Alma, QC - The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is standing in solidarity with the 780 locked out steelworkers in Alma. CUPE’s National Secretary-Treasurer, Charles Fleury, is in Alma today to hand over $10,000 in financial support to Rio Tinto Alcan workers.
“Governments and private corporations are clearly working hard to take workers’ rights back 50 years. Workers across the board are under attack by the rich and powerful. In the public and private sectors, workers are at risk of losing the basic needs for their family’s financial security, such as wages, job security, and pensions. Workers all around, in the public and private sectors, unionized or not, must stand together to fight against these backward tactics,” said Fleury, who is spending part of the day with members and leaders from Local 9490.
CUPE is in complete support of this battle by workers to limit outsourcing and stop the company from gradually replacing unionized workers with under-paid subcontractors without job security.
The support comes at a crucial time, since the Steelworkers have been locked out for more than a month. “This show of solidarity helps add fuel to the fire! It’s reassuring to see that fighting for good jobs is important to people in all workplaces, in both the public and private sectors,” said Marc Maltais, president of the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9490.
CUPE is Canada’s largest union with over 615,000 members, including 110,000 in Quebec. The USW is the largest private sector union in Quebec with 60,000 members, and a total of 225,000 members across Canada.
For more information, please contact:
Pierre Ducasse, CUPE Communications, 613-852-1494 or pducasse@scfp.ca