Summer 2008
In this issue:
- Pay equity fight keeps going – and going
- A Message from the National President
- PSAC and Aboriginal Peoples: a history of solidarity
- Keeping it public
- Temporary gain, long-term pain
- Victory!
- PSAC activist spotlight
- A reading, writing revolution
- Standing up for a woman's right to choose
- Putting farmers and consumers first
Pay equity fight keeps going – and going
Women have nothing to celebrate on 4th anniversary of pay equity report
The Harper government remains in denial about women's inequality, allowing income gaps between men and women to persist and to grow, according to PSAC.
In the mid 1990s, women working full-time earned on average 72 cents for every dollar earned by a man. By 2005, that proportion had dropped to 70.5 cents. And the pay gap for immigrant and racially visible women is much worse.
In 1977, Parliament adopted the Canadian Human Rights Act. This law applies to everyone who works in federally regulated workplaces, such as the banks, the telecommunications companies, trains and airplanes, and of course the federal public sector. Roughly 10 per cent of Canadian workers are covered by this legislation. The Act clearly states that employers cannot discriminate based on “sex, race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation and other grounds of discrimination,” and must pay men and women equal wages for work of equal value.
Endless process
The Canadian Human Rights Act provides for a “complaints-based” process: it is up to the woman who is the victim of pay discrimination to gather evidence and to file a complaint before the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Unfortunately, it takes years, often decades for the Commission to process a complaint, and for a tribunal to reach a decision on a pay equity complaint. Employers often use procedural tactics to delay the proceedings and to discourage complainants. This complaints-based system is simply not working for women.
An ineffective system
PSAC women know all about the problems with the current system. The Union filed a complaint against Treasury Board on behalf of six female-dominated groups in 1984.
A joint union-management equal pay study followed over the next four years. When Treasury Board failed to fully implement the study results, the Union filed another complaint with the Human Rights Commission. It took nine more years that included extensive tribunal hearings, employer legal challenges and an appeal of the tribunal decision to the Federal Court before Treasury Board agreed to a settlement. Members finally started receiving cheques in the year 2000.
A PSAC complaint against Canada Post dates back to 1983 and it still has not been resolved. A tribunal decision was finally issued in October 2005 after 415 days of tribunal hearings and court challenges. The transcript of the hearings alone exceeds 44,000 pages. Within minutes of the tribunal decision being released, Canada Post filed for judicial review. The Federal Court (Trial Division) overturned the Tribunal decision and PSAC has had to file an appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal. This case is certainly not over yet after 25 years! And these are just two examples.
Pay Equity Task Force report
In May 2004, a Pay Equity Task Force set up by the federal government recommended:
- The adoption of a new proactive pay equity law;
- The expansion of pay equity coverage to include women and Aboriginal workers, workers with disabilities, and workers of colour;
- That all employees in the federal jurisdiction be covered by new pay equity legislation, including nonunionized employees, part-time, casual, seasonal and temporary workers;
- That the new law include workers and their unions in developing pay equity studies and in maintaining pay equity over time; and
- That a commission be set up to assist employers, employees and union, and that an expert tribunal be established to quickly decide disputes between the parties.
In the four years since the release of the report, the government has taken no action to address the tribunal's recommendations.
Discrimination persists
“It's unacceptable that four years after a federal Pay Equity Task Force released its report recommending a new proactive federal pay equity law, women still face wage discrimination,” says PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President Robyn Benson.
“Women know where the Prime Minister and his government stand,” says Benson. “As head of the National Citizens Coalition in 1998 he declared that pay equity was a ripoff and that ‘the federal government should scrap its ridiculous pay equity law'”.
Ignoring women's rights
The Harper government has flatly rejected the Task Force Report recommendations. Instead, the federal government promised in 2006 to increase workplace inspections, educate employers and employees and mediate disagreements. Benson wrote to federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn in April 2008 asking for a progress report on these promises but isn't optimistic.
“All of these practices have been in place for over 25 years,” says Benson. “We know from bitter experience that they don't work. The government's promises are just a smoke screen to disguise politicians' complete lack of interest in women's economic equality.”
According to Benson, “what we need is a government that will make a commitment to implement the Task Force recommendations by bringing a new, proactive pay law into being.”
Visit www.psac-afpc.com today, and use the “Email your MP” tool to send a message demanding that the federal government take action on pay equity.
