Reaching into labour history to find lessons for today, CUPE President Mark Hancock told delegates that unions have faced difficult times before and come out stronger for it.
“Some of the greatest achievements that organized labour has ever won came during moments of turmoil – just like the one we find ourselves in right now,” said Hancock.
Hancock pointed to battles after the first and second world wars when unions didn’t have the legal recognition they have today, but still won bargaining rights, the Rand formula, pensions, health care, and basic health and safety standards.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Hancock. “So many leaders and activists before us were fired, jailed, assaulted, even murdered.”
Hancock noted that in the last year alone, both the federal and Alberta governments took multiple actions to rob workers of rights we’ve enjoyed for decades.
“Mark Carney didn’t hesitate to shred our members’ Charter rights during the Air Canada strike last summer. And he won’t lift a finger to defend public health care and our public services while they’re under attack right here in Alberta as we speak.”
“The UCP is busy pushing dangerous schemes that nobody asked for and nobody wants, like pulling Alberta out of the CPP and playing footsy with Maple MAGA Trump wannabes who want to split our country apart.”
Hancock said that being a trade unionist in a time of ‘right-wing lunatics’ means acknowledging the challenge and never giving up ‘on the fight for a better future.’
Referring to the safety of workers as “not optional,” Hancock noted that the death of CUPE member Deborah Onwu in 2019 led to four judicial recommendations that the UCP government has still not acted on.
“We owe it to people like Deborah Onwu and her friends and family – and far too many others who have lost loved ones because of violence in our workplaces,” said Hancock, “We owe it to them to fight like hell.”
Hancock ended with an appeal to delegates to not be fooled by Danielle Smith’s attempts to divide workers with ‘non-stop culture wars and manufactured outrage.’
“When governments fail to solve real problems that they’re responsible for creating – they start looking for somebody else to pin the blame on. Blaming newcomers and other vulnerable folks just lets her off the hook.”