Hamilton and District Council
CUPE Local 5167 has endorsed all the NDP candidates in Hamilton. As a result they have an event on October 16th at the hall to meet the NDP candidates before the election on the 21st. The meet and greet is open to all CUPE locals in Hamilton. Please email Barry Conway – Conway@cupe5167.org – if you’d like to participate in the training or in the meet and greet.
Meet and greet is a BBQ at 6pm and meet candidates at 6:30pm.
Our next General Membership Meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 24th at 3:30 p.m. at 1130 Barton St East. The building is located at Barton and Ottawa, and some of you know it as your CUPE local’s office, and others may know it as the Hamilton and District Labour Council office. The agenda will include providing a notice of update bylaws and nominations for a trustee position and an equity seat. We hope to see members from all affiliates – and those looking to affiliate – on the 24th.
Time and time again, the interests of workers are being overshadowed by the interests of rich investors and banks. Workers often lose jobs, severance pay, benefits and pensions , while management makes out like bandits.
At MP Scott Duvall’s upcoming townhall, community members will discuss Scott’s efforts to pass Bill C-384 that would end pension theft in Canada.
When: June 20th 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Where: Sackville Hill Senior’s Recreation Centre (780 Upper Wentworth St)
If you plan on attending this event please RSVP to 905-574-3331.
Hope to see you all there!
June 11, 2019
TO THE LEADERSHIP OF ALL CUPE LOCALS and ALL ONTARIO STAFF REPRESENTATIVES
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
On June 5, 2019, the Ford Government introduced the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019 (Bill 124) into the Legislative Assembly. If passed, Bill 124 would impose a series of 3- year compensation caps on a variety of our workplaces. The introduction of the Bill follows a consultation period that ended on June 24th.
Throughout this process CUPE has been absolutely clear that we oppose and will fight any interference in the free collective bargaining process. If passed, this Bill would be a gross violation of our members right to freecollective bargaining.
Delegates at the Ontario Division convention passed an Action Plan to fight the Bill and we have begun a series of Regional meetings with our Locals to develop and implement escalating actions in the province. We will be also be working with our Ontario Federation of Labour and other public sector unions to coordinate our fightback to this regressive legislation.
In the meantime, it is important to stress that Bill 124 is not law. It is only a Bill introduced in first reading. It has not been passed and is not in effect. Furthermore, even if the Bill is moved forward through the legislative process it could well be subject to substantial amendments and possible legal challenges. This is why it is important that we do not treat the Bill as if it was law. We need to continue to fight this Bill in every way we can, including, for those Locals in, or about to enter negotiations at the Bargaining table. We should be sure not to modify or amend our bargaining positions on an assumption that the Bill will become Law. In fact, we should make every effort not to be influenced by the introduction of the Bill.
In the meantime, we would encourage you to make every effort to attend the scheduled Regional fightback meetings in your area; the schedule is attached. We will keep you posted of any developments.
Joe Matasic- Ontario Regional Director
Fred Hahn- CUPE Ontario President
An original copy of the statement can be found by clicking here.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 28, 2019
Speaking out to protect Ontario, for today and for tomorrow
The following is a statement from Ontario’s labour movement:
(TORONTO, ON) – Cuts to vital services like education and health care, including public health and emergency medical services, childcare, children’s aid, and legal aid services will hurt us all, including workers in the private and public sector, both union and non-union. These cuts have prompted elected representatives of more than 1 million workers to raise the alarm for all Ontarians.
Current Ontario government policies put people’s health and well-being at risk. They worsen the already unacceptable level of hallway health care and deeply damage the systems of education and social services that nurture, develop and protect the next generation of Ontarians. Government funding cuts have led to a storm of layoffs across Ontario’s public service. Those layoffs demonstrate clearly that the Premier’s campaign promise that “not one job” would be lost to cuts was nothing more than electioneering.
Ontario Ministry of Labour data shows that both private and public sector wages have fallen below inflation for the last decade.
We were outraged when this government moved to hurt workers at the lowest end of the wage scale by cancelling the scheduled increase in the minimum wage. Any further legislation aimed at restricting or reducing Ontario workers’ wages and benefits would be similarly outrageous and an intrusion into the democratic and Charter protected right to free and fair collective bargaining.
We believe that the Government of Ontario should protect public services. This includes investing in universal, not-for-profit public health care, high-quality public education, including post-secondary education, affordable housing, and childcare. Ontario does not have a spending problem; it has a revenue problem. As a responsible government, Ontario must ask the wealthy and profitable businesses to pay an appropriate share of taxes to ensure adequate revenue to support the health and education that Ontario families need. Working people across Ontario of all political stripes will not be silent when public services are threatened.
