26 February 2020
For immediate release
Eighty-four IAM members and more than 400 trade unionists gathered in Ottawa to make issues important to workers known to their respective Members of Parliament (MPs) on 25 February, 2020 in the largest-ever lobbying effort on Parliament Hill.
The IAM brought its largest-ever delegation to Ottawa to speak about issues important to our membership across Canada – raising the minimum wage, universal pharmacare, protecting workers’ pensions, ratifying the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 190 to end Violence and Harassment (English) (French)
The lobbying effort, co-ordinated by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), was the largest ever conducted by the labour movement. There were many first-time participants and the enthusiasm about talking directly to MPs grows with every year.
Social media was so popular with trade unionists tweeting that #canlab and #pharmacare both trended on Twitter during the day. IAM issues included have a unified aerospace strategy, getting rid of contract-flipping, having a fair dispute resolution process for airport screeners.
“Elected officials are just regular people like we are,” said Stan Pickthall, IAM Canadian General Vice-President, “and they want to get re-elected. And that’s why it’s so important to talk to them about issues that matter to us.”
Derek Ferguson, Special Representative, Political Action, said, “While we have our own critical issues to lobby on, we always have our eye on the big picture – the issues that matter to all workers and all Canadians. That’s why we work together with the labour movement!”
The IAM has emphasized political action as one of the most important tools available to IAM members – and continues to do so.
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Information:
Frank Saptel, Communications Representative fsaptel@iamaw.org
