Unifor 2000’s 26th annual congress was held Oct. 26 at the downtown Holiday Inn in Vancouver.
While this version of the local has been around for 26 years, our predecessor locals (through mergers, name changes. etc.) have been around 140 years — so we celebrated that at this congress. (Logos attached.)
Evidence has been discovered, however, that we can trace our roots even further back than that. But we’ll stick with 140 for official purposes.
Congress featured a series of guest speakers, reports and resolutions to consider, and people to elect. A banquet with birthday cake followed.
In their reports, President Brian Gibson and Secretary-Treasurer Bill Catterall recapped a busy year for the local with negotiations, grievances and crises to resolve, management and ownership changes at several employers, closures, cutbacks — something just about every day that required their immediate attention.
One of the local’s greatest accomplishment this year may be the role it played in saving Pacific Newspaper Group archives. That’s B.C. history we’re talking about. Congress delegates heard all about it.
Mostly, it’s photos — hard copies, 600,000 of them. some dating back to the 1890s documenting both daily life and major events in our local history. There’s also a collection of recipes, employee newsletters and other archival material.
National rep and PNG member Andrea MacBride, Brian and Bill from our local, PNG employees, and family members pitched in, packed up and moved hundreds of boxes, which are stored at the National’s Western Regional office in New Westminster and anywhere else there’s room to hold them, including our local’s office until they go to their forever homes.
“The union saved the photos,” we heard.
Unifor’s national media director Randy Kitt reported on the state of the newspaper, broadcast and streaming industries nationally, as well as offering us a seminar on AI.
A few highlights from Randy’s presentations
— “By 2020, Facebook and Google accounted for 83% of the Canadian ad market.”
— Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre “has a super contempt for our whole industry and he’s promised to undo all the media supports that we’ve been working on over the past 15 years.”— Recycling fees are killing the newspaper industry. The fees are meant to deter excessive packaging.
“Our newspapers have these fees in the millions of dollars for recycling and we’re saying … the newspaper is the product, not packaging,” said Kitt.
Doug Ford exempted newspapers from the fee in Ontario, but the BC government has shown no desire to do the same. (See resolution below)
— Google is getting ready to distribute its $100 million fund (which exempts the company from the online news act) to the Canadian news media, but there are concerns about the board Google has set up: “The folks that hire the journalists don’t have any control on the board,” said Kitt. “The folks that don’t hire any journalists are going to have a majority say on the board.”
Kitt also talked about preventing the “uberization” of journalism (gig economy).
On AI:
– Do you use Chat GPT? Be careful. Nothing is confidential: “The second you put something into Chat GPT, it’s in Chat GPT and everyone else has access to it … and it’s pretty much no longer yours.” There are versions you can buy that will protect privacy, Kitt said.
– Do we need protection from AI taking over our jobs? Yes, but also note most contracts already have jurisdiction and/or new technology language. “A lot of this is language we may already have in our collective agreements,” said Kitt.
Brian Gibson gave a presentation on ergonomics at the home office — particularly relevant with newspapers closing their newsrooms and wanting everyone to work from home. Brian’s presentation was adapted from WCB Nova Scotia. If you’d like more information, Brian has PowerPoint presentations and other easy-to-follow documents he presented at Congress that he could email you. You can request the info by emailing Brian at [email protected] .
Unifor’s Western Region director Gavin McGarrigle spoke briefly by Zoom.
Resolutions
1. Congress supported a motion to change how Unifor elects its regional directors at national conventions. Only delegates of that region should vote. The resolution will be passed on to a national convention.
2. A motion to lobby the provincial government to remove recycling fees from newspapers was approved. (See Randy Kitt’s comments above).
3. Regulating artificial intelligence. This resolution calls on the province to set up a registry documenting the use of AI; for the union to work with employers to develop and enforce collective bargaining language; and to work with Unifor Media Council to develop a campaign on the dangers of AI.
Elections
Bill Catterall was nominated and acclaimed to a three-year term as secretary-treasurer.
Cayley Dobie, Lora Grindlay and Carey Bermingham were nominated to sit on the union’s elections committee. David Carrigg was nominated to the audit committee. Larry Hoare continues on the audit committee.
Unifor’s Ian Boyko has posted a photo album from our congress and banquet on the Unifor Canada Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=UniforCanada&set=a.872895158261538
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