People of New Brunswick Firmly Support Striking Public Sector Workers
For a Pro-Social Solution to the Public Services Crisis!
Fredericton, November 2, 2021
New Brunswick residents are expressing strong support for striking
public sector workers who are members of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE NB).
 The
strike is being waged by approximately 22,000 workers who are demanding
wages they deem acceptable and essential to solving the retention and
recruitment crisis that is decimating public services. They are also
demanding the withdrawal of the government's demands for concessions
with regard to their pension plans, as centralized
negotiations had been set solely on the issue of wages
CUPE NB's demonstration in front of the Legislative
Assembly in Fredericton on November 2, during the reopening of the
Assembly drew some 6,000 people, one of the largest demonstrations ever
held there. It took place at the same time as the union maintained its
picket lines province-wide. Thousands of public sector workers
came from all over the province, supported by many residents from
various backgrounds. The media reported that the demonstration was so
loud that the noise from the crowd and the speeches outside resonated
throughout the building. The demonstration began with two
processions of frontline workers, accompanied by citizens, converging
on the steps of the Legislature. Steve Drost, President of CUPE NB,
introduced the presidents of the ten striking locals, who were loudly
applauded. CUPE Maritimes Regional Director Sandy Harding invited
Premier Blaine Higgs to join her at a negotiating table set up on the
front lawn and read out the positions of the union and the government at the time the government
walked away from negotiations.
The day before, on November 1st, striking workers had visited their MPs to explain the dispute and ask for their support.
The government's dangerous anti-social attempt to use the health emergency caused by the resurgence of the pandemic to turn
the public against the striking workers has failed. CUPE NB reports
that wherever striking workers are picketing across the province,
people are coming out to express their support for them on the picket
line and are telling them that they know the workers are fighting for
all of them. Parents, in particular, have come out to tell them that
they don't accept that schools have been abruptly closed by the
government and that they don't want their children to attend classes
online during the strike. This has nothing to do with pandemic safety,
they say,
and everything to do with the labour dispute and an attempt to break
the strike of frontline workers, which they oppose.
 Support
from other unions continues to pour in. One of the most recent
endorsements has come from the New Brunswick Teachers' Federation and
one of its components, the New Brunswick Teachers' Association. On its
Facebook page, the association called out Education Minister Dominic
Cardy with the message "Lead the system or leave
the system. Your move, Minister Cardy." Teachers are among those next
up to try and renew their collective agreement and they expect the same
government dictate.
The
New Brunswick Nurses Union has also declared
its support for the CUPE strike. The National Board of Directors of the
Customs and Immigration Union, part of the Public
Service Alliance of Canada, has sent a message of support to CUPE NB.
CUPE's Conseil Provincial du soutien scolaire, representing school
support workers in Quebec, has done the same. CUPE Quebec's two most
senior officers joined the demonstration in front of the Legislative
Assembly as did the CUPE Ontario Secretary-Treasurer and the presidents
of its School Board Council of Unions and Council of Hospital
Unions.
Several small businesses have also declared their support for the
strike, including by coming to the picket lines to bring food to the
strikers. Some are posting discounts for striking workers who come to
buy food.
 Clearly,
the only acceptable solution to the conflict, to the recruitment and
retention crisis and the public services crisis, is a peaceful and just
resolution based on the demands of those who deliver the services, one
without state dictate or criminalization.
The Higgs government insists that the anti-social, anti-worker way
is the only way and, through the efforts of workers and the public,
must be forced to back down. When the government returned to the
legislature on November 2, it was supposed to deliver a Speech from the
Throne opening a new legislative session. Higgs cancelled the
speech, saying openly that the procedures involved in delivering a
throne speech and opening a new session would make it more difficult
for him to introduce back-to-work legislation. Higgs
added that if he were to introduce such legislation, he would also
decree wages for the 58,000 unionized public sector workers whose
collective agreements are
up for renewal, as well as for non-unionized workers. The government
executive, in the service of narrow private interests, says it is
prepared to create more chaos in services as well as in the province as
a whole. Workers are telling them to back off or get out. On November 5, the union reported that on the evening of November 4, the
CUPE centralized bargaining team met with government negotiators. The
negotiators communicated a new government offer, to which the
centralized bargaining team responded with a counter-proposal overnight.
CUPE was prepared to return to work during the day if the government
accepted the union's counter-proposal while the counter-proposal would
be presented to the membership for discussion and vote in the coming
days. The government did not respond to the counter-proposal but
suggested that it was maintaining its dictate that an agreement must
include changes to the pension plans of two locals. The strike continues.
It should be remembered that this government locked out the 3,000
striking education workers on October 31 and imposed a leave of absence
without pay on education workers who had been designated as essential
during the strike. The workers filed a complaint with the Labour Board which ruled in their favour and ordered the government to
cease and desist.
The government's position is unjust and dangerous. The workers'
position is just. It is this just position that must prevail in this
dispute. The public interest is served by upholding workers' rights. 
This article was published in
November 5, 2021 - No. 104
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO081041.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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