LABOUR DAY 2005 - USWA SPOTLIGHT

LABOUR DAY - 2004 -2005 AN AMAZING YEAR
by KEN NEUMANN
Steelworkers National Director for Canada

Copy of Ken Neumann's - Labour Day: 2004-2005 An Amazing Year- message as seen on USWA web site at: http://www.uswa.ca/program/content/2650.php

(Note! - Ken Neumann's BIO can be viewed below)

It just may be an understatement on Labour Day 2005 to say that the last 12 months have been amazing.

Of course there are plenty of challenges, not the least of which is the strike by 1,200 members of Local 480 against Teck Cominco in Trail, BC which, at the time of this writing, was still unresolved after more than a month.

But there have been a number of developments that give us cause to be optimistic and open up new avenues for activism and solidarity.


Starting last fall, the merger with the former Industrial Wood and Allied Workers (IWA-Canada), a whole new sector has been added to the union, along with boosting our membership at that time by more than 55,000. More forestry-related workers became Steelworkers in April through the international merger with the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union. That merger heralded a formal name change. The union is now the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union. It’s a mouthful, but the short form ID throughout North America is United Steelworkers. It has also meant a change for our website. Go now to www.steelworkers-metallos.ca.

Last November, a year-long campaign to sign former members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees on Canadian National Railway ended successfully with 3,500 CN workers now comprising a national local – 2004. They have a new contract with the railway and a national campaign is now underway to improve health and safety and demand a public inquiry into CN’s practices that have led to several derailments.

Last spring, our union entered into a strategic alliance with the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists. The arrangement involves us in the issue of globalization of culture as well as a range of common issues. ACTRA’s 62 years of experience representing self-employed artists offers valuable insight into how best to represent independent contractors, including truckers and taxi drivers.

Our growing strength in numbers is exactly what the union needs to ensure good collective agreements in all the sectors that we represent and to show unrepresented workers the real advantage of belonging to a large, tough, democratic organization. Numbers obviously also build the union’s most valuable resource, its membership, whose activism ensures that we have a profile in communities across Canada as well as a source of future leadership at every level.

There’s more. Our activists also fuel the political campaigns we undertake to make improvements in all workers’ lives. Besides our "Workers First" campaign to reform Canada’s bankruptcy and insolvency laws, Steelworker rank-and-file lobbyists will be joined on Parliament Hill this fall by our ACTRA partners to lobby MPs in anticipation of a federal election expected later this year or early next. The focus of the lobby will be political parties’ platform and what commitment they have to issues of cultural and economic sovereignty.

One milestone reached over the last year is the 20th anniversary of the Steelworkers Humanity Fund. The Fund is now well established in the international field, and the model of penny-an-hour deductions negotiated into collective agreements has been adopted by other unions. It means individual union members, together with their unions as institutions, are important allies in the struggle against poverty and injustice all over the world. Every Steelworker should feel immensely proud of their role in making a better world possible.

Labour Day is a moment of proud reflection, a re-commitment to the values of work and family, and fun as well. Because, no matter how serious the struggles and the task ahead may seem, our outlook should always be positive, energetic and forward-looking. It’s what makes a union like the Steelworkers a great place to be.

Ken Neumann, Steelworkers National Director for Canada

Born and raised in rural Saskatchewan, Ken Neumann has been a lifelong Steelworker. When he was still a teenager, he was a member of Local 5890 at Ipsco Ltd. in Regina, Saskatchewan, and later was a member of Local 6166 at Inco Ltd. in Thompson, Manitoba.

As a member of Local 4728 (Westank-Willock, Regina), Ken became active as a steward, and later took on other jobs in the local right up to getting elected president. He became an instructor, organizer, and president of the Regina Area Council before being hired as a Steelworker Staff Representative in 1977.

Ken worked for Steelworker members in Saskatchewan and Kimberley, BC, where he built a personal reputation for strong service to Steelworker members in the East Kootenay region.

He ran and won the election in 1989 to replace retiring District 3 Director Len Stevens, and has been returned to office in every election since then, increasing his and the union’s involvement in the labour movement in Western Canada, as well as increasing organizing activity in the union’s largest geographical district.

Ken is active in numerous Canadian and international organizations, including serving as labour co-chair of the Canadian Steel Trades and Employment Congress, President of the Steelworker Trusteed Benefit Plan, President of the Humanity Fund, director of the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) and ICEM. He is also secretary of the USWA Non-ferrous Industry Conference, chair of the United Dominion Industries Conference and a General Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

For more of Ken Neumann's messages and further news from USWA, we invite you to visit the USWA web site at: http://www.uswa.ca/program/content/2650.php