A message from the PSAC National President
Think Public this summer!
Welcome to the summer 2008 edition of Our Union Voice. While many of us look forward to summer vacation, the summer months will be full of activity for PSAC members across the country.
Again this summer, we are encouraging citizens and Members of Parliament to Think Public. Members are participating in community events to raise the profile of quality public services and the important role they play in supporting vibrant communities. Members of Parliament need to be reminded to Think Public – that contracting out, deregulation and privatization cannot and should not replace quality public services delivered by PSAC members. I look forward to seeing you at events this summer, raising our voices in the call for improved funding and support for quality public services.
This summer's mobilization will also help to build our activism in advance of the next federal election. While we don't know when the election will be called, we need to be ready to take action and support candidates that Think Public. Candidates need to hear from you on the importance of quality public services, human rights and equality. These are critical issues for all of us, and we must work together to ensure that the government we elect respects and promotes these priorities.
Treasury Board members were shocked by the disrespectful wage offer tabled by the Harper government in May. The government has offered increases of 1.5%, 1.5%, 1.2% and 1.2% in a four year agreement. This is far below average wage increases, and does not respect the quality public services performed by PSAC members.
For members not directly employed by Treasury Board, these negotiations are also important, as they set the settlement pattern for many other employers. We need to support our Sisters and Brothers on these and all bargaining teams. No matter who your employer is, the key to successful negotiations includes effective communication and mobilization of the membership in support of their next collective agreement.
I look forward to seeing you at regional and component conventions, at the Aboriginal Workers' Conference, and at Pride and community events over summer. A summer where we use every opportunity to promote the value of human rights, equality, and quality public services. A summer to Think Public! In Solidarity, John Gordon, National President
PSAC and Aboriginal Peoples:
A history of solidarity
Aboriginal Peoples' Conference: the culmination of over 30 years of working together
When PSAC holds its first Aboriginal Peoples' Conference in Winnipeg this fall, members and activists will be uniting under theme of “MAAWANGITEENG”: Where the Journey Begins!” Given that the Harper government has repeatedly ignored the demands of First Nations peoples, this gathering is needed now more than ever. But this conference is certainly not the beginning of PSAC's commitment to Aboriginal Peoples. It's the culmination of more than 30 years of working together to improve the lives and working conditions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people all across the country.
PSAC's involvement with Aboriginal workers began in the 1970s, when the Union first worked with public sector workers in the North to negotiate collective agreements. By the late 70s, PSAC represented the majority of the employees of territorial governments. Soon after, other public sector workers from northern hamlets, such as Coral Harbour, Repulse Bay, Baker Lake and Arviat, as well as housing associations began to join our ranks.
At that time, members employed by hamlets and housing associations were being paid much less than territorial government employees, even if they were doing the same kind of work. Job security was tenuous at best. At the time, it was routine practice for most employees to get fired after a band council or territorial election, only to be replaced by people hand-picked by newly elected politicians. That practice was stopped after PSAC negotiated collective agreements that provided workers with job security and workplace rights.
Organizing in the North
Representing Aboriginal Peoples in the workplace brought new challenges for PSAC and led to some unique breakthroughs. When negotiating a collective agreement for workers in the City of Iqaluit in 2005, the Union advocated for two special paid leaves, one called Berry Picking Day and the other Clam Digging Day. These provisions reflect the fact that berry picking and clam digging are important elements of Inuit people's lives and cannot be abandoned simply because of a day job with the municipality. In a similar vein, PSAC also developed language in the Iqaluit workers' collective agreement allowing for leave for ranger training – a kind of military training specific to Northern Canada.
Today the PSAC is the most prominent union in Northern Canada and workers from new sectors such as diamond mining are joining its ranks.
Still, the unionization of Aboriginal workers has not always been smooth sailing. In 1988, the PSAC members working for the Inuvik Housing Authority held the longest strike in PSAC history. The strike lasted four months and created new jurisprudence for the Canada Industrial Relations Board. During the strike, PSAC filed a bad faith bargaining complaint against the employer. The Board agreed with PSAC and ordered the Housing Authority to give each employee six weeks of back pay and to reimburse PSAC for the strike pay it had paid out during the work stoppage.
