Reconciliation Blues
This space has been silent for a week or so while the divide in Canada’s labour movement moved into a new stage. There have been a number of statements, op-eds and social media commentaries, but little aimed at fostering dialogue or suggesting solutions. The same arguments and tones tend to be repeated in similar progressions like a reconciliation blues.
That changed this week with the appearance of the excellent analysis and overview by Steven Tufts published by socialist.ca. Already widely seen, I am posting it on this site for additional emphasis because it provides a much needed balancing and parsing of issues that has not yet been able to penetrate the circled wagons against Unifor’s “raiding.”
The CLC and Unifor remain in very different worlds. For the CLC the fundamental issue is raiding, and it insists that Unifor cease its public criticisms of international unions over trusteeships and a lack of Canadian autonomy. Unifor denies that it has designs to raid other unions but Canadian workers who have their democracy usurped must be supported. It asserts that the Local 75 members under trusteeship that voted to leave the International and form Local 7575 had every right to do so.
While there are calls from some affiliates and labour councils for dialogue between the CLC and Unifor, there appears to be no interest from the largest affiliates in any discussions that would address Unifor’s reasons for its withdrawal.
At the CLC Executive Council last week there was a decision to “continue with a full review of Article 4 of the CLC Constitution, through a process that will allow every affiliate to submit recommendations.” For the forseeable future this review — like the review proposed after the ATU dispute — does not include Unifor.
After last week’s votes at Toronto hotels there is a hiatus on the ground that will last for several months. However it is a window that opens in both directions. Dialogue on the issues separating Unifor and the CLC is one direction. The other side of the window is a prolonged separation in which both learn to live on their own. CLC structures will adjust to the absence of Unifor, and Unifor Councils across the country will mount campaigns, lobby governments and engage in their communities. In most of the Federations and labour councils across Canada, leaderships are already being renewed without the participation of Unifor. A few leaders remain with the assistance of allies, but the most partisan of the CLC guard want them gone also.
None of this implies apocalyptic labour wars or even a diminishment of common struggles on key issues for workers. There are many cases of unions withdrawing from labour centrals and later returning. Most recently many large affiliates left the Ontario Federation of Labour. Ironically, it was a joint effort by Unifor and some International unions that resolved basic issues at the OFL and brought most of those unions back.
But unless and until the reconciliation blues gives way to another song, we will have a different labour movement.
