Here you've
got
brothers and sisters that have not seen
each other now in the two and a half almost three years.
This is
amazing for me. This is where all my really really good friends
are.
So nice to be back and see people I haven't seen from
the Prairies for ages. It's unbelievable to
see the faces, to see the smiles, to feel the energy in the
room.
We can
mourn those people that have gone on but we
need to fight like hell for those that are
still here.
We sang, we cried, we danced we
laughed and we discussed so many
important issues and to see The Passion of all of our Unifor
members again was just absolutely amazing. It's just incredible to
be able to hug people to be
able to you know, share those moments where
you really don't get that same emotion over
a video.
And we started the work of beginning to plan in executing the largest
boots on the ground campaign we have ever launched in
Alberta to be ready to make a real difference in the
next provincial election. Whether that's in 2023 or sooner.
Here comes Rachel coming in from
Alberta. She's got
Kenney and the UCP that just
dragging that province back years.
So I want
you to know that under government under our NDP government
working people and the unions that represent them will
be treated with respect and with humility.
We'll restore workplace health and safety
committees will put the worker back and workers' compensation will
bring over time and holiday pay rules back in
line with Canadian mainstream or better and we
will not ever let low wages somehow
be sold as an Alberta advantage.
Will repeal Bill 32 and will respect your constitutional right
to organize.
When she starts saying the bills that
she was going to be dropping when she gets back in. I tell you I
was looking at the Alberta delegates sitting
in the in the crowd and man they were ecstatic.
Guess what? The workers are here, the collective agreement is here. If you don’t want to pay the workers properly, get out!
That's the power that contract flipping legislation gives you so we need it.
Well, I really think Gavin has done an amazing leadership job
bringing our locals together and getting them
to share their first their workplace fights. So,
energy workers supporting education workers
and building that solidarity across the
Prairies has been incredibly important.
We're going to get boots on the ground get our members out get the
mobilized and put in governments that are going to
work for work and people I'm trying to save your
job. I'm trying to save your health care. I'm
trying to save what has been taken away, so please see Josh and be part of this resolution. 61 00:03:27,300 --> 00:03:30,300 It is going to be a huge fight and I
am I'm deeply concerned about what's
going to happen with any of us that are
going into bargaining and having to deal with what Jason
Kenney has dished out to us. So I'm extremely proud.
I it brings, I get
I get goosebumps and I think about what our national has done to
support us in Alberta. It was
very clear to me that there was
so much solidarity in the room when sister
Elaine was talking about their struggle and Alberta around,
protecting their jobs
in the education sector and fighting for basic
protection during the pandemic. Everybody
understood that and they were with her
and they were fighting with her. We know we're facing
an election in Alberta could be a matter of weeks. But certainly Jason
Kenney and the UCP have been doing nothing
but doing a bad job in the pandemic and
attacking working people all the way through
And with Bill 32 and some of the changes that
they've had which are some of the most vicious anti-union legislation we've
seen in Canada in decades. Everyone got the
connection that if we don't stop this attack on working
people in Alberta in this next election that those same
kind of anti-worker policies will be coming to Manitoba and
becomes a Saskatchewan after that. Being able to listen to
what being able to listen to Rachel being able to hear
everybody get mobilized in all of that. Like it's my
passion knowing that we're all together. We're all gonna work
hard on this
I have faith now a little bit more because right now we
are still facing a lot of right-wing wind
and to see these politicians thinking that
it's important to come to talk to us. It's because we're still very
important and I think we finally have a chance
maybe to turn the wind around.
There's an opportunity now
A huge opportunity to win progressive
politics again in both,
Alberta and Manitoba particularly.
I want the opportunity to come and speak to somebody
in your workplace who doesn't think that politics affects
them, and to help connect the dots to
show how over the past seven years in Manitoba. They've been
made worse off and not only been made worse off.
They've been sold a bill of goods. They've been lied to
by the right wing now is the time to
bring people together.
What I like that he had to say was that he likes Unifor because we're
fighting union and and we'll stand by side
with them and we're looking forward that he'll be
the next Premier of Manitoba. If you know for has anything to say
about it. [One of the things people in this room are very excited about
is anti-scab legislation.] I support it. I think
it's necessary in terms of the issue itself shoulder to
shoulder with uniform on that one. You've probably seen the federal liberals
and NDP entered into what's known as a confidence and
supply agreement from now to believe it's 2025. It's a
good thing for Canadians and it's something that Unifor has
been calling for directly since after the last election. They’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars
To run that camp and lost production to lock us out.
But really the defining line for Unifor was everything that
happened in places like Goderich and Gander, but also
particularly in Regina where everyone could see
that bringing in scabs be a
helicopter so that the members were locked out.
