Raise the Rates Coalition brings demands to increase social assistance rates to Queen’s Park as more Ontarians legislated into poverty

TORONTO – It’s not often easy to put a dollar amount on the government’s failure to care for Ontarians, but the roughly one million people in this province who rely on social assistance know the exact figure they need. Individuals supported by Ontario Works (OW) are shy of the poverty line by $1,569 every month;…

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Community health workers rally to combat severe underfunding and understaffing at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre

TORONTO – Today community health care workers at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC) will rally to demand that their employer address the severe underfunding and understaffing crisis at the centre. After more than eight months at the bargaining table, SRCHC management still refuses to offer members of CUPE Local 5399 a real wage…

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Abrupt closure of Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity in the runup to National Coming Out Day a painful loss for the queer community and an affront to workers

OTTAWA – For 19 years, the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity (CCGSD) helped queer and trans youth find themselves, a sense of community, and safety. With the organization’s sudden bankruptcy announcement, that support is gone, passionate workers have been laid off, and queer and trans youth are left with one less advocate and…

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“This is why we are retiring in poverty:” Health care workers slam SickKids for choosing not to pay into pension plan for 26th year

Toronto, ON – Health-care workers at SickKids Hospital in Toronto are outraged by their employer’s recent announcement that it will continue its “pension holiday” rather than improve retirement benefits for its staff. Last week, SickKids announced that it will not be paying into the staff pension plan for yet another year – it has only…

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Ford government’s new proposal for long-term care regulations will worsen staffing crisis & erode quality of care for residents, warns CUPE

The Ford government’s plan to permanently employ lower-trained workers to replace PSWs caring for increasingly vulnerable long-term care residents is fraught with risk, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees. The union is instead calling for a robust health care human resources strategy to recruit the tens of thousands of personal support workers required in…

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