Inside Unions at the Bargaining Table

Darcy 53 JUDY DARCY INSIDE UNIONS AT THE BARGAINING TABLE: want to try to distil some KEYNOTE ADDRESS OF THE of the lessons from our ADVANCING THE EQUITY Iexperience in fighting for AGENDA CONFERENCE equity within the trade union movement - at the bargaining table Judy Darcy and in society over the past thirty Secretary-Business Manager, years, and also put forward some Hospital Employees Union (HEU), ideas and challenges about the Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada future. So let me start with where we’ve come from. I want to paint a picture about a few experiences, INTRODUCTION BY LINDA starting with the 1974 Canadian BRISKIN Labour Congress (CLC) convention in Vancouver, the first one that I Judy Darcy was a union activist in attended as a very young, new Toronto for seventeen years before activist. Women’s equality rated a becoming the national secretary- couple of paragraphs in a much treasurer for the Canadian Union of bigger policy paper. There was no Public Employees (CUPE) in 1989. In talk of racism and disabilities or 1991 she was elected National President about gay and lesbian rights. Most and re-elected five times. As the of the women who spoke on that national leader of CUPE Judy gained policy paper felt defensive and wide recognition for building introduced themselves by saying membership activism, taking on “I’m not one of those women’s privatization and concessions, and libbers, but…” and then went on to promoting an equity agenda in the offer an opinion. union and at the bargaining table. Judy The first woman ever elected stepped down as CUPE President in at the CLC was elected at that 2003 and began as the new Secretary – convention: Shirley Carr from Business Manager for the Hospital CUPE. It was about getting public Employees Union in British Columbia sector representation on the slate for in March 2005. People like Judy Darcy the first time. There were no women throughout the labour movement have leaders of major national or made a difference.1 international unions in Canada that year. It was only the next year that Grace Hartman was elected the first woman national union leader in our country as President of the Canadian 1 Introduction by Linda Briskin of York University. Union of Public Employees (CUPE). 54 JUST LABOUR vol. 8 (Spring 2006) There was not another woman the laws we’ve changed, the national leader elected until I was committees we’ve created, the elected President of CUPE in 1991. policies we’ve adopted, the positions In 1974 we didn’t talk about to which we’ve been elected and the harassment. It wasn’t a word. And union culture that we’ve begun to in some of the hospitality rooms at change. that convention there were go-go girls in very skimpy costumes. There HOW DID WE CHANGE THE was probably more than one woman LABOUR MOVEMENT? who gave a militant speech and before she sat down had someone We did it by caucusing, by approach her to say “I like the way bargaining, by mobilizing, by you talk when you’re angry. Will demonstrating, by coalition you go to bed with me?” Equal pay building, by lobbying, by speaking for equal work was beginning to be out, by demanding, by laughing, by talked about, but certainly not equal crying and most of all we did it by pay for work of equal value. Paid organizing. When I say organizing, I maternity leave was virtually mean organizing ourselves to win. unheard of. There were almost no Getting together, caucusing, part-time workers, strategizing, defining casual workers, or The paramount equity issue our demands and our contingent workers facing our current goals and then organized in unions. A generation of activists and mapping out what we national childcare the trade union movement needed to do to program was not even today is the challenge of achieve them, which a twinkle in anybody’s raising low paid workers’ allies we needed to eye. And as for wages. build, which affirmative action and resolutions we needed employment equity programs, it to draft, which leaflets we needed to was generally assumed, in the get out, which picket lines and workplace and in the unions, that bargaining struggles were most the best person for the job was a important, and so on. We did it by straight, white male. building a powerful movement and I could go on, but I think that a force for change that could not be paints you a bit of a picture about ignored by governments, by where we were in 1974. It’s clear employers, by union leaders or by when you contrast that picture with power structures within the trade today, that we’ve made incredible union movement. We did it in one gains in the trade union movement union after another. We did it in one with an impressive list of collective agreement after another. achievements: The changes we’ve We did it in one convention after negotiated in collective agreements, Darcy 55 another. We did it in one campaign Nations, with disability rights after another. groups, and so on. Our gains were certainly The strength of what was uneven and remain so. In some happening in the women’s unions and sectors the gains we’ve movement had an impact on what achieved on the equity front are far we were able to do internally on greater than they are in others. And women’s equality in the trade union there’s no question that there have movement. The work we did for been far more significant advances women’s equality in the trade union in some areas, for some equity- movement helped to build, reinforce seeking groups compared to others. and strengthen the broader women’s I think women’s equality and gay movement. Today, we can see a and lesbian rights have been the decline in the advances we’re areas where we’ve made some of the making for women’s equality, and most significant advances. The the decline in the broader women’s advances for people of colour, for movement. aboriginal workers and for people Those equity struggles and with disabilities have not been coalition building efforts broke new nearly as great, both in the union, as ground and laid the basis for the well as in our workplaces. wide acceptance and support for In the course of those social unionism in the Canadian struggles for internal union equity trade union movement today. We we changed the parameters of what can be proud that trade unions in was considered a legitimate union Canada have profoundly issue, whether it was reproductive contributed to fundamental choice for women or childcare or advances for equity that affect racism or immigration policy or everybody who lives in this country. same sex marriage. In the course of This history includes: taking on those struggles we did some of the first, and most effective, • Early bargaining and strikes for coalition building the trade union equal pay that led to legislation movement engaged in. For covering hundreds of thousands example, with the women’s of women; movement, especially in the case of • Strong support of the movement the NAC2 and OWW3 and the equal for reproductive choice - a very, pay coalition in Ontario, with gay very controversial issue - but and lesbian rights organizations, one that feminists in the trade with anti-racism groups, with First union movement worked closely with feminists in the pro-choice movement to 2 National Action Committee on the Status of advance; Women 3 Organized Working Women 56 JUST LABOUR vol. 8 (Spring 2006) • Negotiating same sex benefits in The forces of globalization, a local union collective privatization, cutbacks and agreement and taking forward deregulation threaten our equity court challenges on issues like gains. Attacks on free collective pensions and benefits for same bargaining in one province, and one sex, as CUPE did. sector after another, also threaten them. Our gains for equality are A lot of the work we have threatened by the Wal-Martization done in local and national unions of our economy. Our gains are certainly helped to pave the way for threatened by the race to the bottom major advances we’ve seen in and by social conservatism as an Canada today, like organized political force in this same sex marriage. All The trade union country. of those struggles are movement needs to Problems within the far from over and all of come together labour movement also threaten those gains are an around economic our equity gains, such as incredible tribute to a justice issues for backlash in our own ranks. lot of the people who low paid workers. Our gains are threatened by a are in this room and That is the most profound lack of commitment the tens of thousands fundamental or to equality and understanding of activists who aren’t overarching equity of equality by some people in in the room but who issue of the day. If power in our trade union are working on the we don’t refocus movement. Our gains are also ground from coast to our efforts as a threatened by our own coast. trade union weaknesses as equity activists movement on doing in learning lessons from our SO, WHERE ARE WE that we will become own history about how to most TODAY? increasingly effectively bring about change. irrelevant to the I want to focus on just a couple I don’t know major challenges of major ones. that there is a trade that we’re facing in The first critical lesson union movement that the new economy.

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