We remind today’s government that while they may have won the 2018 election, they did so with 40 per cent of the vote, a minority of the Ontario electorate. As such, it is incumbent upon them to listen to all the people of Ontario, no matter what their political persuasion. They must listen to all the people, who are asking for the protection of public services, an end to the cuts and layoffs, and who warn against punishing workers for the debt and deficit problems caused by successive and dramatic cuts to taxes for corporations and the wealthy.
Workers across the province are uniting to build the resistance to cuts to public services. In the aftermath of the Ford government’s first budget and growing attacks on workers’ rights, they will look more and more to their unions to unite and to defend a fair future for all Ontarians. We accept the obligation to meet those expectations, and to help Ontario find a better path forward in 2019.
We commit to protect public services. We commit to defend free and fair collective bargaining. We commit to mobilize our memberships across the province, in partnership with our community allies, and with all Ontarians, in opposition to the policies of cutbacks and privatization.
As we go forward, the resistance to the cuts and attacks on workers’ rights will only intensify.
Signatories:
Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL)
Amalgamated Transit Union Canada (ATU Canada)
Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union Ontario (COPE Ontario)
Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario (CUPE Ontario)
Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)
Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO)
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
Ironworkers
Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA)
Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA)
Ontario Nurses Association (ONA)
Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU)
Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF)
Public Service Alliance of Canada Ontario (PSAC Ontario)
Public Service Alliance of Canada National Capital Region (PSAC National Capital Region)
Service Employees International Union Healthcare (SEIU Healthcare)
Society of United Professionals
United Association (UA Canada)
United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW Local 251)
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
United Steelworkers (USW)
Workers United Canada Council
Original OFL Solidarity Statement letter
The Hamilton-based CUPE Ontario Local leaders meeting is taking place on Monday June 10th at 1:00 pm at the Sheraton on King West. Please encourage members of your local’s leadership team to attend.
TORONTO, June 5, 2019 /CNW/ – Legislation tabled today at Queen’s Park that would violate public employees’ right to engage in free collective bargaining is a continuation of the Ford Government’s assault on the people of Ontario, said the Leader of the Ontario Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Ontario).
Fred Hahn made the comments today after the Government tabled so-called ‘wage restraint’ legislation that will affect union and non-union employees this afternoon.
“Over and over again, we see the Ford Government continuing its assault on the people of Ontario. We saw it when they cancelled a scheduled increase to the minimum wage and when they stalled increases to social assistance. We saw it when they passed a budget that has resulted in devastating cutbacks to schools, universities, health care, social service agencies, libraries and a host of other services,” said Hahn.
“Now, after a sham ‘consultation’, the Ford Government is showing its hand again, targeting hardworking front line workers with legislation aimed at driving down wages, benefits and working conditions for public employees. In CUPE, our members make an average salary of $40,000 a year, and over the last decade, if there have been pay increases at all, they have not kept pace with inflation. The Government is sending a clear message to other employers that it’s open season on their employees as well,” he added.
“A government which forgoes billions in revenues, wastes hundreds of millions (and possibly another billion) more by casting aside signed contracts, which then tries to balance the books on the backs of hundreds of thousands of hard-working Ontarians while proclaiming the need for ‘wage restraint’ legislation should be considered a disgrace said Hahn.
He went on to urge every Ontarian—not just CUPE members—not to stand for a government that is indifferent to the harm they are causing to the norms and values Ontarians cherish.
“Ontarians need to make their voices heard—in their MPPs offices, in their communities, on the streets and on the grounds of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. CUPE Members will be standing shoulder to shoulder with them. If left to their own devices, Doug Ford and his government will inflict irreparable damage on this province. No one can sit this one out,” said Hahn.
The meeting is open to all members and held at 1130 Barton St East, at Ottawa St. (Hamilton Labour Council Office)
Former CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan will be in Hamilton at Stonewalls Restaurant Hamilton on June 13 at 7 p.m. (seating begins at 6) to launch his #GranderVision book, published by Dundurn Press. The event is endorsed by the Hamilton & District Labour Council.
The Power of Many Rapid Response Network in Hamilton (in conjunction with the Hamilton and District Labour Council and other partners) is hosting a Resistance Fair and Rise Up Rally at City Hall on June 7th from 3:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m..
From 3:30-5:30 p.m. community groups and organizations who have been subject to cuts by the Ford Government will be offered the chance to set up a tent and table to educate us about their work and fight back plans.
From 5:30-7:00 p.m. we will rally and give those groups a chance to speak to people from across Hamilton who are tired of the cuts made by the Ford Government to all sectors across our city and province.
We encourage ALL unions to get as many members out as possible to both the Fair and the Rally. It’s only by labour showing it cares about the issues of our community, that the community will care about the issues of labour.
We need organized labour to show up! We need your solidarity on this first anniversary of Doug Ford’s election!
If you are interested in having a booth for your union local to provide information to others at the event, please send an email to jayotihdlc@gmail.com. Send any questions to this email address as well.
