CUPE Ontario is proud to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17 by affirming our commitment to the fight against poverty in all its forms. We recognize the strength and resilience of those who live in poverty and we celebrate all workers who are organizing in their workplaces as part of our collective struggle against poverty in our communities.
The United Nations has set as this year’s theme as “action against the social and institutional maltreatment experienced by people living in poverty” (identified as one of the Hidden Dimensions of Poverty) and the promotion of just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
These goals resonate with us as trade unionists. We work in solidarity with all those who are struggling to make ends meet during a time of historically high levels of homelessness, an affordability crisis in housing, the absence of real rent controls, and the impacts of inflation rates higher than we’ve seen in decades. We know too that those who face systemic barriers to economic stability have been marginalized and oppressed by systems built on white supremacy, colonialism, racism and discrimination.
We can be proud of the role that unions, and CUPE in particular, play in working to ensure that people everywhere can live with dignity, supported by strong public services, the right to organize in their workplaces, and to bargain collectively to build better lives for themselves and their families.
We are proud too of the role that unions have played in addressing the root causes of poverty – not just by improving wages and working conditions, but by fighting for enhanced public funding for services, and for equity and inclusion. The high-quality public services that CUPE Ontario members deliver across many sectors, like education, health care, childcare and libraries, are among the most powerful tools for we have to fight poverty. The work of CUPE Ontario social services members especially is intimately tied to dealing with the impacts of, or fight against, increasing poverty.
Our province’s social assistance programs should ensure that no one lives in poverty. But instead Ford’s Conservatives have ensured that Ontario’s social security system fails those who rely on Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)
As part our fightback, CUPE Ontario is part of the Raise the Rates Coalition, whose key demand is the doubling of the current ODSP and OW benefit rates and adjusting them annually for inflation. We urge locals and members to make social assistance rates a key issue for the fall session of provincial parliament and in the possible early election that the Ford government may hold.
Coupled with this must be a comprehensive suite of political investments and policy changes to help end poverty; reinvesting and building public, non-market and deeply affordable housing as one important example. Growing poverty is the product of complex issues that that requires a range of responses to address them and there is no one way to fix the crisis that is unfolding.
On October 17, we remind ourselves that poverty is not just the absence of financial resources, but is rooted in a system that puts profits over people. The fight for justice, dignity, equity and human rights are part of the work we must do to eradicate poverty.