Representing police officers
In July 2005, the civilian employees of the Nishnawbe-Aski Police (NAPS) Services Board in Northern Ontario joined the PSAC. They work for police detachment offices in Cochrane, Sioux Lookout and Sandy Lake, and at the NAPS headquarters in Thunder Bay, providing support for the detachments in 35 First Nations communities in Northern Ontario. Their first collective agreement, negotiated in a matter of months, implemented significant improvements to their wages, a pension plan and an employer's commitment to work to improve health and safety standards.
Says Gerry Halabecki, PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for Ontario, “those quick results demonstrated the PSAC's commitment and dedication to represent new members who work with and for First Nations communities.”
Soon after their civilian co-workers successfully unionized with PSAC, police officers from the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Services Board signed on as well. The working conditions for these officers are among the worst in Canada.
Deplorable conditions
The Nishnawbe-Aski Nation recently produced an 18-minute online documentary, in order to draw attention to the impact of years of funding cutbacks on the officers' dayto- day work lives. Many of the detachments that they work out of have no running water, and in the video, one officer describes her nightly task of pouring out slop buckets that officers and detainees must use as makeshift toilets.
The housing crisis in Aboriginal communities has hit the police officers hard. Many have lived for years in makeshift hotel rooms, and those who are lucky enough to live in houses are battling rodent and mould infestation. These officers are on call 24 hours a day and have little or no administrative support. They almost always work alone, racking up hundreds of hours of overtime every year. Due to these horrific conditions, Nishnawbe-Aski Police Services has one of the highest officer turnover rates in North America.
PSAC used collective bargaining to address health and safety concerns in the workplace, and this has helped improve the officers' day-to-day working lives. And in 2007, police officers from the Treaty Three Police Service near Thunder Bay voted by an overwhelming majority to join the PSAC as well.
Workers are everywhere
Thousands of PSAC members provide services to First Nations and Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis communities. This includes workers in hospitals, band council officers and both administrative staff and teachers in First Nations schools.
PSAC also represents language teachers, teaching and education assistants, tutor/ escorts and administrative assistants who work at Six Nations schools and many other Aboriginal workers in communities across the country.
By unionizing with PSAC, workers in Aboriginal communities are securing safer working conditions, while also joining in a collective voice demanding that the government take action to address the deplorable living and working conditions in Aboriginal communities across the country.
Keeping it public
PSAC fights contracting out and stands up for quality public services
The 2008 Federal Budget called for increased contracting out at Parks Canada. It recommends privatizing recreation services and transferring other responsibilities to the private sector, meaning over $8 million in cuts by 2011.
When you pick up the phone and call 1-800-O-Canada, it would be reasonable to expect that the person answering the phone is an employee of the federal government. After all, Service Canada bills itself as single window access to Government of Canada programs and services, providing Canadians with a “onestop, personalized service they can access however they choose.”
But the truth is that many of the people staffing the phones at Service Canada aren't government employees at all. They work for a private company called Quantum, which operates the 1-800-O-Canada call centres. Workers employed by Quantum are not paid as much as union members employed by Service Canada and, as a result, the employee turnover rate is much higher. Members of the public are beginning to notice that the use of contract workers is making it more difficult to navigate government services and get access to the information they need.
This is only one example of how the federal government has continued to contract out government programs and services – to the detriment of workers and the public.
One of the demands that PSAC has brought to the negotiating table for the more than 80,000 workers employed by the Treasury Board is that government workers' jobs not be contracted out to the private sector.
Labour opponents and the right-wing media are quick to jump on unions like PSAC for objecting to contracting out, charging that unions “are just looking out for their members' jobs.” And that's at least partly true. PSAC believes that all workers deserve the right to bargain collectively to improve their job security, working conditions and human rights. But, more than that, we also know that privatization of public services is bad for the public – and may even put people's health and safety at risk.
Contractors unaccountable
“When pieces of government work are parceled out to the private sector, services inevitably begin to decline,” says John Gordon, PSAC National President. “Privatization is more expensive, because it serves to line the pockets of corporate shareholders. It's also less democratic. Public institutions staffed by unionized public employees are more accountable to people, because their number one priority is to serve the public interest.”
Residents in Hamilton, Ontario would certainly agree. In 1994, the City of Hamilton contracted out its water and waste water treatment services to the private sector. The private contract was plagued by problems, including sewage spills and complaints from the public that American Water Services made it difficult for people to access basic financial information about the company. In 2004 Hamilton brought water treatment back in house. One year later, management reported increased efficiency, cost-effectiveness and public satisfaction.
