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Dear 1883 members,
As you all know, a federal election is around the corner, and we all need to decide how to cast our votes. As public employees, I think it’s doubly important for us to pay attention to who governs us, and how, so I urge you all to RESEARCH THE ISSUES and VOTE.
Why am I writing to you about the election? What does your union have to do with how you should vote?
The best answer I’ve heard to those questions comes from CUPE Ontario’s Secretary-Treasurer, Fred Hahn, who attended our membership meeting at the Aud in September 2007. Fred says that unions can lodge all the grievances we want and negotiate all the best clauses into our Collective Agreements, but all that effort could be wasted if a right-wing government comes to power and legislates away the rights we win at the bargaining table. And friends, I have very real fears of that kind of outcome if Stephen Harper is given another mandate as Prime Minister.
I can’t make you vote the way I want you to, but I want to give you my opinions from the perspective of someone who hears from a lot of our members on a number of issues every day and who pays attention to what the different political parties do and say about issues that affect all of us.
In its two and a half years in power, the Harper government has:
* refused to try to honour Canadian commitments to the Kyoto Protocol while increasing subsidies to the oil and gas industry
* pursued an economic agenda of deregulation such as with airline safety, food safety, and independent Canadian testing of new drugs
* promoted public private partnerships where public institutions pay a private company to build, operate, and sometimes fund and own, a service that would normally belong in public hands (e.g., hospitals)
* canceled a federal-provincial agreement on child care and replaced it with a joke of a $100 taxable benefit for parents
* tore up the Kelowna Accords in yet another betrayal of Canada’s aboriginal peoples
* cut funding for women’s programs
* refused to attend the World AIDS Conference, hosted by Canada, with hundreds of delegates from around the world, thereby embarrassing our country and demonstrating a lack of respect for all people living with HIV/AIDS
AND THAT’S WITH A MINORITY GOVERNMENT! If Harper is able to get a majority, things could get much worse.
CUPE has staff which analyze the political platforms of all the parties from the perspective of CUPE’s issues as a body which represents workers in the public sector. They are encouraging all members to vote against Harper’s Conservatives, and to back their local NDP candidate. They have produced a number of colour pamphlets explaining their position, and I will tell you I endorse it. I’m voting for NDP candidate Cindy Jacobsen in my Kitchener-Waterloo riding.
If you want to read CUPE’s election pamphlet online, see: http://cupe.ca/2008-federal-election/election-leaflet. I am planning to take a couple of mornings this week to hand these pamphlets out to employees on their way to work at our three main buildings: 150 Main St, 150 Frederick, and 99 Regina St. If you want to join me, please contact me: I’d love the company!
If you’re someone who can’t bring yourself to vote NDP, I want to urge you to do as Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams has counseled his citizens to do, which is to vote for ABC – Anyone But the Conservatives. A great website called voteforenvironment.ca has done detailed analyses of every Canadian riding and advocates voting for the candidate most likely to defeat the Conservative candidate. In Waterloo Region’s ridings, it advocates voting Liberal as the best chance to defeat Conservatives in the Kitchener Centre, Kitchener-Conestoga, and Cambridge ridings. In my Kitchener-Waterloo riding, it says Telegdi’s seat is safe enough to vote with your heart.
Please take a few minutes to read up on the issues, and VOTE NEXT TUESDAY!
In solidarity,
Marc Xuereb, President
CUPE Local 1883
203-120 Ottawa St N
Kitchener, ON N2H 3K5
tel: 519.571.1452
fax: 519.571.0527
www.1883.cupe.ca
[email protected]
