Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 19/00) - Members make the best ambassadors.

That was the message Canadian Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti brought to Yellowknife last weekend.

"The validators of the good work that unions do should be the people that live in the communities where the unions are," said Georgetti, guest speaker at the 13th annual convention of the Northern Territories Federation of Labour held at the Explorer Hotel.

"And that's a significant part of the strategy of the CLC, where we're trying to teach our activists how to communicate to the media and communicate what the union movement does for the community and for individuals," he said.

"It's easy to not associate yourself or distance yourself from someone you don't know," said Georgetti, who was president of the B.C. Federation of Labour for 12 years before being elected CLC head in May 1999.

"Our best validators for the work we do are our members."

Georgetti added the "geography and the isolation" poses a special challenge for Northern workers.

"Employers, especially in the fly in, fly outs have a huge amount of influence on who comes into their properties, and how much influence they have on their employees when they're there."

The CLC president pointed out unions everywhere are being affected by a changing workplace.

"We're shifting much more to a service economy. Large workplaces are not as prevalent as they were in the past," said Georgetti.

One topic Georgetti addressed in his speech on Saturday was the issues facing Giant miners.

Hundreds of workers laid off from the bankrupt mine last fall have not received severance pay. As well, benefits under the hourly pension plan have been cut 25 per cent since April 1.

Georgetti met Friday with members of the Citizens Support Group, who are raising awareness of Giant mine issues.

"It's obvious to us that underfunding, allowing underfunded liability to carry forward, is not something that should be allowed," Georgetti said following the meeting.

He said the CLC will attempt to make the pension situation a national issue. The CLC will soon make a presentation to a senate committee chaired by Michael Kirby. Georgetti said his organization will contact the opposition parties in Ottawa and the governing Liberals.