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At the 2002 National Policy Conference a commitment was made to track the union’s progress on resolutions that were passed. This report reflects those results accomplished over the last two years.

Task Force Follow-Up

The 2002 National Policy Conference endorsed the report of the task force on the special character of the United Steelworkers of America as an International Union. That report went on to the Constitutional Convention later that summer in Las Vegas and resulted in changes to the Constitution, strengthening the role of the national director, including raising the position’s status to that of International Officer. Specifically, here is the new language:

Article 4, Section 1: The international officers of the International Union shall be the international president, the international secretary-treasurer, the international vice-president (administration), the international vice-president (human affairs) and the Canadian National Director.

Article 4, Section 18: The National Director of Canada shall be the spokesperson for the union in Canada on national issues and on union issues applicable to more than one Canadian district. The National Director of Canada shall chair the National Policy Conference, which is the union’s forum in Canada to set priorities and policies for legislative and collective bargaining matters in Canada consistent with this constitution and the union’s overall policy.

Benefits for retirees have long been a concern for the union and its retired members, and that concern was reflected in presentations to the Task Force. The result has been a new program of retiree benefits under the auspices of the Steelworkers Trusteed Benefit Plan.

The plan has initiated a pre-funded retiree benefit plan, into which local unions negotiate cents-an-hour employer contributions into the plan. Funds would start to accumulate similar to a pension plan and the locals, in conjunction with the plan, sit down and determine what level of benefits their fund can support. That level is reviewed with the locals on an ongoing basis as the fund accumulates. For more information, contact Alex McKinnon at the National Office.

Another follow-up to the Task Force is the plan to hold a conference for amalgamated locals. That conference is scheduled for the fall of 2004.

Political Action: Local, National, Global
Westray Bill Major Victory

The union has done a great deal around the broad topic area of political action. The most notable success over the last two years has been the final outcome of our lobbying on Parliament Hill for changes to the Criminal Code to hold corporations and their directors accountable for workplace death and injury. The amendments, known as the "Westray Bill", were proclaimed into law in early November, 2003.

There has been tremendous membership participation in protests against the Bush War in Iraq, and in the effort to stop the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Steelworkers were the largest single union contingent at one such protest in Nov. ’03 in Miami. Through the Steelworkers’ Humanity Fund, the union has continued its Global Solidarity work and its education program wherever schools are held across Canada.

Also in response to a resolution on the Middle East, the Humanity Fund has supported peace dialogue and refugee housing initiatives.

Campaigns around the crisis in the steel industry and improvements to the security industry are also on the move, involving contacts with politicians at every level – municipal, provincial and federal. It is a long, slow process, and very much a part of the work of the union.

Also since the 2002 Policy Conference, Steelworkers and members of the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) across Canada have defended Canada’s medicare system. Along with briefs to the Romanow Commission, the union campaigned in workplaces, involving Steelworker members to put pressure on federal and provincial governments to implement the Romanow Report. Beyond that, the Steelworkers’ position is that our universal, publicly-funded health care system must be expanded to include such things as long-term care, home care and pharmacare. As well, the union opposes so-called public-private partnerships, or P3s, which will cost taxpayers more and promote further privatization.

We continue to promote political awareness and activism through the union’s Talking Politics and Building the Union in Tough Times courses.

Resolutions upholding support for the New Democratic Party led to a focus on the leadership campaign that resulted in the election of Jack Layton as federal leader in January, 2003. Our members have also been deeply involved in membership drives and provincial campaigns across the country.

Bargaining Global Labour Rights

Partly in response to a resolution calling for a global strategy to bargain company-wide core labour rights with transnational employers, a second international meeting of Teck-Cominco workers was held in Lima, Peru, in Oct. 2002. A second hemispheric meeting of Gerdau workers took place in Rio de Janeiro in July, 2003. Gerdau worker representatives also visited Canadian Gerdau locals in March 2004. In the summer of 2003, Steelworkers in Montreal hosted a World Aluminum Conference sponsored by the International Metalworkers’ Federation, one of the international labour secretariats to which the Steelworkers belong.

At the time of this writing, Steelworker members in the iron ore sector were in negotiations, including at Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC). IOC is controlled by Rio Tinto, the subject of a global campaign by union members to force the company to clean up its record on human and workers’ rights. Rio Tinto has attacked workers’ rights and the environment from Indonesia to Australia to the US.

