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TIMMINS, ON – Leaders of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are gathering in Timmins tomorrow to found a new Timmins CUPE Council.
“Parental leave, health and safety regulations, the minimum wage…there are so many benefits for all Ontarians that got their start at the bargaining table,” said Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario. “Right now, we face attacks from both Liberal and Conservative governments on collective bargaining rights that benefit all Ontarians. We can’t let any government take those rights away.”
Hahn will be joined at the meeting by local union leaders, as well as CUPE National Secretary-Treasurer Charles Fleury and Henri Giroux, CUPE’s regional vice-president for Northern Ontario.
“By forming a CUPE council, our members in the Timmins area will present a united front to resist any and all legislative attacks on union security and the independence and autonomy of Canadian trade unions,” said Fleury.
The new Timmins District CUPE Council will coordinate education and political action among locals in the area to defend workers’ rights to free collective bargaining and independent contract arbitration for essential workers, such as CUPE members in the health care sector.
“Together, workers in Timmins agreed that we need to continue building and organizing to push back against a low-wage economy and privatization of public services,” said Giroux. “With two million Ontarians on wait lists for services such as long-term care, child care and developmental services and waiting for relief from poverty because of stagnant social assistance and minimum wage rates, we won’t stop pushing until we succeed in building a better Ontario.”
CUPE Ontario represents thousands of municipal, health care, social service and school board workers in the Timmins district, which includes communities as far north as Moose Factory.
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For more information, please contact:
Craig Saunders, CUPE Communications, 416-576-7316
