UPDATED September 1, 2006
Labour Day Message from PEI Federation of Labour President Carl Pursey 2006
A Time to Reflect on our Accomplishments yet Realize Much is Left to do.
-As the labour movement heads towards Labour Day 2006 in a year that
marks the 50 anniversary of our parent organization the Canadian Labour
Congress, the PEI Federation of Labour asks its approximately 10,000
affiliated members and indeed all workers on PEI to reflect on what a
difference unions have made in people's lives!
-Over the span of two generations, Canadian Unions have worked
diligently to improve the everyday lives of not only our members but
all Canadian workers.
-Many of the benefits that were first bargained for in collective
agreements one workplace at a time are now enjoyed by all Canadians and
their families. In fact, they have become so much a part of everyday
life that most of us simply take them for granted.
-Thus, today Canadians enjoy the security of the Canada Pension Plan, overtime and holiday pay, and universal public medicare.
-The same is true for laws promoting health and safety in the
workplace, including the right to refuse dangerous work. Laws to
protect people against harassment and discrimination, maternity and
parental leaves, student loans and, most recently, protection against
bankruptcy - all won through the political action of a united labour
movement.
-We have changed our society and our country for the better. Our
workplaces are safer. Our families are healthier. Our incomes are more
secure. Canadians enjoy a quality of life and an equality of
citizenship that is admired the world over.
-Although we have gained much there is much more left to do and we must
stay vigilant to defend what we have gained. We know there are those
with power and influence who want to turn back the clock and remove all
of the gains that the Canadian labour movement has made.
In the last year,
• We have seen the Harper Government put the
brakes on the birth of a National Child Care and Early Learning Program
only to be replace it with a so-called “Universal Child Care
Plan” that provides a child care allowance and little else. It
was especially disappointing for the PEI Federation of Labour to see
Premier Binns be one of the few Premiers to actually come out in
support of this major step backwards for Canadian families.
• We have seen one of Canada’s greatest
assets our Public Health Care System under increasing attack from those
whose main goal is to profit off our illness and move our health
care system to one based on ability to pay rather than need.
• And we have seen Atlantic Canada’s
business elite meet in Saint John to discuss their goal of creating an
integrated cross-border economic region, to be called Atlantica. In
order to reach this the proponents of Atlantica wish to remove or limit
the things that they feel are barriers to business and trade i.e.
social programs such as EI, minimum wage regulations and other labour
standards, public services, public health care, and the right to
unionize among others.
-So as we reflect on what we have accomplished in the past this Labour
Day, we must also look to and plan for what we must do to insure a
future we can be proud of. In order to do this, we must again remind
our elected officials that they work for us and that:
• Working people need access to quality,
universal, and affordable child care and early learning for our kids.
• We need them to be concentrating our health
care resources on strengthening and expanding our public health care
system not wasting them on public-private partnerships and contracting
out which have been shown in study after study to cost more in the long
run, and lead to a decline in the standard of health care.
• And when they go to negotiate trade deals that
the social programs, the labour standards, the occupational health and
safety legislation, and the public services that unions have worked so
hard to create are not sacrificed in the name of corporate greed.
-In the end, as working people we need to reassert the power we have as
citizens by making sure the issues that concern us are vote-determining
and making sure that we vote for those candidates who will champion
those issues. We do have the power to make our elected officials hear
us. Now more than ever, it is time that we used that power.
-Finally, I would also like to remind all Islanders that the PEI
Federation of Labour would like to invite you to come celebrate Labour
Day with us at our Seventh Annual Picnic on Monday September 4th
between 4-6 pm at Victoria Park, Charlottetown. There will be prizes,
hot dogs, corn, children’s games, and entertainment.
PRESS
RELEASE MAIN
ANY
CONSTRUCTIVE
COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS,
OR ERRORS CLICK ON THE MAILBOX.