It is now generally accepted that internationalism by the labour movement is the only way to approach bargaining with transnationals in a globalized economy. The worker exchanges between Steelworkers and their fellow employees of the same companies abroad link the local to the global in new, imaginative ways that aim to empower union movements and empower civil society against neo-liberal Globalization, which is nothing more than an interlocking set of national and international political policies promoting the interests of multinational corporations to the exclusion of all else.

To help facilitate this kind of labour internationalism, a 2002 resolution called on more locals to participate in the Steelworkers Humanity Fund. The result is that, over the last two years, about 50 local unions have new collective agreements carrying the Humanity Fund clause, including large locals such as 1005 (Hamilton) and 4120 (University of Guelph admin. staff).

The resolve to negotiate union-made purchasing policies for workplace uniforms has included train-the-trainer sessions on the no-sweat campaign. Anti-sweatshop materials are included in the new Human Rights course and the union is an active participant in lobbying against sweatshop retailers such as Wal-Mart.

The union is also part of the Ethical Trading Action Group (ETAG) campaign against Montreal-based T-shirt manufacturer, Gildan Activewear. Gildan has violated workers rights at one of its Honduran manufacturing plants and fired more than 100 workers who were involved in a union organizing campaign.

On the national front, sector councils, in particular in security and steel, have met over the last two years to build on common issues and strategies.

The Politics Of Organizing

The union’s commitment to organizing has taken a few great leaps forward over the last two years. Along with the broader ‘political’ campaign to work for improvement in the wages, working conditions, training and licensing of workers in the security sector, security officers in 10 more Canadian airports have joined the union. The Steelworkers remains the largest union in Canada’s security sector.

Applications have been made to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) on behalf of thousands of employees of the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) and Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP). The employees maintain and repair CN and CP track systems across Canada.

Also on the national front, a recent decision by the National Executive Board of the Industrial Wood and Allied Workers of Canada (IWA) has resulted in the start of merger negotiations between the Steelworkers and IWA, which has 55,000 members in seven provinces.

Organizing campaigns that proceed at various paces in every jurisdiction across Canada continue to be either hampered or helped by the laws under which we aim to bring the union to more workers. Until the Liberals were elected in 2002, Quebec had the best labour legislation in North America. Since Jean Charest, a former federal Tory leader, took over, the government plans to follow the lead of the former Tory government in Ontario and degrade the laws that enable organizing and collective bargaining. Those plans have been met by angry demonstrations including thousands of workers and citizens determined to preserve their rights. So far, Charest has not gone ahead, nor has he scrapped his plans.

Similar attacks on workers’ rights have been initiated by the Campbell Liberals in British Columbia, and continue to be meted out by Ralph Klein in Alberta. So far, the newly-elected Liberals in Ontario have not reversed any of the negative changes to laws on organizing enacted by Mike Harris and the Tories. However, they have increased the minimum wage and consulted with the labour movement on improvements to the Employment Standards Act and health and safety legislation. At this writing, a brief on changing the laws that govern organizing was being prepared by the Steelworkers for the Ontario labour minister.

Health And Safety: Inquests, Investigations And Safety Programs

A number of resolutions dealt with health and safety. The union has followed up with the development of training modules on inquests, behaviour-based safety and investigations.

Among the issues raised in resolutions on health and safety, the union is working on efforts to have mandatory inquests for every workplace fatality and to develop an inquest-training course. Resolutions on lobbying workers’ compensation agencies for funding to train worker representatives, along with more inspections and regulation of hazardous substances, were referred to districts for follow-up on a province-by-province basis.

Commitment To The Environment

The goal was to develop a clear position on current environmental issues and develop a training package for local activists. The response has been a Steelworker statement on the Kyoto protocol, which was published in the National Director’s Update and posted on the website. A module on the environment has been added to Level 1 of the Health and Safety educational program and environmental consultation has begun with respect to smelter operations and the steel industry.

Challenging Drug Testing

In 2002, the National Policy Conference recognized that Steelworker members in workplaces across the country were being asked by their employers to submit to invasive drug testing. The Policy Conference resolved to monitor and challenge continued efforts by employers to impose drug testing.

Since 2002, we have continued to challenge the employers we deal with in order to deliver the message to them that the union will not permit drug testing of our members contrary to the law in Canada. We have educated staff, membership and local union officials about the law so that we are able to effectively defend the privacy interests of Steelworker members at every step of the grievance procedure, at arbitration and in collective bargaining.

