Workers rights are human rights
 

June 22, 2007 OPSECAAT President Roger Couvrette told delegates to the National Union of Public and General Employees Convention in Fredericton, N.B. today that OPSECAAT would be successful and that workers' rights are human rights.

Brothers and sisters:

What difference is there between workers’ rights and human rights?

I am inclined to look at the separation of workers’ rights from human rights as an historical ploy of capitalism – which in an earlier and darker era may well have pried workers rights away from human rights to serve its own selfish purposes. Capitalism knows everything there is to know about the exploitation of one human being by another!

Let me rephrase the question: What difference is there between a worker in the workplace and a human being?

And the answer to the question is, sisters and brothers: Nothing. Rien du tout. Nada. Workers’ rights are human rights.

And I am awfully pleased to say today to you that this is the opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada.

On June 8, the Court ruled that the right to bargain collectively is included in the section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantees freedom of association. They said, and I quote: “Recognizing that workers have the right to bargain collectively as part of their freedom to associate, reaffirms the values of dignity, personal autonomy, equality and democracy that are inherent in the charter.” Unquote.

Workers rights are human rights. They involve dignity, personal autonomy, equality and democracy. So ruled Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Mr. Justice Louis LeBel.

My name is Roger Couvrette and I am president of OPSECAAT, the organization of part-time college workers in Ontario. We are 17,000 men and women who are denied the right to bargain collectively by the provincial Colleges Collective Bargaining Act, passed in 1975. We have no benefits, no recognition for our years of service, no process to deal with our complaints. We are a source of cheap labour and we are denied the right – by law – to defend ourselves against exploitation.

Two things.

First, this will end soon, partly as a result of this Supreme Court decision. But mostly it will end as a result of the commitment and dedication of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. Let me be even clearer: OPSECAAT would not exist without the hard work, dedication and solidarity of our full-time brothers and sisters. I would like to personally thank Paddy Musson and Jean Fordyce, the presidents of CAAT Academic and CAAT Support.

Second, I want to thank NUPGE for going to bat for OPSECAAT. You took this issue and battled on our behalf all the way to Geneva and the International Labour Organization. Similar to the Supreme Court in its decision, the ILO ruled that it failed, and this is a quote “to see any reason why the principles on the basic rights of association and collective bargaining afforded to all workers should not also apply to part-time employees.” Unquote. It asked the Ontario government to “rapidly” amend the legislation to give us part-time college workers the right to bargain collectively, “as any other workers.”

Thank you, NUPGE, for taking up our fight.

The Ontario government has to date ignored the ILO but it cannot ignore the Supreme Court of Canada.

Let me end my remarks with another quote from the June 8 ruling:

“The right to bargain collectively with an employer enhances the human dignity, liberty and autonomy of workers by giving them the opportunity to influence the establishment of workplace rules and thereby gain some control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their work.”

That, brothers and sisters, says it all: There is, according to the Supreme Court of Canada, no degree of separation between these rights. Human rights, involving dignity, liberty and autonomy, apply to the workplace, and give us control over this important part of our lives, our work. Workers rights are human rights.

We are determined to fight this injustice to part-time college workers. We will continue to mobilize part-time workers throughout our 24 colleges. We will fight back and we will win.  In this struggle, we know we have your support and that, brothers and sisters, strengthens our resolve to right this historical wrong and to reclaim our rights as workers, to restore the human rights that we have been denied.

Thank you.