There are dozens of examples like this from all over the world. Both anecdotal and statistical evidence points to the fact that quality public services are best provided on a non-profit basis by unionized workers whose rights and safety are well-respected. Still, the federal government continues to sign public-private-partnership (P3) agreements and contract out government work to forprofit companies.
High turnover
There are lots of ways that governments privatize public services – from contracting out certain job functions, to signing P3s, to the wholesale sell-off of a department or service. The common factor in all of these scenarios is less accountability. While government agencies are democratically accountable and publicly controlled, private corporations are accountable only to their owners and shareholders. Privatization also weakens the capacity of the public sector to deliver services in-house, as experienced public sector workers are replaced by low-paid workers with little training, less experience and not much in the way of institutional memory.
Contracting out occurs when work normally done by the internal workforce is handed to a private company to operate the service for a profit. Governments argue that contracting out saves money, but countless examples have demonstrated contracting out costs more and only serves to move the cost of delivering a public service from one set of books to another.
PSAC members have seen this kind of contracting out first-hand in call centres and military bases, at Parks Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canada Revenue Agency, Public Works and Government Services and Correctional Services Canada – just to name a few.
Big ticket privatization
Contracting out often accompanies big-ticket infrastructure or equipment purchases, especially when governments sign controversial P3 deals. Long-term contracts for maintenance are included in purchase or lease-back contracts and are used by the private sector to minimize initial costs while maximizing longer term costs.
The military employs PSAC members – carpenters, electricians, plumbers, mechanics and other trades people – who provide support services to Canada's military. So, there is a qualified pool of unionized workers ready and willing to do these jobs. Nevertheless, contracting out has been going on for over 20 years despite the fact that PSAC has been working with DND to develop apprenticeship programs that will solve recruitment problems and provide good jobs for young workers entering the workforce.
The 2008 Federal Budget called for increased contracting out at Parks Canada. It recommends privatizing recreation services and transferring other responsibilities to the private sector, meaning over $8 million in cuts by 2011.
Already the responsibility for collecting fees at parks has been contracted out to a private company and the National Information Line and the Campground Reservation Line have been contracted out to Sears Canada. There have also been efforts to contract out some of the road and grounds maintenance – services that are critical to a park's proper functioning.
Privatization is painful
In 2005, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released a study based on in-depth interviews with 24 people who work in cleaning and food service jobs in British Columbia's health care system. Since 2003, B.C. has undergone a sweeping privatization of health care support services – one of the most radical in Canadian history.
The CCPA study, The Pains of Privatization: How Contracting Out Hurts Health Support Workers, Their Families and Health Care, points out that the privatized jobs in B.C. hospitals and nursing homes are “substandard in all respects: low pay, meagre benefits, heavy workloads, poor training and no job security.” The CCPA found that these jobs are disproportionately held by immigrant women – many of whom are single mothers who, with their families, now live below the poverty line.
The study points to concerns about extremely low morale among these workers and concerns about their mental health: “Many are dispirited by the severe drop in pay and benefits, loss of rights, separation from co-workers and increased workload.”
The study is also consistent with many others that trace a decline in hygiene in health care facilities to the privatization of support services. Study participants expressed concern about their ability to provide quality cleaning services, in part because of pressure from their private employer to cut corners but also because of inadequate training on how to clean the rooms of patients with antibiotic resistant infections.
Stop the sell-off
“Privatization of public services puts the public's health and safety in jeopardy,” says Gordon. “A key part of PSAC's campaign to defend quality public services is to stop the contracting out of government services. We believe that this is the best way to protect the rights of workers' on the job, while also ensuring the most efficient, cost-effective and safe services for Canadians.”
The Public Service Alliance of Canada is building a movement to fight back and defend Canada's valuable public services. We believe that the needs of people come first – that the role of government is to protect and promote the social, economic and safety needs of the public, rather than promote profits at any cost.
For more information on what you can do to stand up for quality public services in your workplace and community, visit www.psac.com today.
Temporary gain, long-term pain
Employment agencies rake in cash while workers lose out
Jennifer is an administrative assistant at Health Canada. She spends her days scheduling meetings and teleconferences, filing, preparing documents, making travel arrangements and editing correspondence. Jennifer, 28, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, has been working for the federal government on and off since 1998, but hasn't accrued any seniority, doesn't have access to extended health benefits, and doesn't get paid if she's sick and can't make it into work. Like thousands of other people in Ottawa and Gatineau, Jennifer is a contract employee, working through a temporary help agency.
