CUPE New Brunswick will launch a provincial campaign to fight budget cuts designed to attack public services and jobs through cuts and privatization.
“Stop gambling away our future!” is the campaign theme. The central campaign image depicts Premier Bernard Lord and Finance Minister Norman Betts as gamblers spinning a wheel of misfortune. The wheel invariably stops on cuts to public services and jobs.
“This budget is a losing ‘Bett’,” says CUPE NB president Susan Barton. “But in placing his budget ‘Betts’, Premier Lord can do much damage to our communities. He calls it social compassion. We call it social destruction.”
“He will cut more than $100 million out of the budget and hundreds of jobs will be destroyed in the process,” she says. “Those jobs mean services for people and make our communities work. They bring needed revenue into our local economies.
The campaign will include a postcard to the premier, ads and a province-wide tour to inform CUPE’s 20,000 New Brunswick members and the public about the campaign.
As the campaign gains momentum, the wheel will appear at summer festivals and other public events and protests, helping to build public awareness.
“This is not a compassionate man. And this is not a compassionate government,” Barton says. “The premier is spinning a wheel of misfortune and wherever it stops New Brunswickers will pay a hefty price in lost services and jobs.”