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BRANTFORD, Ont. – Brant Children’s Aid Society (CAS) workers are staging a ‘Stop the Shutdown’ of Brant Family and Children’s Services (FACS) rally on Wednesday, June 4, as the agency prepares to implement shutdown days due to continuous provincial underfunding of CAS services, said the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing 161 CAS workers.
“The agency’s board is in the process of approving shutdown days at Brant FACS,” said Jennifer Kirby, unit-chair of CUPE 181.2. “The board needs to know shutting down the agency is denying at-risk children important CAS services. We are here to tell management and our community that shutting down vital services will not stop the continuous underfunding of public services. Instead, we need to work together and elect a provincial representative that will help secure additional funding for our community’s most vulnerable.”
Who? Front line workers from Brant FACS and their supporters
Speakers include: CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn, and a former Crown Ward and client of Brant FACS
What? ‘Stop the Shutdown’ of Brant FACS rally
When? Wednesday, June 4, 2014, at 12:00 Noon
Where? Brant FACS Main Office, 70 Chatham Street, Brantford
Workers will rally outside the Brant FACS’ main office and will march across the street to Liberal MPP Dave Levac’s office to protest Liberal government funding cuts.
At tomorrow’s Brant FACS board meeting, the board will be approving the plan to shut down 3-5 days to balance the agency’s budget as mandated by the provincial government. Three of the scheduled shutdown days will occur on June 30, August 1, and October 10. “The board needs to know that in neighbouring CAS agencies in Hamilton and in Haldimand Norfolk, workers, with the support of management, successfully lobbied the provincial government for additional funding to prevent and reverse shutdown days,” continued Kirby. “We are asking our agency to work with us to lobby the government and secure more funding for our agency. That is why we are marching across the street to Liberal MPP Dave Levac’s office to send a message to the Liberal government and tell them how their funding cuts impact services to children and their families.”
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For further information, please contact:
Jennifer Kirby, Unit Chair of CUPE 181.2, 519-718-8604
Andrew Hunter, CUPE National Representative, 519-743-7781
James Chai, CUPE Communications, 905-739-3999