The federal government uses temporary staffing agencies to contract out work that would normally be done in-house by the unionized workforce. Both the work being performed by agency workers is contracted out as well as the staffing work that would ordinarily be done by unionized in-house staffing officers.
Although temporary staffing may have a role to play when there is unexpected increased workload, PSAC maintains that it should not be used to replace casual, term or indeterminate employment.
Money grab
In 2005-2006, the federal government spent over to $200 million on Temporary Help Services, 90 per cent of which occurred in the National Capital Region. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the federal government will spend about $10.4 billion on contracting out jobs across Canada this year – an increase of 48 per cent since 2000-2001.
In 2005-2006, 144 firms held Standing Offers with the federal government for the provision of Temporary Help Services in the National Capital Area, with 35 firms receiving 80 per cent of business. Sixty per cent of temporary help services expenditures are on clerical/secretarial and administrative services, 20 per cent are on professional services and another 20 per cent are on Technical and Operational services. The top two suppliers, the sister companies Excel and Altis, received a combined total of about $38 million from the government in 2005.
Precarious conditions
Unfortunately for workers like Jennifer, the fact that temp agencies are raking in huge profits means little to her own career path or sense of job security. The longest contract that Jennifer has worked on has been a few months long. Many are only a few weeks long and she only finds out whether or not they are going to be extended on the day they are supposed to end.
“It definitely affects my dedication,” said Jennifer in a recent email interview. “It's hard to escape the fact that it is only temporary. I do sometimes feel like I am for some reason not good enough to be hired on, or doomed to live without job security. If I am sick or rundown, or grieving (as I am now, after a death in the family), I don't have the choice to not come in to work. Staying home when sick would mean losing out on that day's pay. I can't afford it!”
Like many other temp workers, Jennifer first signed up with employment agencies in an effort to gain some government experience, thinking it would give her an edge when applying for permanent positions. But after months of applying for permanent jobs, she eventually became exasperated and gave up.
“I could not wait for the process of applying for jobs in the government, and found I was getting no response after months of applying to government jobs,” she said.
“These are not temporary positions that are being staffed through employment agencies,” said Ed Cashman, former Regional Vice President for the National Capital Region. “At the end of the day, taxpayers are on the hook for this back-door privatization of the public service. The federal government is losing out, with zero institutional knowledge being passed on from temporary workers. And the workers themselves are suffering, with no access to a stable job with benefits.”
The military employs PSAC members – carpenters, electricians, plumbers, mechanics and other trades people – who provide support services to Canada's military. So, there is a qualified pool of unionized workers ready and willing to do these jobs.
VICTORY!
PSAC fights back against privatization – and WINS!
Public Works and Government Services Canada mails government cheques to seniors, pensioners and unemployed Canadians. Although not complicated, this is an important job. Accuracy is important to the Canadians who receive the cheques. Until recently this work had been contracted out. However on August 1, 2006 after two years of hard work by the Union, the decision was made to bring the work back in-house. Over 20 new workers were hired on an indeterminate basis. Over the next 10 years it is estimated that more than $1 million will be saved as a result.
The Supply Chain Project was one of the largest contracting out initiatives that the federal government has ever attempted. Most of the logistics support work for the Canadian military such as the storage, purchase, packaging, and shipping functions was almost handed over to the private sector. A British company, Tibbett and Britten, was initially awarded a $1 million contract to make recommendations on what work should be contracted out to the private sector.
PSAC and its component the Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE) spent five years fighting the proposed privatization. PSAC declared victory in 2002, after the government pulled the plug on the project, conceding that the plan wouldn't have saved the military money. Meanwhile, the government paid out more than $10 million in consulting fees and penalties to Tibbett and Britten before canning the project. The move saved 840 unionized jobs at the Department of National Defence.
PSAC and UNDE are continuing to oppose the proposed privatization of the Supply Chain, as the Harper government is once again considering selling it off to the private sector. Harper needs to understand that this quality public service must remain within the government, with the work being done by UNDE members, and not sold off to a foreign corporation.
