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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Thu Oct 25 2012
To the editor:
I am an educational support worker. I have been a custodian, a school office assistant and a financial assistant. It is unbelievable that in Canada a government would even introduce legislation to strip away workers’ rights just to try to cover up its own incompetence.
What is even worse is that an Opposition party, the Conservatives, endorsed it. I have to question if the MPPs who voted in favour even read or understood its implications. Bill 115 is an undemocratic piece of legislation and I have to question, Is this what we are trying to bring to other countries when we send our troops to fight and possibly die?
I am a proud *CUPE* member and a vice-president in our local.
Education support workers make an average of $38,000 a year. This so-called “Liberal” government has the nerve to come to me and ask me to take a two-to three-year wage freeze, strip my earned sick days away from me and ask me to take an unpaid day from work. On top of this, tell me that I cannot bargain my own working conditions and cannot strike if necessary, which is a Charter right.
This former McGuinty government also wants to dictate which labour laws apply and which do not. All these actions, I feel, defines a dictatorship not a democracy. Shame on anyone who would support such draconian measures while MPPs get to waste billions of dollars without accountability. The labour movement will not let people in this province or country forget who has supported these, in my opinion, traitorous actions towards democracy.
Also, if the private sector believes they are safe from the effects of these government actions, think again. If rights are stripped from one, they are stripped from all. Private companies do not give benefits out of the goodness of their hearts. If unionized work places lose them, the private sector will be right behind.
All people should demand benefits and pensions, not support stripping them away from the ones who have them.
People need to ask what kind of country do we want for our children, a true democracy or a dictatorship disguised as one. (click to see newspaper article)
