Long-time Canadian Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti was defeated for re-election on May 8 at the CLC’s triennial Congress in Montreal. His defeat was akin to a palace coup supported by activists and fuelled by frustration.
Nothing like it has happened before in the 57-year history of Canada’s central labour body representing unions, provincial federations and labour councils with almost 3.5 million members. Georgetti was defeated by Hassan Yussuff, the CLC’s secretary treasurer. The vote was 2,318 to 2,278 with 29 spoiled ballots.
Yussuff campaigned successfully on “a desire and a demand to return to the offensive for rights and progress for workers after decades of retreat and decline.”
It had been anticipated that Georgetti would fight off his challenger, since the majority of top union leaders had endorsed his candidacy and urged delegates to follow their lead.
The final tally at the biggest-ever CLC convention came as somewhat of a surprise, considering those strong endorsements.
Clearly, in the privacy of the polling booth, many delegates ignored their leaders’ advice and opted for the more militant approach promised by “Brother Yussuff.”
Why they did so is understandable. After all, since the 1980s, both private- and public-sector unions have been subject to an unrelenting attack on their wages, benefits, working conditions and rights in the workplace.
U.S. president Ronald Reagan and U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher gleefully led the vicious attack, having decided to shred the post-Second World War social contract.
Reagan began by smashing the air traffic controllers’ union for daring to strike. Thatcher followed by crushing the proud and powerful National Union of Mineworkers for opposing her policy of pit closures. Wielding the power of government, they beat the workers and their unions into submission.
Their initiatives were eagerly mimicked by conservative politicians around the globe. Business-boosted public policies were adopted in favour of so-called free trade and globalization, leading to the wholesale exporting of decent-paying manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries (predominantly in Asia).
These reactionary forces received a gigantic boost from the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. Most union responses were underwhelming, a combination of denial plus ineffective fight-back attempts.
In the ensuing decades, the attacks have continued apace as public-sector unions have been targeted in the phoney name of “restraint.”
Real wages have been frozen and reduced and mutually agreed-to contractual provisions have been shredded in the ongoing battering of those public employees.
The trade-union movement has not recovered from these unceasing attacks, and the wounds are especially felt by activists at the workplace who daily attempt to fulfil their sworn responsibilities to defend and protect their fellow workers.
Against this difficult and hostile backdrop, Georgetti did his best to give leadership and guidance. For a decade, he led the B.C. Federation of Labour and then for 15 years in Ottawa he was head of the CLC.
At the recent Montreal convention, his three fellow officers — Yussuff, Barb Byers and Marie Clarke Walker — decided that his leadership was not tough, imaginative or aggressive enough.
So they ganged up on him and promised a more militant and hopefully brighter future. Their message resonated with a small majority of the battle-weary activists so driven by frustration and not a little ennui. They decided “why not?”
Only time will tell if their choice will prove successful. Considering the forces still stacked against them, I’m not holding my breath.
John Fryer, a member of the Order of Canada, was a general vice-president of the CLC for 16 years. He had a 30-year career as a trade-union official and is now president of the Canadian Club of Victoria, a scholar-in-residence at the University of Victoria law school and adjunct professor in UVic’s school of public administration.
