Brothers  and Sisters,

A few weeks ago I scheduled a meeting in Laval, QC with Teamsters Canada President, Robert Bouvier. We meet face- to- face at least quarterly to discuss any number of issues, from jurisdiction to organizing to adjustments in policy or procedure to developing strategies for future plans and projects. Though Teamsters Canada respects the autonomy of the various Teamster locals, President Bouvier is an excellent resource for advice and assistance, as well as ensuring that we are kept up to date with the ongoing and constantly changing climate of labour issues in Canada.

Robert Bouvier was first elected to a Union office in 1969, while he was employed by Labatt’s Brewery as a truck driver.

Through thirty (30) years of dedicated Union service, with almost a decade as the President of Teamsters Canada, Brother Bouvier has never forgotten his roots or the men and women he represents.  

                                                                            
While we were arranging the date for our meeting, I asked President Bouvier if he would mind answering a few questions for our website. These are tough, and complicated, times for the working men and women of Canada and I felt that his thoughts on our organization and a few of the major issues of the day would be beneficial for our membership to read. Without a pause, he agreed.

We got together on March 25th and at the conclusion of our other business, I placed a digital recorder between us and fired away the following fifteen (15) questions.  Bob answered openly and honestly and was as usual, interesting and insightful.

1. President Bouvier, Teamsters Canada is a branch of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, fully autonomous in Canada.  Can you give a brief explanation of how this came about and also outline the benefits it brings to Canadian Teamsters?

In 1976, what would later be known as “Teamsters Canada” was formed as the” Canadian Conference of Teamsters”.  At that time, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was divided into four separate regions but recognized the necessity of Canadian autonomy. It was in, I believe, 1992 when the name was changed to “Teamsters Canada” in recognition of the special sovereignty needs of Canadian members.

In 2001, an historic agreement was reached between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Teamsters Canada, which brought about the entrenchment, within the IBT constitution under article 26 of the IBT constitution, of autonomy for members, local sections and joint councils in Canada, as well as the Teamsters Canada Executive Board. Our autonomy not only allows us the governance of our own Executive Board, it also provides us with three Vice Presidents, one of whom is also the President of Teamsters Canada, who sit on the International Executive Board.  It also keeps 80% of our dues, per capita tax, in Canada.

In other words, Teamsters Canada would now be an autonomous organization, while remaining affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.  In our day to day operations we are an independent body, though we have a positive and powerful relationship with the International and General President James Hoffa.

First and foremost, it is our Canadian autonomy which gives us the ability to run our operations under the unique Canadian labour laws, both federally and provincially. Secondly, to my knowledge, we are the only Union that has a full time lobbyist in Ottawa. It is extremely important to keep our finger on the pulse of Canadian politics, to recognize when and where our actions will be needed to best represent and protect our membership.

We also have a director of communication, who works very closely with our lobbyist, the locals, the Joint Councils and the Executive Board to insure that we get our message out there. We recognize an issue, do the research, effectively communicate and fight for resolution.

First of all, Teamsters Canada does not support any particular political party.  We are willing and able to work with members of all parties to make sure that labour’s agenda moves forward. We support the working men and women of Canada and our job is to deal with the politicians that they elect. We will support the issues that are good for the working men and women of this country and we will resist those that are not.

We are going to be more able to get through this because we have strong and determined leadership in our locals, our divisions and throughout our structure. We are a “bottom up” not a “top down” organization and therefore have our strength coming from local unions and the rank and file.  Our local unions are capable, knowledgeable and able to negotiate decent contracts in these hard times. We are further strengthened by our internal communications and solidarity, as well as having Teamsters Canada there as a support body, offering professional advice and assistance whenever needed. We cannot predict every scenario that will develop but by standing together as we always have, we will weather this recession. We will be coming out of it intact and with the best possible contracts, the same as we have through every other hard time we’ve faced.

I believe that strengthening the infrastructure, creating jobs is something that of course we support. The re-regulation of the railways is also very important. However, for much of the budget we will have to wait and see how the economic situation develops with what happens in the banking world, to know if it will succees or not. We hope so, but time will tell.

