OFL Convention Update

For the past week I attended to Ontario Federation of Labour Convention in Toronto as the newly elected President of the St. Catharines & District Labour Council.

The convention highlighted speeches from Canadian Labour Congress President Ken Geogetti (who sidestepped the thorny issue of the CAW-Magna deal), Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton (who blamed the media for his third straight pummeling at the polls), and Federal NDP leader Jack Layton (who outlined his party's green jobs strategy).

In terms of convention content, it was pretty much a Buzz Hargrove bash-fest, with labour leaders criticizing Hargrove for giving up the right to strike in his pact with Magna. On the positive side, a campaign for card-based union certification emerged as the most important issue facing labour.

In terms of resolutions, the convention was decidedly post-materialist, with not a single resolution being submitted, let alone debated, on political action or economic policy.

I can now return to a more regular schedule of blogging.