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"We are not alone in this fight for greater democracy. There are many other unions and their members who wish to see this practice that allows the stacking of elections ended." — Larry Brown, NUPGE President
Ottawa (28 April 2021) — The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is campaigning to see a change in how delegates are chosen for the Conventions of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). Part of the campaign is a website providing the rationale for it - democracyatclc.ca.
The CLC is the central body for unions in Canada, representing over 3 million workers in Canada. Members belong to the CLC through their membership to a national union, like the NUPGE, which is affiliated to the Congress.
Every 3 years a national convention is held to discuss and pass resolutions on issues that are important to the well-being of workers and broader society. It is also the time during which resolutions are passed about how the federation operates. This year's convention is unusual as it will be held virtually with thousands of members gathering from coast to coast to coast.
Flawed delegate system
The National Union has put forward an important constitutional motion that seeks to update the way that delegate spots are distributed to affiliated unions to bring more democracy to the way in which the CLC operates.
The way in which members participate in the CLC is through their national union. For meetings, for workshops or training and for almost every other way members participate in the Congress, it is through their national body, save one: CLC conventions. For convention, the CLC constitution grants delegate spots to members through their locals. Locals are the internal grouping mechanism that some national unions use to organize their members.
But not all unions use the term ‘local’ the same way. Some unions may not even have internal divisions called locals. They may call their internal divisions something else. And some unions have ‘locals’ that include thousands of members organized in 1 local; alternatively, some unions could have only a handful of members in 1 local.
So, under the current rules, we have examples of a union with a membership of 94,575 being entitled to 190 delegates. Another union with a membership of 20,000 (less than a quarter of the size) is entitled 192. A union of 238,059 members is entitled to 478 delegates, while a slightly smaller union is entitled to nearly twice as many delegates. It is difficult to see how that makes sense.
Unfortunately, this can skew and distort how votes and elections take place. Many unions are under-represented by delegates when compared to their membership size. In the worst cases it has allowed some unions to bring in large numbers of delegates on election date in an attempt to stack the vote.
"Many delegates have left CLC Conventions in the past feeling that the election process was fundamentally flawed and undemocratic. We certainly have," said Larry Brown, NUPGE President. "The image of some unions bringing in busloads of delegates, only for an hour, with the intention of stacking an election, leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The fact that a rich union can basically buy an election is not how we want to see our movement."
Representation by membership
A fundamental notion in many democratic organizations is that of representation by population/membership. That is, the number of delegates an organization sends to its main governing body corresponds to the size of the organization. This is the intention of NUPGE’s proposals for a constitutional amendment.
We are proposing that this be changed to say that all affiliates get delegates on the same basis: that is, 1 delegate for the first 1,000 members, and one for every 500 members above that, based on their dues payments over the year preceding the CLC Convention.
This constitutional resolution will
- make elections at convention fairer, but also
- mean that votes on resolutions and other policy matters will be much more reflective of our organizations.
"It is our intention to rectify this anomally in the constitution to ensure that we belong to a truly democractic organization," said Brown.
The CLC’s Constitution and Structure Committee is recommending that it be approved by Convention.
"We are not alone in this fight for greater democracy. There are many other unions and their members who wish to see this practice that allows the stacking of elections ended," said Brown. "We are looking forward to having a good debate on this issue, and to seeing the resolution passed at the convention in June."
Find out more about the resolution by going to democracyatclc.ca.