2009 Bylaw & Policy Conference – April 25, 2009

President Shawn Haggerty's Report

Over the past two years our top priorities remained providing the best possible workplace representation through superior Collective Agreements and expedited problem resolution.

One of the top priorities of the Local remains strong servicing and negotiating good Collective Agreements. These agreements must be negotiable with your employer and enable everyone to plan for the future through improved wages, benefits and working conditions. At the same time, we work toward expanding Collective Agreement language to provide better health & safety rights, anti-harassment and anti-violence clauses and pension protection.

Over the past two years the Locals negotiated the renewal of 56 Collective Agreements for 7,773 of our members. When we negotiate we strive to attain more than what the employer is willing to provide. We negotiate for our members’ expectations not the bottom line. By using this approach you will always achieve a better result. But sometimes these improvements are only gained through a strike or lockout.

In the last two years we have had one work stoppage at Dollar Thrifty, affecting 54 members who lost 46 days of work. All members from the Dollar Thrifty work stoppage felt it was important to take a stand and send a message to their employer. Let’s take a moment and give those members the round of applause they deserve. The Local Union was there to support them but it was the members who stood strong on the picket line each and every day.

Once a Collective Agreement is achieved or renewed, the work of enforcing the Collective Agreement begins. In policing the 393 Collective Agreements representing over 898 workplaces, the Locals filed 7,566 grievances in 2007 and 7,567 grievances in 2008. Of those grievances filed last year, only 1,780 were outstanding as of January 1, 2009 just 23.5% of the total grievances filed. I think you would agree that a lot of hard work by you, the Stewards, as well as the Union Representatives has paid off and our members are better off as a result of that hard work.

And those numbers do not account for the number of complaints that you, the Stewards, settle on a daily basis. I would challenge any other Union to meet this type of quality servicing for their members. I think it’s appropriate for everyone in this room to show their appreciation for each other, for the effort and accomplishments you have all made. In 2007, we filed 385 grievances for arbitration and in 2008 we filed 319 grievances for arbitration. Many were resolved in the days leading up to the arbitration.

In the past two years we have made considerable improvements in our ability to negotiate good agreements, service our Union membership and provide superior administration of our Local Union. Much of this is due to the experience and commitment of the executive team that work very closely with me including Secretary-Treasurer Teresa Magee and Executive Assistants Jim Hastings, Harry Sutton and Ray Bromley. The Local is too large to be operated by just one person. I am assisted by some very knowledgeable and dedicated regional Directors: Dan Lacroix, Sylvia Groom, Kelly Tosato, Paul Jokhu and Luc Lacelle. In addition, two co-ordinators of our larger departments Kelly Nicholas ( Training & Education) and Fernando Reis (Legal). We have many staff working for the members as Union Reps, Servicing Reps, Benefits Reps, Health & Safety Reps, Communications Reps, Training & Education Instructors, Organizing Reps, Legal Counsel and Administrative Staff.

It is always with mixed feelings that I announce those who have retired from our great Locals as they are missed but we wish them the best in their future: Cheryl Mumford from the Communications Department, Roy Etling, Organizing Representative and Marta Faulkner, Administrative Assistant to the Central East Region. Their contributions and dedication will be missed but not forgotten. However, as some move on new faces arrive. I’d like to welcome those who joined our staff over the last two years: Dean McLaren, Union Rep; Lee Johnston-Koehn, Servicing Rep; Jason Hanley, Instructor; Laurie Duncan, Instructor; Ursula Augurusa, Benefits Rep; Joanne Ford, Benefits Rep; Casey Magee, Benefits Intake Rep; Victoria Shen, Legal Counsel (Benefits); Natalie Wiley, Legal Counsel; Emily Groom, Com-munications Rep; Margaret Jessop, Administrative Assistant to the Secretary- Treasurer; Derek Jokhu, Membership Records; and Tanya Kemp, Administrative Assistant in the Eastern Region.

We train our staff numerous times throughout the year to provide them with the knowledge and resources to help better represent the Union membership. We continue to invest in technology to ensure that Union Reps can maintain regular contact with the members in their individual units. In my opinion we have the best, most dedicated and compassionate repre-sentatives, who are trained to meet and exceed the needs of the members and I would like to say thank you to all of them.

I would like to recognize your Executive Board members who are all in the audience today. These are people elected by you from your workplaces to represent the interest of the membership. Elected to be responsible and guide decisions on how the Local is run and are elected leaders of your Local Union. I would like to thank you for your commitment and service to the membership.