I think though, that the failures are much the same as those that we have seen many times. The government will try to help big business, will try to help the banks guaranteeing loans for them but will fail to put enough emphasis on the concerns of average Canadians. While it is important to create jobs, it will take time and meanwhile many Canadians need help. This budget did not do enough for Employment Insurance reform, for example. It is going to be hard to get the economy going if the people who make the economy go, don’t have any money. At the present time over 50% of the people who are laid off do not qualify for EI and this is just plain wrong. Taking care of the system and taking care of the banks is one thing, but I believe that the primary importance of Government is to take care of the people and in this respect the budget failed. It should be people first and banks second. The Prime Minister could have done a lot more for the average citizen and I hope that he does.

 

I see this as a very, very simple matter.  We do not stop and worry too much about these mergers.  We must recognize them but we do not allow them to take us away from our job, which is representation and organizing. There are a lot of non union people out there and statistics show that 65% of non union workers would like to be in a union. We must give them that opportunity.

The employers have always come out against unions. When we win a decent wage and favourable benefits for their employees, it means that there is less money to go into management bonuses and compensation packages. Its very simple, they want their employees to be underpaid and obedient, we want our members to be treated fairly and equitably.

We are very aggressive in our organizing campaigns.  We do not allow the employers to frighten us, not while we are organizing and definitely not at the bargaining table. We not only organize these industries, but we also service our people. This is not about simply collecting dues, as many employers would like you to believe, it is about proper representation. And Teamsters are the best in the world in that field.

My personal opinion is that in Canada we are very conservative within our banking system.  Fifteen or so years ago, many International financiers were telling us that we were too conservative, in our investments and with our trust funds. While deregulation came to other countries, Canada refused to follow and now a decade and a half later, we are considered a model for the rest of the world with the way we run our banking system. Canada is liberal on social issues but still very conservative on our financial issues. This as we see, has provided protection and much more security for the Canadian economy.

I just addressed this issue at a conference last week.  If our leaders are intent on making it a level playing field globally, they must not do so by bringing our wages and standard of living down. If they push a right wing agenda, using the economic situation as an excuse, they’ll find that it will backfire. It will hit them like  a tsunami.

In a democratic society we can show our displeasure of our leadership by voting and I believe that here and in the United States, the middle class has the largest percentage of votes.  Political upsets do not come from the rich or the poor, they come from the middle class.  The working men and women who have the most to lose are also more capable and better educated than they have been in the past. You cannot take advantage of them without having them push back. In Canada, I am confident that we will get through these tough times. We are strong and we are resilient. But if the government or big business, do not act responsibly, we will use our democratic powers to adjust the system.

If our Government works with working men and women and not against us, I believe that with determination and hard work, we will get through these tough times and be in a stronger position than ever.

9. Do you think that Canada is better positioned than the U.S. to weather the economic storm? If so, why?

I think that is what the G-8 and the G-20 are telling us, that Canada is in a good situation and I would agree with them on this. First of all, we’ve been paying down our debt for about 9 or 10 years and our banks are not in a shambles, as I pointed out earlier. Our debt per Canadian is high but it is not as high as the US or many European countries. We are also more restrictive when it comes to regulating our banks and lending institutions, which ended up being a great safety net. So basically that is how we will get through the next year or so.

I say it’s just an old tape that’s playing over and over again. It’s always the same thing.  When times are good, the corporations are geniuses and when times are bad, the unionized workers are making too much money. Every time a corporation is making huge profits, the CEO is in the media telling the world how good he or she is. And when things are bad he or she again runs to the media to tell everyone that the workers are making too much money. It seems it’s always the same old story.

But what we have to do is go more public and denounce that. When companies say that workers are being paid too much, we have to point out that not only are CEO wages a thousand times higher than their employees, but CEO annual percentage increases are 30 or 40 times higher than the average worker’s. We have to combat their tired, old lies with the facts. GM, Ford and Chrysler, for example, have to stop blaming worker’s wages for their problems and admit to their own mistakes.

Now more than ever, labour needs to be organized. Working people need the protection, the strength and the bargaining power that a union will give them, especially while their employers are looking for ways to cut costs by reducing their workforces. Unions are not the problem. Working men and women are not the problem. We are the solution. We are the engine that will drive the economy back up.

11. On the Railways in Canada, we have more than half a dozen bargaining units, with the vast majority of unionized employees being represented by Teamsters Canada. Does it not make sense, that to eliminate having the employers play one group against the other, we should all stand united regardless of craft?

