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January
30
Day
of
Action
in
Hamilton January 30 Day of Action in Hamilton Keep Stelco Producing!
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The Ontario Health Coalition (OHC), supported by the
Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and the Ontario Common Front has
been holding protests at the various
cities across Ontario where the Ontario Provincial Parliament's
Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs has been holding
"pre-budget
consultations." Rallies have taken place in Hamilton, Windsor, Thunder
Bay, Sault-Ste. Marie and Ottawa. The final demonstration will take
place at Queen's
Park in Toronto on February 1.
The main focus of the actions is to oppose the
Wynne government's cuts to health care spending in Ontario and the
continued privatization
of health care services the
people need and depend upon for their well-being, as well as to reject
the phoney austerity agenda used by the Wynne Liberals to justify their
anti-social actions.
Rally outside pre-budget consultations in Hamilton, January 18, 2016.
 Natalie Mehra speaking in Hamilton. |
In Windsor on January 19, the rally took place outside the Windsor Casino, where Natalie Mehra pointed out among other things that under the Wynne Liberals, Ontario is trailing all other provinces in Canada when it comes to investments in health care. She decried the loss of more than 160 front line health care jobs in the Windsor area in the recent period and the refusal of the Ontario government to heed the demands of the community for increased funds to health care services.
At the Thunder Bay rally on
January 20, Jules Tupker,
co-chair of the Thunder Bay Health Coalition, noted that the local and
regional hospitals "are running
at absolute full capacity with no room for any loss of services or
staff." It was pointed out that the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital's
geriatric ward was closed
as a result of budget cuts in 2014 even though there was a long list of
seniors waiting for support. Some local residents also shared
their personal stories about the deterioration of the health care
system in Thunder Bay as a result of the Liberal government's cuts to
hospital and health care spending.
In Sault Ste. Marie on January 20, speakers from the Sault and Area Health Coalition, the OFL, the Sault Ste. Marie and District Labour Council and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union called for increased funding for hospitals in the area. At the Sault Area Hospital in particular, cuts have been made across the board including in the operating rooms, Intensive Care Unit, oncology, surgery, hemodialysis, infection control, patient care co-ordination, nursing and personal support. It was reported that in the recent period, more than 59,000 hours/per year of nursing and patient care have been cut and 56 hospital beds have been slated for closure since 2015. The speakers all demanded that the Wynne government stop fuelling the crisis in health care and other social services.
The Ottawa rally took place outside the Marriot Hotel in the downtown on January 22. Participants included a group of striking workers from the Rideau Carleton Raceway who are demanding that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, which made $2 billion in net profits last year, negotiate a fair wage increase with their union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada. They have had no wage increase since 2009.
Ontario Political Forum calls on everyone to
go all out to make the February 1 rally a success. Let us together
raise our voices and organize for an
Ontario where ensuring the right of the people to a secure and bright
future
takes centre
stage.
All Out for the
February 1 Rally at
Queen Park!
Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Funding for Social
Programs!
Hamilton,
January
18
Thunder Bay, January 20
Sault Ste. Marie, January 21
Ottawa, January 22
(Photos: OPF, OFL)
City of Toronto Budget Consultations
CUPE Local 79 Stands Up for Public Sector Workers
and
Public Services and Assets
CUPE Local 79 members hold their first Blue Monday protest, January 25, 2016, in support of their
bargaining committee in negotiations with the city. (CUPE)
The City of Toronto Budget Committee recently concluded three days of "public consultations" on the proposed 2016 Operating and Capital Budgets. This is a bargaining year for the unions representing Toronto's 28,000 civic employees represented by CUPE Locals 79, 416 and 2998.
Tim Maguire, President of CUPE Local 79, which represents some 20,000 of Toronto's inside municipal workers, made representation to the city's Budget Committee on January 12. He emphasized that Local 79 has already expressed its readiness to engage as a willing partner with the city in seeking solutions to the city's financial difficulties but at the same time stated solutions should not be found on the backs of the workers.
He noted that the city's divisions have reported that they are leaving vacancies unfilled in order to underspend their budgets and save on salaries and benefits. There are over 2,500 unfilled jobs in the city's workforce -- close to 10 per cent of the total number of civic employees.
Maguire also spoke out
against the sell-off of municipal assets, and stated that the union
stands
with the 185 Ontario
municipalities that oppose the sale of Hydro One. He called on the city
to go forward on the basis of an honest analysis, saying, "The City
would be
better able to predict
how to do it if it undertook a projection of the impact of
the current sale of Hydro One and the potential sale down the road of
Toronto Hydro. Without
an honest projection of what that might mean in terms of the cost of
providing services, whether its at the city itself or its agencies such
as the TTC and school
boards, estimates without a risk assessment of the impact of the sale
of Hydro One and Toronto Hydro will be off."
Wages and salaries make up the lion's share of the city's operating budget and from the outset of new contract negotiations back in October, municipal officials have been doing PR that the problem the city faces is the wages of the workers. Counsellor Denzil Minnan-Wong for example erroneously declared the average wage of a city employee to be about $85,000. Quoted by the Toronto Star, Maguire said in response that this is a highly exaggerated figure "that's far in excess of the average city worker," many of whom are now doing part-time work under precarious conditions, without stable and predictable work.
At the Budget Committee consultations, Maguire again set the record straight. He said, "Toronto shouldn't be fostering temporary part-time precarious work, cutting services, contracting out, delaying projects, under-funding programs and leaving 2,500 jobs vacant. We need long term-sustainable solutions to our revenue problem, not a fire sale of City assets that may provide quick cash [...] but makes the City's operating budget even more anaemic."
(CUPE Local 79 website, Toronto Star)
Read Ontario Political Forum
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: ontario@cpcml.ca