(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

We reprint these excerpts from the opening remarks by President Claudette Carbonneau, to a meeting of the Confederal Council of the Quebec-based Confederation of National Trade Unions (CNTU) on March 17. Sister Carbonneau's urgent call for mass action is important reading for all labour activists in Canada.

Dear fellow executive committee comrades,

Dear delegates, dear activists, dear workers,

     Since our last Confederal Council, the economic crisis has worsened. The consequences are major. The layoffs announced daily are starting to be reflected in the statistics. After having made no progress whatsoever in October and in November 2008, employment in Quebec has declined by 7,400 jobs in December and by 25,800 in January. During the same month, in Canada, the registered loss has reached 129,000 jobs, the largest monthly adjustment since 1976.  The manufacturing sector is particularly affected, with a loss of 100,900 jobs. In the United States, 598,000 jobs were lost in January and more than 650,000 in February.

     We are every day on the firing line with respect to employment. I am thinking, among other things, about the Abitibi-Consol situation, which is seeking to refinance a very important debt. This case has raised a lot of energy within the CNTU and the FTPF (Federation of Paper and Forest workers-CNTU) and for good reason: at stake are more than 7,000 direct jobs, 8,900 retirees, 28 plants in various regions of Quebec. This is a major question. All proportions considered, it is our General Motors! The CNTU and FTPF are calling all levels of government to do their part for the workers, for employment and for the regions.

     Bankruptcies were up sharply across Canada. In Quebec, 28,317 persons went bankrupt in 2008, an increase of 12.9% compared to 2007. The number of consumer bankruptcies in December 2008 was 46.1% higher than 2007, reflecting the deteriorating financial situation of households. Lowest level of market indices, retail sales collapsing, all previous records have been beaten.

     Financial crisis, food crisis, energy and environmental crisis: these are underlying issues of the economic crisis. We cannot wait idly for the end of the crisis situation and then get back to everyday life when the recovery will be felt. This situation is the result of 30 years of neoliberal policies, of putting everything in the hands of the market ‑ deregulation, social cuts, increasing inequalities. At this Council, we will have an in-depth and substantive debate on the best road map, not only to cope with the crisis and to get out of it, but also to prepare the post-crisis period. It is important to think deeply in order to avoid repetition of the same policies that would produce the same effects, to prevent business executives, particularly financial business executives, from implementing again the same practices when things calm down. Finally, we will have to consider closely the pressures that will inevitably arise in public finances, in public services and in social programs.

     With globalization based on the model of consumption of rich countries, changes have accelerated, and the finance capitalists became extraordinarily rich. From huge losses to the paralysis of the financial system, from the freezing of credit to the fluctuation of exchange rates, from the loss of confidence to the fall in consumption, from closures to bankruptcies: the bubble exploded from all sides. The prices of oil and raw materials have dropped.

     The policies adopted to get out of the crisis cannot ignore these issues. Of course it will be necessary to take measures to counter the recession by monetary and fiscal policies to regulate finance capital, by promoting the recovery with the implementation of sectoral plans and infrastructure, by strengthening public services, by contributing to greener growth.

     But, most of all, it will be necessary to give support to the people affected by the crisis. It will be necessary to promote the training of the workforce, to deal with the problems of education and to fight illiteracy, and also, on an urgent basis, to improve access to employment insurance. This is called social investment. This will be a priority in our list of demands. We cannot really get out of this crisis without changing the old paradigms of capitalism. Another type of globalization is possible. Another economic model must be put at the service of the humans who inhabit our planet. This crisis gives us an extraordinary opportunity to change things. We need the competence, the solidarity and the militancy of each one of you.

     We are therefore sending a call for a massive mobilization in order to support our demands to counter the crisis and, primarily, to win changes to employment insurance with the perspective of a May 1st in which the economic crisis will be on the agenda. The idea is to go and get the maximum support in your regions, from mayors, city councils, members of Parliament, MRC (regional administration bodies) and other stakeholders, culminating with regional demonstrations under the theme "To get out of the crisis: people first!" The crisis and its effects, and the need to return to the raison d'etre of Employment Insurance ‑ the protection of workers who lose employment ‑ will be one of the important themes of these demonstrations.

