Unions give strength to working families

Name: Thomas Lou

Occupation: Constituency Assistant to Mable Elmore, MLA

Union: BCGEU

Although Thomas Lou has only been a member of the BC Government Employees’ Union since last year, he is a strong advocate of unions and the positive impact they have had and continue to have on working people.

Thomas supports the labour movement because he feels it is one of our fundamental rights as workers.

There is strength in numbers, and Thomas wants people within the Chinese community to work together in order to maintain the quality of life and working conditions that unions fought to provide us.

He wants to reach out to fellow Chinese workers to inform them of how important the labour movement is, not only new immigrants to Canada, but to all workers across the country.

“The labour movement is part of the fundamental system in this country. We know it is not perfect. However, it is good for working families,” says Thomas. “Unions keep the system strong.”

He points out that the Chinese community has traditionally been lukewarm towards the labour movement and politics in general.

This is the result of a history of political turmoil in their homeland for the past century.

Be that as it may, many Chinese still become union members through work, which gives union leaders the opportunity to do more outreach to let these workers know the importance of a strong union.

Thomas encourages his fellow Chinese immigrants to not only be observers, but to get involved in the labour movement.

Otherwise, all workers across our province and country could lose many of our hard won advantages.

“It’s not about being only concerned for your own interests,” adds Thomas. “It’s about the bigger picture. It’s about keeping what we have now for ourselves and for future generations, not only for Chinese people, but for society as a whole.”

With constantly changing demographics of working people, he believes the labour movement must do a better job at understanding the landscape of the population change.

He says “Union activists are not trouble makers; we simply want fairness and a reasonable share.”