My opinion on this is that the railway’s have always been very shrewd and devious when it comes to their bargaining strategies.  They have multiple Unions and they negotiate bad contracts with the weaker ones and then hold that “pattern” up to the others.  No one wins by having a lot of Unions bargaining separately, except the companies. Corporations often merge to get stronger. They know that the bigger they are, the stronger they are. Why would Unions think that we can be split and still be strong?  The Teamsters Canada members on Canada’s railways number over 16,000. As the numbers grow, so does our strength and our influence. Its that simple. And so we must all work together. This won’t happen quickly, it will take time and it will take effort.  You can’t change a hundred years of culture overnight. But for positive change, then the day of everyone having their own little club has to end. For too long have the railway companies used “divide and conquer” techniques to try to gain the upper hand. We, the workers, have the power to stop the companies from playing us off one against another. If we don’t use the power that we have to stop them, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.   

12. The Government has taken a much firmer stance on the condition of rail safety in Canada over the last year, with the Railway Safety Act review and now millions of dollars allotted to Transport Canada's Rail division in the current budget.  As Teamsters Canada represents approx. 2/3 of all the unionized employees on Canada's railways, what's your opinion of the state of Canada's railway system?

I cannot give you specifics of the state of the railway system, as I am not a railway worker. I know that I hear of more and more derailments and accidents being reported by our membership and on the news.  I know that the government has taken a firm position on rail safety. I know that the railway workers we represent and their leaders are concerned. I will tell you, from a union standpoint, we must do everything that we can to protect our membership and the public. The impact, of possible railway company negligence, is not only felt by the company shareholders, but by our membership and the general public, as well.

 

Our duty is to represent people. Our job is to make sure that our people have good contracts and that they are well represented in the workplace. But it is also our duty and our obligation as labour leaders, to take care of the communities that we live and work in. Corporations are supposed to make profits but never at the risk to the security or safety of their workers or the general population.
 
13. With the vast majority of dangerous commodities transported across this country by rail and with derailments on the rise, how do we prevent another catastrophe, like Mississaugua, from happening?

First we try to tell the employer about our concerns. If we know of dangerous conditions or unsafe practices we must try to work with the employer to correct these.  If this fails, then we must advise the appropriate government regulatory bodies and seek their intervention.  And we must warn the public.  If we know that possible bad conditions or policies are endangering the safety of people, we must make them aware of the dangers. That’s it, that’s our duty.  That is our obligation. It  is the public’s right to know. With so much at risk, how could we do otherwise? We must remain the watchdogs of safety on the railways.
 
14. Canadian railway workers have been unionized for over a hundred years and yet  Teamsters Canada did not have bargaining rights on CN or CPRail until 2004. In less than 5 years, Teamsters Canada now represents almost 2/3 of the unionized workforce on Canadian Railways.  What do you see for the future, especially in the next 5 years, as Teamsters Canada's influence grows within this industry?

When you look at the vast amount of Teamsters on the rail, we are obviously the big player in this game. We have a responsibility to be the best representatives that our people could ask for. If we do that, everything else will follow. Gravity will take its course. What do I see for the future?  I see us moving forward and growing in strength and numbers, the same as Teamsters are doing both in Canada and Internationally. We must continue to move forward and service our membership. As you know, the representation in the trenches, so to speak, is the most important function that we have.  We must continue to win progressive contracts that improve the quality of life for our members and set a standard that we must maintain.

We are Teamsters. We have a legacy and a history to uphold and a future to win. Words and flowery speeches won’t make it so, but hard work and honest service will. Continue to encourage involvement with your membership, keep the communication going and always keep in mind, the men and women that we do this for.

Just look at the gains and the advancements that have been achieved in the five years that Teamsters have been on the railways in Canada.  Believe me, keep it up and you will see many, many more. The Teamsters has been the world’s most powerful and democratic union for more than a hundred years and we intend to remain that way for many hundreds more.

15. Thank you for your time and your insight. Is there anything that you would like to add that has not been covered here?
 
I have enjoyed this chance to share some of my thoughts with you and your membership and would like to leave you with this.

The Canadian flag is a symbol of our nation’s unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction of race, language, belief or opinion. The Teamsters union also serves as a unifying symbol for working people. Our union’s progression through the 21st century will be strengthened by continued member involvement coupled with effective leadership. With our ever increasing membership we will continue to stand strong against attacks on working people and will carry their fight from the workplace and the bargaining table, all the way to Parliament Hill …. to ensure that their rights, their dignity and their voices are protected.