VDLC: COPE and Vision Vancouver are working together on a joint election day campaign

Election Day is Saturday, November 19

Election Day is now only two days away and the VDLC still needs hundreds of election day workers to guarantee that they make history in the city of Vancouver by electing a progressive Mayor, City Council, School Board and Parks Board to a second term!

This has never happened before in the entire history of this city. The NPA has dominated city politics in Vancouver for more than 70 years! In fact the NPA have only been out of office for two one-term stretches since 1932! This time the NPA is spending more than a million dollars in an attempt to regain control of City Hall.

We know that we cannot out spend the NPA. Our strength has always been people power. The road to success for working people has always been through mobilizing our supporters.

Since only about 30% of the electorate get out to vote in municipal elections, it is absolutely essential that we get our supporters out to polls on Saturday, November 19.

The Vancouver and District Labour Council needs your help! 

This Saturday, November 19, we will be going door to door contacting our supporters to make sure that they vote. We will give them rides to the polls if necessary - whatever it takes to make sure that they vote.

Volunteers are needed from 7:30 a.m. until 8 p.m.

If you can help make history in Vancouver, call the Joint Election Day campaign at 628-4841

Please provide us with your contact information, ideally we'd like both an e-mail and a phone number. Please be specific about the hours you are available. Please advise if you have a vehicle

On November 19, help return a progressive COPE/VISION majority to City Hall!

Bill Saunders, VDLC President

Celebrating Womens History brunch with Denise Savoie

Please consider circulating to your Greater Victoria members or friends Victoria Labour Council's invitation, below, to our "Celebrating Women's History" Brunch -- with guest, Libby Davies, MP.

The ultimate purpose of our tasty and interesting brunch is to celebrate how lucky the Capital Region and Victoria have been to be served for the last two terms by one particularly effective woman: in fact to celebrate SO much that -- with progressive community members' fundraising help now leading up to the federal election -- our community elects progressive Denise Savoie as Victoria's next Member of Parliament!

Read more on the upcoming events page.

Richard Harris, MP Cariboo-Prince George, commends an anti-union and anti-worker employer

Richard Harris, MP Cariboo-Prince George made the following comment in the House this week regarding Wal-Mart:

"Mr. Speaker, it is time to set the record straight on Wal-Mart stores.  They employ over 70,000 Canadians and do business with over 6,000 Canadian suppliers.  They employ thousands of seniors and students in part time work in addition to their full time staff.  Wal-Mart contributes over 135,000 every week to Canadian charities and last year raised and donated ever $7 million to Canadian charities.  They are continually ranked as the best retailer in Canada to work for and last year ranked eighth as the best overall company in Canada to work for.  Wal-Mart stores are favourites with Canadians because they benefit communities economic development, charitable giving, good jobs in a great workplace, opportunities for the disabled and let us not forget, great products at a low price.  Well done WalMart.  As a corporate citizen Wal-Mart sets a fine example.  Way to go, Wal-Mart."

Here is the email that Patty sent to Mr. Harris:

Mr. Harris:  Your comments made in the House of Commons this week complementing Wal-Mart were brought to my attention.

I represent members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, approximately 300 of who live and work in the community you purport to represent.  Unlike the workers at Wal-Mart the workers I represent are organized and benefit from negotiated wages and working conditions.

While Wal-Mart may employ 70,000 Canadians, they are not the model employer.  In fact, as an employer Wal-Mart pays low wages, schedules low hour work weeks (28 hours per week is their definition of full-time work) and fights all efforts of their workers to exercise their right to organize (as evidenced by their decision to close the one unionized Wal-Mart store in Jonquiere, Quebec).

Personally, given their track record as an employer, I would acknowledge that Wal-Mart may be the most profitable retailer in Canada; however, this does not make them the best retailer in Canada.

As for providing good jobs in the community, I would have expected you to speak out against the privatization of BC Rail or the centralization of Canada Revenue Agency work (from Prince George to Vancouver), both which paid residents of your community a living wage, thereby benefiting the workers and the community of Prince George.

I expect the conservative record in the House of Commons will be an issue in the next election.  I will be sending this out to my membership.

Patty Ducharme, Regional Executive Vice-President, BC, Public Service Alliance of Canada

If you live in the Prince George area, send Mr Harris an email, letting him know you disagree.

Here are some websites with more information:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0211-03.htm

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_us&refer=canada&sid=amNohZPgIaV4

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031208&s=levine

http://web.ask.com/searchcp?q=walmart&t=walmart&cache=00*neu6nm2x2yze&url=http://www.sprawl-busters.com/&page=&ws=1

http://www.walmartwatch.com/

http://www.walmartworkerscanada.com/

Vote for wards in Vancouver, October 16th

On October 16, Vancouver residents will be taking to the polls to vote on a ward system of municipal government.

Mayor Campbell and the Vancouver and District Labour Council are recommending a 'yes' vote on wards.

Read more here (link to city.vancouver.bc.ca opens in new window).

Here is some information on the ward system and when/where to vote (link opens in new window).