In the cold people came from across Canada. I think it
really galvanized all of our members to continue to push for this.
That is a big thing for me here. I know
Unifor’s got it. There's been movement on it. So
the federal government is going to going to
implement anti-scab legislation for us and Unifor can
take credit for that. I'm all for Wab Kinew
being elected the next premiere of this province and I
hope to God that he is but he'd been like needs to remember
also, we need anti-scab legislation.
Eminent anti-scab legislation in Canada is
a victory for our union. It is
a victory for our members.
It is a victory for our members in Gander and
Goderich and Regina in communities all across this
country and we should celebrate it as such.
But we need to put it over the finish line.
And we're going to need all of your help to make that happen.
Having launched the anti-scab campaign back
in 2021 at our
PRC on video, you know,
what and then all of a sudden for to come in. It does show
that what we do matters. Here we are only
a year later talking about actual federal
legislation that is coming and so they can
be done. We can actually move forward on a
lot of these campaigns our work matters, our union matters
and this is another great example of that. We've been
fighting for this for so long and to see
this little spark of hope right now is incredible
and now everyone is on board to
continue to push to get anti-scab legislation at the
federal level and then in every province. Once
you get it in one place, once you build that momentum,
we're you know, the sky
will be the limit on this.
We are not going to let the government take
away publicly-owned passenger rail
lines in this country. We're the only ones fighting right
now and we're gonna fight until the government changes their
decision.
We grabbed our flags and we marched all the way
down to the Via Rail station. And even as we
were going we were getting honks on the streets from cars and
people supporting us. And by the way I would
say to all of the Liberal MLAs and MPs and cabinet ministers,
And all the NDP ones: You
were elected not to serve corporations.
You were elected to serve Canadians!
[Keep Via Public, Keep Via Public!]
We want every local
across the country to show
their support every region across the country
to show their support because when we do that and
when we build that kind of solidarity that is when
we win, sisters and brothers and that's exactly what
we're going to do. We're going to win this fight.
[So so so, solidarity!]
[Via, Public, Via, Public!]
We also know that
Via Rail committees across the country were watching
on Facebook. And so it was really great to hit the streets
again with our Unifor brothers and sisters.
Our school's name was Bishop Grandin.
And that was a hardest thing to read was
all the crap that he said about us.
And my kids were not safe and I have never
not felt safe in his school before and I'm
63 years old and that was a horrible
feeling you need to pass this and
you need to understand that we are not going anywhere and
we will be here. I have 1500 kids that
need good union jobs, and they need
to be safe getting them.
Well, the Prairie provinces have always been
leaders in “reconcili-action”, I would say, but they
know it's not enough to just simply wear an orange shirt that an orange
shirt is just a symbol of the need for action and we
heard all kinds of stories whether it was Drag the Red whether it
was the mama bear clan, Community 204 of the
amazing work that's being done on the ground. I ask
the PRC to keep these conversations going to keep
engagement going do not let the waters run
dry on this.
You don't have to be at the forefront. We just need to be behind their
movement. Thank you.
Our work
isn't done. It's not even close to done. We're just
scratching the surface and I think my main objective
wearing this orange shirt, as you can see is just keep
the awareness coming bring some Truth and Reconciliation to
the Indigenous people of our country. A lot
of people have personal lived experiences, very painful experiences, whether
it's the relatives whether it's themselves personally. We saw
delegates get up and share some really personal experiences
and they did that because they felt it was a safe space.
[The women, united,]
[will never be defeated!]
[the women, united will never be defeated!]
I think the highlight was just seeing people
getting engaged. I think it was just seeing them come
up and speaking at the mic, people that haven't
done it in a long time and to be
able to open up and speak freely like that was unbelievable. And
I really want to thank and commend all of
the members of the national executive board who changed their very
busy schedules came here on a moment's notice and that's
because we wanted to show everyone that we're united that we're
determined to be accountable and we're determined to do the
right things to move forward so that our members continue to have
the trust and the transparency and the accountability that
they deserve.
I believe in transparency and accountability because it
is only by transparency integrity and accountability
that we will all get through this at every
level.
The events of the past few months have been very hard yet
ultimately because of the brave and principled actions
of the members of your national executive board.
I stand before you today as a proud Unifor
member. In fact, I'm prouder than ever to
be a Unifor member.
To be in person and to see everybody and be
able to talk to them and hug them if we can
and to just talk to them face to face and hear the issues
and stuff. It's been it's been great. So much of building our
union is around that interaction and it was
very clear that we all missed it. It's been a long time
coming and people were getting itchy, and this was
a really good way of getting everybody back together.
To see the passion of all of our Unifor members again was just absolutely amazing.