     At the federal level, although there is money available, the CNTU believes that the 2009 budget is unacceptable and unfair to the unemployed, to older workers, to women and to Quebec. In addition to attacking fundamental rights, the Conservative government does not propose any change of direction on substantive issues such as equalization and federal transfers for social programs, support to ailing economic sectors, the employment insurance program, tax relief, climate change.

     Bill C-10 is also an insult to the fundamental right of women to recognition of the value of their work, and of women themselves, who have more than one reason to feel offended. First, the government is redefining "employment" to limit the category of female employment only to jobs that have more than 70% of women. It also attacks the right of women to equal pay for work of equal value, by adding to the recognized criteria for job evaluation, the criteria of the needs of employers concerning recruitment and retention of the workforce! Wage discrimination has therefore become permissible if it is justified by market conditions. This is unacceptable!

     Not satisfied, the government brought this law in the field of what is negotiable rather than imposing the adoption of genuine pay equity programs and ensuring their existence. Now, pay equity is no longer a right to enforce, but a condition to negotiate. And the responsibility for the results are attributable not only to employers but also to the trade unions. Indeed, the bill gives to the Public Service Commission, an agency that has no expertise in this matter, the power to determine a compensatory amount to a person who was harmed. It could force a trade union to pay a portion of this amount. On its face, this is nonsense and a very dangerous precedent that we must expose and challenge.

     Equally hateful is the fact that the government forbids trade unions to encourage women to file complaints and even to represent them to obtain justice. How can the government propose such an unfair legislative framework?

     We demand the government withdraw the provisions on equity in the remuneration of federal public sector workers, and that it follow with the elaboration of real proactive legislation on pay equity...

     On January 24, 253 workers of the Journal de Montréal daily were thrown on the sidewalk. For Quebecor Media, this is the 13th union lockout in 14 years.

     Since the founding of the Journal de Montréal, at the time of the strike at La Presse in 1964, it is the first labour dispute involving the office and editorial staff... What is at issue here is the survival of a strong and combative union, mobilized to preserve their working conditions and to prevent the loss of a hundred jobs in offices and classified ads, jobs held predominantly by women who have been working for the Journal de Montréal for many years.

     The union of the Journal de Montréal news workers, which has negotiated what some call the "best agreement" in the communications sector in North America, also wants to protect the professional clauses, which provide the public with quality, credible information from different sources and which comply with all ethical rules in this field. In Quebec, it is the collective agreements that guarantee these characteristics. For Pierre Karl Péladeau, they represent an obstacle to its obsession of unlimited convergence. He tries to reduce the sources of information in order to use the contents of all its platforms through its empire coast to coast.

     We assure the 253 locked‑out workers of the unwavering support of the CNTU. We also call on the delegates of the Confederal Council to continue to campaign in your organizations, to tell our members and the public to no longer read and to stop buying the newspaper whose the quality and credibility have deteriorated since January 24. Moreover, the locked out workers are doing a remarkable job with http://www.ruefrontenac.com, an extraordinary slap in the face of Pierre Karl Péladeau, according to whom the union had always refused to participate in a website. We invite you to visit this site assiduously. Solidarity!...

     In addition to the Journal de Montréal, Quebecor just locked out the employees of L'Hebdo Le Réveil du Saguenay. With workers of Roi du Coq Roti, Olympia, the Holiday Inn-Longueuil and the Casino de Montréal security guards, the CNTU has six lockouts. We offer them all our solidarity. Solidarity also to the union members at Domaine Fleurimont in the Estrie and at the Sheraton Four Points-Montréal, on strike since July 8 and August 25.

     I wish you a very fruitful Confederal Council. Long live the CNTU!