PSAC activist spotlight
Sharleen Patterson takes GLBT and workers' rights to heart
Sharleen Patterson has boundless energy for union and human rights activism. As the female GLBT representative to the PSAC Equal Opportunities Committee, Sharleen brings with her a mile-long list of community achievements and more than 10 years of union activist experience.
“As a child being raised in Whitby and Oshawa, Ontario where there are a number of General Motors factories, I was exposed by my community to union values. My motivation to be involved with the PSAC was that I was a born and bred activist from a very young age,” she said in a recent interview.
Sharleen works for the Yukon government as a supervisor in the child protection department. But she spends many volunteer hours each week, working to make PSAC a safe and welcoming place for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and transsexual (GLBT) members.
“As a woman who self-identifies as a lesbian, and is a person who is quite active within the Union, it seemed a natural fit for me to take on PSAC GLBT issues and activities in an elected role. I am passionate about who I am, my sexual identity and about the oppression that occurs towards equity groups both by law, legislation, media, as well as the language and actions from society at large,” she said.
In Sharleen's experience, PSAC members still face stress and difficulty on the job because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The fear of coming out, the fear of being persecuted, the fear of being involved with the Union and hence identified as ‘double trouble' for being from the GLBT community and a unionist by employers. Although discrimination has lessened by the community at large, there is still a presence both in the workplace and outside of it.”
Homophobia and health care
This year, the focus for the National Day Against Homophobia was on fighting discrimination in the health care system. Sharleen immediately understood the connection between this issue and the concerns of PSAC members:
“Members that work for the federal government still do not have a drug card that immediately electronically pays for prescriptions. For those GLBT members suffering from HIV/AIDS, the expense for prescriptions can be debilitating financially as the costs have to be paid up front and then submitted to the insurance company.”
Gender protections
Sharleen also stressed the importance of negotiating anti-discrimination clauses into collective agreements with explicit protection for “gender identity,” with the specific goal of protecting the rights of transgender and transsexual workers.
“I am grateful that I am not persecuted as a lesbian,” said Sharleen. “I can be who I am at work, be out, be accepted, and be free to be me. I want that for everyone, no matter their religion, race, sex, sexual identity, gender identity, or disability.”
This summer, Sharleen will be working with the PSAC Whitehorse Pride Committee to support her city's local Pride celebrations – which generally attract about 30 to 40 people to celebrate at a local campground. Living in a community with a more sparsely attended Pride event doesn't dampen her enthusiasm, though. It just motivates her even more.
“I want to be an instrument of change. I want to bring change forward to the PSAC membership, and be a part of the change that is needed in society,” she said. “I believe you should never approach a problem by just saying ‘hey that is a problem.' I believe that I need to be part of the solution.”
To contact the GLBT representatives on the PSAC Equal Opportunities Committee, contact Sharleen Patterson at EOCGLBTFemaleRep@ psac.com, or Denis Roy at EOC-GLBTMaleRep@psac.com.
A reading, writing revolution
PSAC Social Justice Fund supports literacy programs in both North and South
The pedagogy of the oppressed... must be forged with, not for, the oppressed. – Paolo Freire
It's probably safe to assume that most people understand that literacy is essential to securing paid work and that the better people can read and write, the higher salaries they will make.
To activists working for fundamental social change, however, literacy is more than just a step ladder to a better-paying job. Low literacy is not only a barrier to meaningful employment, it impedes people's full participation in the social and political life of society. This barrier can be passed on to future generations as parents with low literacy skills are also unable to participate in their children's education.
The pedagogy, or teaching, of literacy from a progressive perspective is a process of empowering marginalized communities and providing them with a tool to transform society. Many education activists base their approach to teaching literacy on the theories of the late Paolo Freire, a Brazilian educator and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Freire saw illiteracy as a product of a social system that is divided between classes of “the oppressors” and “the oppressed.” Freire argues that since the oppressors benefit most from this social order and since they control all the institutions of society, including schools, “it would be a contradiction in terms if the oppressors...actually implemented a liberating education.”
Cutting programs
The statement rings true in Canada where we've witnessed cutbacks in funding to education, rising tuition fees and growing student debt, all contributing to lower levels of literacy in the country.
In 2005, the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey, co-sponsored by Statistics Canada and the Organization for Economic Cooperation, found that four out of 10 adult Canadians – representing nine million working-age people – have difficulty reading and writing.
