Teamsters Canada Rail Conference

VANCOUVER – The president of the Canadian Labour Congress says that unions have had many successes in standing up for working people, and he is calling on the labour movement to use every form of media available to tell that story.

“We have to make the winning argument that a strong labour movement whose members have good wages and benefits lifts everyone up, including non-union workers and all businesses. Because without unions, the standard of living will drop for everyone,” Georgetti said. He was speaking to 2600 delegates and visitors at the CLC’s 26th Constitutional Convention occurring in Vancouver.

Georgetti said that there are powerful forces that oppose the union agenda of good jobs for all and more equality in society. “Too often unions are portrayed negatively, inaccurately and unfairly. Put simply, we’ve been framed. Framed by our opponents, by big business, in the media they own and by right-wing governments.”

Georgetti added, “We must examine our public image as unions and be willing to reconsider our strategies to address it. This convention is where we also start a new mission to work harder and work smarter than ever at presenting a realistic image of our labour movement to the public through the media. And through an improved public image and the use of accessible social media like Twitter, Facebook, texting and the Internet, we are going to step completely out of their distorted frame, starting at this convention.”

Georgetti said, however, that the improved use of media by unions has already begun. He pointed to labour’s advocacy to win improvements to the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans. “We have shown with our CPP/QPP campaign that when we go on the offensive with labour’s issues, it is our opponents who are forced to react and who cannot control the debate.”

The CLC’s convention is occurring at the Vancouver Convention Centre between May 9th and 13th and the 2011 theme is “Good Jobs. Better Lives. Unions make a difference.” For complete details on the CLC convention agenda and arrangements please see: http://www.canadianlabour.ca/convention/2011-convention/home
 

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