Stability – something many mid-career workers have been longing for – is what Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), said she hopes the newly announced union-led advisory table will bring. Announced on December 5 by the federal government, the union-led advisory table will be chaired by Bruske and work to provide recommendations on how best to support workers who are affected by economic change.
“The workforce is changing rapidly with the environmental transition and the digitalization of work. To achieve a smooth transition, it is crucial for workers to be considered and heard,” Bea Bruske said in a press release. “Our economy is shifting, and Canada’s unions are ready to work with the government to ensure no workers are left behind,”
One of the large issues Bruske said she hopes to target is supporting workers as the Canadian economy transitions to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The situation of workers in Estevan, SK was one that particularly reminded Bruske of why she wants to ensure a just transition, Bruske said in an interview with rabble.ca.
As coal-fired power plants close down, many Estevan workers are worried about what to do next, Bruske said.
“Where else in Estevan, Saskatchewan can you find hundreds of jobs to replace good paying union jobs?” Bruske said. “These are folks that have strong ties to that community. They don’t want to leave the community and rightfully so. They were born or they were raised there. They are raising their families there. We need to come up with strategies to make sure that workers have choices.”
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Bruske said she is very excited about the newly announced advisory table because it is bringing together a wide variety of labour leaders. She said she hopes to provide recommendations that will protect communities like Estevan, no matter what changes may be causing instability for workers.
“The focus of that table is to understand what sectors of our economy are being impacted by change. That can be any kind of change, not just pivoting to meet net zero, but any kind of societal change, demographic change, geographical change in terms of population sizes, all of those kinds of things,” Bruske said. “What will workers need in order to be able to pivot with the changes that we’re going to be seeing over the next number of years?”
Bruske also said that the creation of the advisory table highlights how union organizing can be effective. Bruske said that she is unable to say exactly how this advisory table came about, but she suspects that union lobbying had planted the seed of this idea.
The CLC and the labour movement in general often participate in lobby days at Parliament Hill. One of the big ticket lobbying items is related to the modernization of Employment Insurance, Bruske said. She said that she thinks this type of work had highlighted to the government that the economy is changing but worker supports are not.
“Workers are worried about what the future holds. We’re living in a time of crisis with regards to affordability and the labor movement,” Bruske said. “ I think we’re gonna have expert recommendations for the government. We have nine months to do the work which is not a lot of time when you’re looking at so many moving parts, but I’m very excited about this opportunity.”
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Nick Seebruch, editor
