lobbying on its own. Instead, the Tories raised the age to receive Old Age Security to 67 years.

 

            Another gaping hole was foreign policy issues, such as Canadian Armed Forces involvement in foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Canadian support for the coup regime backed by fascists in Ukraine and for Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, and the "free trade" deals. One reason for the silence may be that the working class are focused on domestic struggles in Canada rather than the situation elsewhere, but the Mulcair NDP is expresses little difference with the government on these issues. Another area missed was the issue of nationalization of resources and banks. The discussions had a defensive tone around fighting privatization, contracting out and deregulation.

 

            Irene Lanzinger, the Federation's Secretary-Treasurer over the past four years, won the presidential vote by just 57 votes over Amber Hochin, 1137 to 1080. Lanzinger was backed by several unions widely considered to be more militant or left-leaning, such as Unifor, Hospital Employees Union, CUPW, the BC Teachers Federation, and local labour councils. She becomes the first woman President of the BCFL, and the first teachers' union activist to lead a provincial labour federation in English-speaking Canada.

 

            Since Lanzinger did not have a running mate, it had been expected that Hochin's fellow candidate Aaron Ekman would win the Secretary-Treasure position by acclamation. However, without campaigning, Howard Huntly of the ILWU (Longshore) union, was nominated from the floor and won a substantial 722 votes to Ekman's 1077.

 

            The Hochin-kman alliance was supported by CUPE, BCGEU, Steelworkers and other unions identified more closely with the NDP rather than independent labour political strategies. They were sharply critical of the loss of union membership during Sinclair's tenure. But unlike Lanzinger, they did not link this trend to mass layoffs, operations closings, and attacks on unions by corporate employers, or to the government cuts, contracting out, and legislative changes which have made it harder for unions to organize.

 

            Perhaps ironically, Hochin and Ekman campaigned as the candidates of change, yet had the support of several unions which backed Ken Georgetti last spring when the long-serving CLC President sought a sixth term. Irene Lanzinger, on the other hand, was backed by unions which supported Hassan Yussuff in his successful bid to become the new CLC President.

 

(The above article is from the January 1-31, 2015 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)