Seldom do the wealthy have human rights problems. Moreover, human rights abuse does not hurt all workers equally. Working women, Workers of Colour, Aboriginal Peoples, Workers with Disabilities, and Gay and Lesbian workers - these five groups from within our larger family of labour predictably suffer the most discrimination in Canadian society. Because these forms of institutionalized injustice ultimately serve the profit motive and the status quo, racism, sexism and homophobia will not be eliminated from te workplace until they are eliminated from the union. Just as a collective agreement recognizes rights for all individual members of the bargaining unit, we believe that human rights are more powerful when they advance the interests of workers as a class.
Human rights exist only to the extent that they are struggled for, won and then maintained.
Our Human Rights program took another major step forward within months of the CAW becoming a Canadian union. A Human Rights Conference was convened in 1986 and has now become an annual tradition. In an important breakthrough, the CAW has negotiated with employers the right of members to refuse to continue to work and be paid when they are being harassed. Negotiated agreements have increasingly included Joint Human Rights Training paid for by the employers and made available to entire workforces. The 1991 CAW Constitutional Convention adopted a comprehensive Affirmative Action Policy which, among other important initiatives, called for special leadership and activist training for women and workers of colour.