In 2007, Local 175 had 47,102 members and 633 had 1,285 members. Last year, Local 175 had 46,548 members and 633 had 1,305 members. And we have had the following closures:

Cadbury Motts – 17
Goldstein Food Market – 23
Loeb Levesque – 40
Avon and Victory Caps - 70
Innovatech – 80
Qualicaps – 56
Ridley Square IGA – 40
Hearst Supermarket – 35
Arroma Pizza – 19
Cangro – St Davids – 138
Cangro – Exeter – 140
Rathburn Price Chopper – 45
Alamo National – 4
Hallmark Housekeeping (Bay St.) – 14
Hurley Corporation – 10
Oxford Lodge - 23

As a result 754 members were displaced to other units or left without employment, but never alone. In addition, we have experienced layoffs in excess of 1,000 members at many of our workplaces including Cadbury, Cargill/Olymel and Dresden Industries. Although not a technical layoff many of our members employed in retail are experiencing drastic hour reductions.

I am proud to say that we, as a Local, support these members through this difficult time and they have benefited from our retraining and adjustment programs to help them move on with their lives in these most trying times."

For departmental reports, return to the Bylaw Home Page and choose your department.

"I would like to briefly report on the Locals’ finances. Our assets have grown in 2008. We must be cautious as we move forward. With a lower membership count, pressure on our manufacturing sector and very low returns on investments; we must ensure that we are prepared to meet the challenges of the future, for the members.

Some of the challenges to our Locals over the next few years include employer demands, closures and layoffs, poor government, the global recession and the task of organizing and growing as a Local Union. Employer Demands, closures and layoffs are affected directly by corporate greed, foreign competition and shareholder demands. This all puts pressure on the companies to deliver, which in turn puts pressure on the workers. Companies constantly have concessionary bargaining strategies that we must oppose. In today’s economic climate companies all claim financial hardship. Yet you and I both know that all companies are not in trouble. We must weed out which of our employers are in financial crisis and which ones are lying to us. Only then can we achieve the best Collective Agreement, which our members deserve.

When it comes to government, I want to say something positive: Provincial election by October, 2011; Federal Election hopefully by year end. This is our opportunity – everyone’s opportunity – to elect better government representatives. We MUST be politically active. We need to hold our governments at all levels accountable to us the workers, the backbone of our economy. Our governments at both levels need to develop a strategy to stop the bleed of manufacturing jobs to foreign markets. We cannot be consumers without being a manufacturer as neither one can survive long term without a healthy relationship between the two.

In Ontario we are going to see a leadership race for the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. And I ask you to pay close attention to what the leadership candidates will be saying. Listen closely. You’ll hear Harris rhetoric – a party for business at the expense of working class people like you and I. You will hear how we must lower our standards to compete on a global market. You will hear that we must rationalize our spending when it comes to health care and infrastructure. As you listen and hear their message be aware, be cautious and be afraid as their goals are not those of the people in this room. All of us remember the story of Mouseland by Tommy Douglas. Well, what we see in the PC party are cats, black, white, striped and fat but still cats.

So when we do cast our ballots, let’s do it for the party that will best represent our interests and a future that we want, need and deserve. We are in an economic time that none of us have ever seen before. We have a global credit crunch, corporate and bank fraud, corporate bailouts and corporate bankruptcy. Many believe that the US has led the world into this recession with is lack of bank regulations, the ongoing war, lack of insurance regulations and Republican party policies that provide money to the corporate elite and rich.

Prime Minister Harper used to say we in Canada will not feel the recession but the jobs are being lost. Prime Minister Harper used to say we have the strongest banking system in the world. Yet we gave them 25 billion dollars. Prime Minister Harper used to say Canada will emerge from this Global Recession faster than other countries but jobs are still being lost. In late 2008 the Liberal Government, the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party announced they would form a coalition government to remove the do-nothing Federal Conservative Party. In an unprecedented move the Governor General of Canada suspended parliament at the request of Prime Minister Harper. He was finally forced to do something about what has been happening in Canada and consulted with the Political Parties to try and develop a plan to help the people of Canada. Imagine that – he had to be on the verge of being removed as Prime Minister to do something for us.

