New Brunswick Government's Attempt to Impose Wage Freeze on
All Public Sector Workers
No to Negation of Workers' Rights!
April
12, 2018. 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."
As a justification for the imposition of this dictate regarding
public sector workers' contract negotiations, Premier Higgs told the
press: "What we want to do is manage expectations, and turn this
negotiation into thinking different about what we learned from COVID.
Let's not turn it into a lot of discussion around salaries we're trying
to protect,
but what we can do differently to meet our needs and what we learned
through COVID."
What workers learned in a dramatic way from the pandemic is that
they
are the essential factor in preserving and advancing society, and that
their living and working conditions and their say in these conditions
make the difference between life and death. They have learned that
economic recovery must be human-centred, with public enterprise under
the control of the people to look after the well-being of the people.
The elimination of public sector workers' ability to negotiate wages
and working conditions that are acceptable to themselves
aggravates all the problems of the sector and affects the delivery of
public services. This announcement will affect retention of public
servants as well as the attraction of new public servants. The
destruction of the public service in favour of hiring private
contractors to carry out their work will further destroy the fabric of
society as everyone is further forced to fend for themselves.
What
the Premier seems to believe is that COVID-19 provides "an opportunity"
to impose dictates in the name of high ideals about protecting people's
health. It is a sick mind-set behind which is the pay-the-rich
schemes demanded by the narrow private interests which have taken over
the decision-making power and operation of state agencies, beginning
with the premier's office. Higgs' "what we can do differently to meet
our needs" shows he makes no bones about his government's stand
that narrow private interests are the key to post-pandemic recovery and
that all society's resources must be put under their control and
ownership. Workers' Forum stands firmly with the New Brunswick
workers
facing this renewed assault, and calls upon all Canadian
workers to support them in their just fight. It is as clear as
clear can be that our future and our security lie in the fight to
affirm of the rights of all.
This article was published in
Number 84 - December 15, 2020
Article Link:
New Brunswick Government's Attempt to Impose Wage Freeze on : No to Negation of Workers' Rights!
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