According to Statistics Canada, there is a strong link between a workforce's literacy level and a country's economic welfare. As ABC Canada points out, “a rise of one per cent in literacy scores relative to the international average is associated with an eventual 2.5 per cent relative rise in labour productivity and a 1.5-per-cent rise in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person.”
So, how has the Conservative government responded to the literacy crisis – by cutting funding to literacy programs. That's how Human Resources and Social Development Canada cut $5.8 million in 2006-2007 and $11.9 million in 2007-2008, specifically yanking funding away from regional and community-based literacy programs.
Taking the lead
In the global South, autocratic politicians rely on high illiteracy rates to maintain starvation wages and silence the dispossessed. What better way to ensure a complacent, low-paid workforce than to make sure people are kept ignorant of their rights by preventing them from accessing mass media and ensuring that they cannot read or negotiate collective agreements?
More and more organizations and individuals from civil society have taken on the task of empowering workers and poor communities through education. Grassroots and labour organizations have been at the forefront of literacy campaigns along the lines prescribed by Freire, with funding coming from private donations, union dues and union-negotiated employer contributions, such as the PSAC Social Justice Fund.
Solidarity across borders
The PSAC Social Justice Fund was established in 2003 to allow the Union to consolidate and focus its work on social justice – both at home and around the world. The Fund supports international development work, Canadian anti-poverty initiatives and emergency relief in Canada and other countries. It also sponsors worker education and worker-to-worker exchanges.
Two literacy projects that the SJF has recently funded exemplify the empowerment and solidarity building among workers across borders.
In Bolivia, the Fund is supporting a literacy program coordinated by CEPROMIN, an organization that supports aboriginal people who work in the tin mines of the Bolivian highlands. The literacy program offers training to women who work in the slag heaps or as guardians of tools and mining equipment owned by cooperatives.
Bolivia is the first country in the world to have elected an indigenous (Aymara) president. Evo Morales' government is attempting to end the more than 500 years of marginalization and impoverishment of the indigenous peoples of Bolivia. With the help of Cuba, Morales has launched a literacy drive in the country. However, the campaign has yet to develop a program specifically aimed at women in the country's mining communities. CEPROMIN aims to fill this gap by providing its vast experience in literacy and educational work in the highlands of Bolivia.
CEPROMIN's program empowers women through training in basic language, math skills, and natural medicine to break down their isolation and marginalization. The objective is to reach 75 groups of women with 15 people per group, reaching about 1,000 women over a two-year period in the six Quechua and Aymara communities in the mining areas of Potosi and Oruro.
Help at home
Here in Canada, the Fund supports the Nunavut Literacy Council. Literacy levels in Nunavut remain the lowest in Canada. More than half of Nunavut's working-age population struggles with serious reading and writing challenges. The Council develops policy, methodology, outreach as well as training materials that are used to deliver literacy courses in colleges and adult education programs through Nunavut.
“Literacy pays off not only in labour market productivity, but also in lower healthcare costs, better futures for children, safer and more cohesive communities, more successful rehabilitation of offenders, and better integration of newcomers,” says John Gordon, PSAC National President. “With a unique approach to teaching literacy, it can also be a tool for change toward a society without oppression and exploitation.”
The Social Justice Fund looks forward to developing a deeper sharing of experience between the Aymara and Quechua speaking peoples of Bolivia and the Inuit peoples of Nunavut.
Literacy has served to empower women in both the far North and the far South. It has allowed women to develop essential skills for the workplace and for sustaining their families. It has provided poor people with a deeper understanding of their social, political and economic rights.
By supporting these two literacy initiatives, PSAC's Social Justice Fund demonstrates that both solidarity and education have no borders.
Standing up for a woman's right to choose
Five reasons why PSAC opposes Bill C-484
A Private Member's Bill sponsored by Conservative MP Ken Epp could chip away at women's constitutional rights and threaten their access to safe and legal abortion.
Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, passed second reading in March 2008. The bill, widely supported by anti-choice groups, would make it a separate crime to kill or injure an “unborn child” – thus separating the rights of a fetus from the woman who carries it.
While some supporters of this bill are motivated by genuine grief and outrage over the murder of a pregnant woman, PSAC maintains that this bill would endanger, rather than protect pregnant women.
The PSAC believes that women have the right to make decisions about their own bodies – whether that means terminating a pregnancy, or carrying it to term. PSAC also believes that to promote true freedom of choice, we must also support women's right to decent work, affordable and reliable child care, and to be free from physical, sexual or emotional violence.