The financial market has taken a huge fall. Many investments have lost 40% or more of their value. In the United States the 401K plan, which is the pension plan for most workers, has lost from 40 to 100% of its value. In Canada, our pension plans although invested to protect the members’ assets have still been battered by the markets and have seen drops of 40% and in some cases more. This has put pressure on the Trustees and Corporations that sponsor pension plans. Returns on safe investments are about 2%. With these returns and the lost value in the plans, it will require a long period of time to make up those lost dollars. We only have to pick up a newspaper or turn on a radio or a television set to recognize the devastating impact the global financial crash has had on all retirement funds be it mutual funds, RRSP’s and on each of our pension plans.

To complicate this, neither the provincial nor federal governments of the day recognize neither the magnitude nor the degree of severity this massive pension crash has had on each of us assembled here today. We must all recognize that our provincial government alone does not have enough money set aside to even guarantee the pension for General Motors, never mind the rest of the other pension plans also on the edge with unfunded pension obligations. Our government must accept and recognize that it is not only the Auto Industry that faces this reality but each and every Canadian Citizen who has either invested in a retirement fund or is a participant in a registered pension plan.

Through political action your Union, UFCW Locals 175 & 633 will continue to address and demand of both houses of government the need to recognize and deal with this current pension fiasco and most importantly to act in a responsible, fair and equable manner for all pension plans across our Country. Most pension experts agree that the solution is not clear but it will require 3 key components. First, government regulations must take into account the reality of today’s economic time. Second, employers must be responsible and accept that pension plans need to be funded over corporate profit. And third, employees must accept that promises made on pension plans may need to be adjusted to reflect the real value of the plan. In other words, we will have to share in the pain and share in the solution.

As a Union our job – in fact our mission – will be to ensure that our employers pay the right dollars to provide the pensions that we have earned and deserve. We must work with our members to develop and modify our pension plans to meet today’s market conditions and still allow them to retire with the financial security to enjoy life – the life they deserve.

You will hear the word ‘growth’ a lot today. Growth & organizing are the keys to our future. In 2008 the UFCW International Union held its 6th Regular Convention attended by about 3,000 people. Adopted at the Convention were clear guidelines for growth.

• 2010 10% of post per-capita revenue will be spent on organizing
• 2012 15% of post per-capita revenue will be spent on organizing
• 2014 20% of post per-capita revenue will be spent on organizing

In real dollars for our locals, that would mean 1.5 million at 10% going to 3 million by 2014 to meet our commitment to organizing. And in my view, that’s a minimum.

We are expanding our front line organizing efforts by adding Apprentice Organizers and we are targeting our core sectors Retail, Manufacturing, Hospitality and Health Care. We will build our density in those sectors to allow us to achieve the best Collective Agreements. Also, we must look to organize our employers’ non union side of the business or what we call double breasted employers. We have employers who have two sides. Loblaw is one of those with both a non-union side and a union side. Extra Foods and Your Independent Grocers are examples of non union companies within a unionized company. When the non-union side of an employers’ business becomes larger than the union side, we have a problem.

We currently represent 2,100 members at Pharma Plus stores across the province but most of you will have noticed the Rexall Drug stores opening across the province over the last number of years, a non-union side to this Company, the Katz group. We recognized the only growth that was happening with the Katz Group was on the Rexall side of the business not the Pharma Plus side. So we made a decision to organize the non-union Rexall side. We organized the Hamilton stores. We organized the Niagara Region stores. We organized the Peel Regional stores. We organized the Peterborough stores. And we won the votes. We achieved a Collective Agreement on March 1st, and as a result were recognized by the Ontario Labour Relations Board, as bargaining agent for all 800 plus Rexall workers across the province. Now we will be able to raise the standard of working conditions for both sets of workers at the bargaining table.

I would like to take a moment to ask Lorie Boily and Gloria Molina to stand and remain standing. These two women along with David Claros and Shelley Davies were the bargaining committee for the Rexall negotiations. I would like to thank you on behalf of all of us in this room and the 800 plus members employed at Rexall Drug stores for your leadership and guidance not only in achieving a Collective Agreement but for providing the opportunity to improve the working conditions and job security for all the employees both at Pharma Plus and Rexall Stores. Growth is key for us all and Rexall is one example.

But we have 400 organizers in the room today. You constantly show the members at your units the value of being organized by enforcing your Collective Agreements everyday and providing support and leadership to these members.

As President, I would like to thank you for your support. I consider it a great honour and privilege to serve as the president of our GREAT local union, the largest UFCW Local union in North America. I consider it a privilege to represent and work for our members each day. And it is an honour I will never take lightly.

I will continue to serve to the best of my ability and dedicate my time and commitment to the members of our two great local unions Local 633 and Local 175. Thank you."