2012.05.01

 

CWA Canada laces up the gloves

Fighting the Good Fight for the middle class

The anti-worker onslaught by some corporations and the Harper government is turning a normally calm CWA Canada into a pugnacious scrapper.

"It's one thing to represent our members and ensure they have good jobs and benefits, but we have a broader responsibility to stand up for the middle class," CWA Canada Director Martin O'Hanlon told delegates to the National Representative Council meeting in Victoria April 27-29.

As a media-centric union, CWA Canada has traditionally adhered to the journalistic principle of not engaging in political activism. No longer.

O'Hanlon said the mounting attacks on the labour movement and government and corporate policies that kill good jobs and attack pensions, demand that "we fight the good fight."

"I am speaking out whenever and wherever possible about the importance of preserving decent-paying jobs and a vibrant media for the good of society and democracy.

"Our mantra is simple: Quality jobs and quality journalism are vital for a healthy society."

O'Hanlon said that, although it's a relatively small union, CWA Canada punches above its weight.

"We will be relentless in shining a light on those in government or corporate boardrooms who would savage our livelihoods and break the back of the middle class for the sake of profits or ideology.

"The importance of our fight is highlighted by the budget cuts at the CBC, which will kill hundreds of decent-paying jobs — the kind of jobs our country needs — and put 275 (members) of the Canadian Media Guild (CMG) out of work."

The national union, backed by a $150,000 grant from the Communications Workers of America, is behind a CMG campaign against the Harper government's slashing of the public broadcaster.

As employers have cut costs and shed jobs through layoffs, outsourcing or offshoring, it has taken a toll on membership numbers, O'Hanlon noted. Those challenges, however, have renewed the fervour of the leadership for bringing more workers into the union fold.

"Our top priorities for the next year are organizing and mobilizing. Both are vital to the prosperity of the union," O'Hanlon said.

Guiding the efforts is "The Way Ahead Project," which sanctions an unconventional method of organizing in that it extends CWA Canada from a union of workers under contract to "also become a union of members — no matter where, how or why they work the way they do." That might include freelancers, daily hires, temporaries, contract workers and consultants.

The approach will build upon the success of the CMG in establishing a vibrant Freelance Branch that, in a unique partnership with the Canadian Writers Group, has been able to access health benefits through the Writers Coalition.

In its drive to become the de facto professional body for media workers, CWA Canada will borrow from the National Union of Journalists in Britain, which has created an organization that journalists join almost automatically if they want to work in the industry.

Another goal of the project is to raise the public profile of CWA Canada and have the union and its Locals recognized as an authoritative voice on national media, labour and social issues.