In addition to covering the topic of drug testing at schools and courses where issues of general importance to staff and membership are canvassed, the Legal Department presented three courses specifically focussed on the issue of drug testing in 2003. These courses were delivered to staff and local union officials. The objective was to inform staff and local union officers about the current state of the law on drug testing in Canada. This enables our staff and grievance committees to identify test cases that can be advanced to arbitration or settled on favourable terms in a way that advances the interests of the membership across the country.

In addition, the Legal Department has provided advice to staff about drug testing requests on a case-by-case basis and about the legal limits to an employer’s right to introduce drug-testing policies. We have armed our staff with the tools and knowledge necessary to challenge aggressive employer efforts to introduce drug testing in Steelworker workplaces.

A number of cases have been prepared and presented by staff and by the Legal Department regarding drug testing over the last several years. In an arbitral climate that is not sympathetic to the privacy interests of our members, we have been able to establish some limitations on management’s right to test. It is not an easy process, and the gains are incremental and largely established on a case-by-case basis.

Equality For All

Over the last two years materials on equity issues have been updated, distributed and integrated into Steelworker Education courses. They include: the Anti-harassment Guide; Balancing Act; Violence Prevention Guide; bulletins and background information on African Heritage Month, International Women’s Day, the International Day to Eliminate Racism, Asian History Month; Aboriginal Persons’ Day and Pride Days.

Materials on anti-workplace harassment have been developed and distributed and an educational module on conflict resolution has been developed and piloted.

Disability rights were also a focus of 2002 resolutions and modules on accommodation have now been developed for the union’s leadership and bargaining courses. As well, Steelworkers are working with the CLC to lobby for employment equity laws and enforcement of non-discrimination and harassment laws.

A resolution on advancing the rights of aboriginal members of the union as well as promoting collective bargaining and political action, has resulted in Steelworker sample collective agreement language on employment equity, which is now part of the new Aboriginal Rights Resource Tool Kit produced by the Canadian Labour Congress.

A resolution that called on the union to ensure that no election, strike vote, ratification or membership meeting is held on a religious ‘holy’ day, has resulted in the annual publication of all such days in each calendar year. It is sent to local unions and posted on the website. Awareness of such holidays is also stressed in the Human Rights training program.

Child Care Up Front

The union’s key document on this issue, Balancing Act, has been updated, and child care as a priority in bargaining was highlighted in workshops held at the District 3 Conference in 2003.

The union is a member of the child care coalition in Ontario and participates in the ongoing campaign for a national child care program.

Bringing The Union To Women And Visible Minority Workers

The result of the resolution aimed at making the union more accessible to women and visible minority workers resulted in a series of new leaflets.

In one campaign, Canac Kitchens, leaflets were produced in a number of different languages. The campaign was a great success and the multi-ethnic workforce overwhelmingly chose the Steelworkers to represent them.

Using New Technology To Build Solidarity

Progress has been made over the last two years toward changing our method of communicating to ensure better response times on important issues and campaigns, and to ensure that information is as up to date as possible.

We now have thousands of our members’ e-mail addresses to whom we are now able to send the National Director’s Update, news releases and bulletins requiring action by local unions. The process is far from complete, and it is important for local unions to collect as many e-mail addresses as possible and forward them to the National Office in order to expand the database and make it more effective. All information provided to the union will not be shared, sold or made available to anyone other than the National Director, and will only be used for union purposes.

Whether or not a member has e-mail, all they need is access to a computer to go to the Steelworkers’ website  www.usw.ca. The website is updated on a daily basis and contains more than 2,000 pages of news and information.

In addition to the Steelworkers’ public web site  www.usw.ca, the union offers two private Intranet sites for the exclusive use of its membership. www.steelweb.ca is a database designed for local union executives to maintain the accuracy of local union membership lists. Changes and corrections can be made online provided the user has the proper authority to do so. All that’s required to take advantage of this service is an e-mail account. A steelweb registration form is available on the web site or from the Canadian National Office. Send the completed form to Lesley Stodart at the National Office to receive logon information.

The second additional site is www.steelnet.ca , which has a number of interesting features. All Steelworker arbitrations, both reported and unreported cases, are available on this site, dating back to 1986. In addition, the full texts of the awards are provided for users to download and/or print out.

Steelnet can also be used to find examples of collective agreement language. The site also provides official Steelworker logos in formats for both the internet and print. Education program course calendars are also on the site, as well as the union’s affirmative action guide. Information for Steelworker Health and Safety Activists is available here including sample presentations to governments and instructions on how to prepare your own briefs.