Here are five reasons why PSAC opposes Bill C-484:
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It threatens women's human rights and equality.
In Canadian law, only “human beings” have a right to life. Legally, a fetus becomes a human being once it is born and has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother. The adoption of Bill C-484 would introduce a huge change in our law: it would in effect recognize that a fetus has a legal status and the “right to life.”
This would set a dangerous constitutional precedent that could place a fetus' rights in competition with those of its mother, undermining women's rights in the process. The right to choose to end an unwanted pregnancy, and to have access to quality public health care abortion services goes to the heart of women's equality, dignity and human rights. -
It could criminalize pregnant women.
As the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada has pointed out, under United States ‘fetal homicide' laws, pregnant women are more likely to be punished for behaviours and conditions that are not criminalized for other people, such as drug or alcohol use. Women have been charged or jailed for murder for experiencing a stillbirth after refusing a Caesarean section. In South Carolina, dozens of women with drug addictions have been arrested for allegedly harming their fetuses – even though they had little or no access to drug treatment programs.
Bill C-484 contains language that theoretically preserves a woman's right to choose to end an unwanted pregnancy. However, similar language has been disregarded by U.S. courts, which have used fetal rights laws as precedents to charge pregnant women with child abuse and murder. Many of these charges were later thrown out of court, but not before poor and drugaddicted women were forced to spend months and years in prison fighting unjust charges. -
It is part of a broader legislative strategy to undermine abortion rights.
Just take a look at who supports Bill C-484: dozens of anti-choice organizations including Focus on the Family, the Campaign Life Coalition and the Knights of Columbus, who have spent the last 20 years trying to undermine Canadian women's right to choose. In the U.S., the anti-choice lobby has used a similar strategy to enact a patchwork of laws that recognize fetal rights, building a series of precedents that could be used to challenge a woman's right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. -
It will do nothing to address the real problem: spousal violence.
Studies on violence against women indicate that it is often when women are pregnant that men start to abuse them. And most women who are killed in Canada, are murdered by their husband or common law partner. Violence against women is the real problem that needs to be addressed. The federal government should be examining how to effectively prevent spousal violence, and protect women who are in abusive situations. It should also provide increased funding for services, and ensure that a social safety net is in place so that women are not forced to choose between remaining in violent relationships and living in poverty. Promoting women's equality and human rights is the best way to protect pregnant women. - We already have better ways to punish crimes against pregnant women – without putting their rights at stake.
Bill C-484 is not useful or necessary, because Canada's justice system already allows for harsher penalties for aggravated crimes. In particular, spousal violence is already considered an aggravating factor in Criminal Code sentencing provisions and judges already recognize pregnancy as an aggravating factor in sentencing. Since murder sentences are generally served “concurrently,” meaning that a person will serve all sentences at the same time and not one after the other, this bill would have little or no concrete impact on the amount of time that a perpetrator spends in jail. This bill does nothing more than promote a right wing “law and order” agenda, that is not in women's best interest.
Visit www.psac-afpc.com today, and use our “Email your MP” tool to tell the federal government that it should work to combat violence against women – without putting the right to choose at stake.
Putting farmers and consumers first
Twin pillars of the Canadian grain economy stand threatened by misguided federal policies. The Agriculture Union and PSAC recently launched a new website, www.grainaction.ca, aimed at saving the farmer-controlled nature of the Canadian Wheat Board and the important oversight role of the Canadian Grain Commission. These two institutions have been protecting the interests of producers and consumers for decades. But if the federal government has its way, that will change.
PSAC's Agriculture Union is working with farmer and producer groups to fight Bill-46, which would eliminate farmers' democratic control over the Canadian Wheat Board – taking money from farmers and handing it over to the big grain corporations.
The Union is also fighting against Bill C-39, which would eliminate important inspection and weighing services performed by PSAC members at the Canadian Grain Commission. This would put Canadian farmers at a disadvantage in their dealings with grain companies when it comes to determining grain weight and grade. It would also compromise public safety by removing a level of oversight that helps prevent dangerous contaminants and biohazards from entering the grain supply. To find out what you can do to help save the Canadian Wheat Board and the Canadian Grain Commission, visit www.grainaction.ca today.
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Date Modified : 2008/08/22
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