New Brunswick: Public sector workers give strong strike vote

St. John meeting during strike vote on September 22, 2021

In its September 22 bulletin, the Canadian Union of Public Employees New Brunswick (CUPE NB) reports that seven of its 10 locals engaged in efforts to renew their collective agreements, some of which expired as long as four years ago, have been given strong strike votes. Workers are currently engaged in centralized bargaining with the government for wages that they consider acceptable and that will assist in addressing the problem of attracting and retaining workers in public services. The issue of working conditions must be resolved through negotiations with the locals.

Urgent need for workers to unite the people in the fight for the rights of all

By Pierre Chénier

A prominent feature of the last leaders’ debate on September 9, was what has come to be known as Quebec-bashing. A self-serving manipulation of the issue of values makes sure no discussion takes place on what values people actually hold and how they can be expressed in a manner decided by the people themselves.

Government provocations against New Brunswick public sector workers

Workers holding strike votes to defend their rights

Press Conference, September 3, 2021 in Fredericton to denounce government’s demands for concessions.

On September 3, the Canadian Union of Public Employees — New Brunswick (CUPE-NB) announced that the New Brunswick Government has flatly refused workers’ demands for wages they deem acceptable to stop their continued impoverishment and to address the retention and recruitment problem in the public sector.

Canada Post attacks Cape Breton delivery drivers

Gordie MacDonald, President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 117 in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia reports that Canada Post is firing delivery drivers in the Local and replacing them with new hires. Thirteen drivers in and around Sydney, one in Antigonish and several more in St. Stephen, New Brunswick have been notified that their jobs have been eliminated. One driver has delivered parcels for Canada Post for thirty years.

New Brunswick workers seek solution to crisis in recruitment and retention

Marches Across the Province in Support of Public Sector Workers

Fredericton, August 28, 2021 (Fred Hahn)

New Brunswick government’s attempt to impose wage freeze on all public sector workers

No to Negation of Workers’ Rights!

April 12, 2019. CUPE health care workers rally in Fredericton in defence of the right to negotiate acceptable wages and working conditions.

On December 11, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs informed officials of the Canadian Union of Public Employees New Brunswick at a meeting that his government is planning to impose a wage freeze followed by wage restraint on all the public sector workers in the province, unionized and non-unionized. This comes in the midst of the stresses and anxiety caused by pandemic working conditions. Already, for twelve years, New Brunswick workers have been fighting against wage freezes imposed by successive governments which have declared they have “wage restraint mandates.’

Military reports on seniors’ homes in Ontario and Quebec: A clumsy attempt to find a role for the military in civilian affairs

“It is all about systematically introducing the military to play a larger and larger role in civilian life. All the while governments continue to refuse to permit the unions and civil society organizations to play the role that belongs to them by right” | TONY SEED*

Following the release of the report by the Canadian Armed Forces on the conditions in long-term care homes in Ontario this week, CBC defence reporter Murray Brewster, who used to be embedded in Afghanistan by the Department of National Defence, wrote on May 27: “Sending soldiers to long-term care homes seemed like a strange idea – until they told us what they saw there.”[1]

Military reports on seniors’ homes in Ontario and Quebec: The crisis reveals that decision-making power must be taken out of the hands of those who are unfit to govern

A serious question arises about why these reports from the Canadian Armed Forces on conditions in long-term care are being given such prominence. The publication of these reports portrays the military as a lead agency in addressing a public health crisis | PEGGY MORTON

Public sector workers demonstrate outside Quebec Premier Legault’s office, May 28, 2020.

 

The release of reports from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) on conditions in long-term care facilities in Ontario and Quebec has been followed by announcements by Premier Doug Ford in Ontario and Premier François Legault in Quebec in which they promise to address the crisis in long-term and seniors’ care. The Ontario report on five long-term care facilities was issued May 20, and released to the media May 26. The report on 25 Quebec homes was released on May 27.

The reports generated major media attention, with the term “abuse” being the most common word used in headlines about the Ontario reports.

New Brunswick: Unacceptable anti-worker, anti-social actions

Locked-out CUPE Local 4193 workers and supporters rally before dispersing to respect COVID-19 distancing regulations, Allardville, March 18, 2020 | CUPE Local 4193

Protest against overnight closings of hospital emergency rooms, Sackville, New Brunswick, February 16, 2020 | Bruce Wark

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs announced on February 16, the suspension of a series of anti-social measures due to be implemented March 11. The most brutal and life-threatening measure was the permanent overnight closures of the emergency departments of six community hospitals, in Caraquet, Grand Falls, Perth-Andover, Sackville, Sainte-Anne-de-Kent, and Sussex. Workers’ Forum reports that the ruling elites in New Brunswick are using the COVID-19 pandemic to escalate their attacks on the working class and public health.

Nova Scotia: Situation underscores the necessity for the leadership and voice of the working people at all times

Without mobilizing and unleashing the initiative and power of the working class, the fight against the pandemic is seriously undermined and weakened | K.C. ADAMS

The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) is the largest union in the province of Nova Scotia, representing the individual and collective interests of over 30,000 public and private sector employees. NSGEU members work in the civil service, centres of education, universities, hospitals, liquor stores, correctional facilities, municipalities, and other organizations across the province.

Chronicle Herald: The backward logic of privatization

Public sector workers are not a cost to the economy; quite the contrary, they are producers of value

An article in the Halifax Chronicle Herald suggests public sector workers are a cost to the economy and should be eliminated. The item entitled “John Bragg: Cut civil service to help dig N.S. out of debt” quotes Bragg, the president and CEO of Oxford Frozen Foods Ltd. saying, “Reducing Nova Scotia’s civil service down to the national average would result in savings of $836 million a year.”

Chronicle Herald fails to challenge outrageous remarks from CEO of Oxford Frozen Foods

Defend Public Services and the Workers Who Provide Them, Halifax May Day 2012

Anti-worker comments from John Bragg, president and CEO of Oxford Frozen Foods Ltd. are the latest in the neo-liberal propaganda war for privatization of public services and seizure of public assets. The ruling capitalist elite are in crisis over where to invest their accumulated social wealth. They are in a blind alley as they refuse to look to a new pro-social direction for the economy. With few options open to them on the front of private enterprise that would boost their profits, they are desperate to pillage public services through privatization and to plunder the public treasury with handouts and public-private-partnerships.

Ontario election: Conservatives’ divisive attack on public services and the workers who provide them

Ontario Political Forum (May 23) – IN THE current election campaign the Ontario Progressive Conservatives (PCs) under leader Tim Hudak have been following a strategy which borders on hate mongering and has no place in the political arena of a civilized society. Using divisive proposals and crude, inflammatory rhetoric, the PCs are blatantly attempting to divide working people into allegedly conflicting groups and to incite one group of workers against another.

Flashback: The 1998 Halifax Transit strike

THE disinformation blaming the current Halifax trasit strike on the 763 workers and their union, Local 508 of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local (ATU), presents their struggle for their just demands as a unique local event in isolation from the neo-liberal, anti-social offensive by the state across Canada against public sector workers. The transit strike is also presented in an ahistorical prism, as if it is something entirely new. For the information of our readers, we are reproducing an article written at the conclusion of the summer 1998 strike from Nova Scotia’s Shunpiking Magazine.