Warning message

Please note that this page is from our archives. There may be more up-to-date content about this topic on our website. Use our search engine to find out.

Edmonton Council to reconsider P3 arena as report calls for public project

Edmonton City Council is taking another look at plans to build a P3 arena after a city staff report recommended against it.

The city had planned to build the Southwest Recreation Centre as a P3.  CUPE Alberta spoke out against the proposal, pointing out the many problems with P3s.

After several months of study, a report to the community services department says much the same thing.

This is great news for our members and all Edmontonians,” said CUPE Local 30 President Dennis Mol.  “No one benefits from a P3 except the big businesses involved”.


Moist to Nova Scotia Division:  privatization wrong answer

Paul Moist spoke to the Nova Scotia Division convention this week before meeting editors at the Halifax Chronicle Herald and doing a media interview with CTV Atlantic.

His message:  “Privatization, in any form is not the answer”.

Delegates talked about confronting privatizers in their communities.

Delegates also watched and applauded a CUPE national-produced video about the domino effects of privatization and the domino effects of solidarity and collective action.

Nova Scotia delegates also heard from locked out Journal de Québec workers. 

Journalist Marc Fortier’s raw emotional presentation brought delegates to tears and to their feet repeatedly.  Fortier characterized the Journal de Québec workers struggle as a “drop of water in a savage sea”.


Kamsack, Saskatchewan seniors’ home to close

CUPE members at Eaglestone Lodge in Kamsack, Saskatchewan were devastated to learn this week that the facility will close in 60 days.

The Lodge’s board told their 32 staff that the personal care home will close in June for financial reasons.  About 36 residents live in the home and another three live in the adjoining suites.

We are going to talk to our MLA and pray for a miracle,” says a shaken Irene Hilton, who has worked as a cook at the facility for eight years.

Many residents sold their homes to move into this facility, thinking it was secure,” Hilton said.  “Now they are going to be scattered all over the place.”

Another CUPE member, Stacy George, recently left another job to work at Eaglestone.
“I was told on Monday I had a permanent, full-time job and on Tuesday I’m told they’re closing.  It’s devastating.”


Nursing shortage solution needs LPNs

If Saskatchewan wants to solve its nursing shortage, CUPE says it needs to bring licensed practical nurses into the picture.

The province met this week with the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses to discuss the shortage of registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses.

But the talks excluded licensed practical nurses, who account for 20% of all nurses in the province.

And though the government passed the LPN Act in 2000 to enable LPNs to work to their full scope of training, a 2006 survey showed only 51% of the LPNs were doing so.


Vancouver blocks e-mail from spammers… and CUPE

It’s been months since his members went back to work but Paul Faoro still can’t send them email.

City of Vancouver management have rigged the city’s email servers so that no employee can send email to or receive email from any address with ‘cupe’ in it.

Faoro, the president of CUPE 15, one of several Vancouver locals that struck last summer, told the Georgia Straight the move is “effectively censorship”.

The newspaper filed an access to information request to find out who was on the city’s blocked list.

CUPE appears in the company of Brazillian “online banking” websites and other notorious spammers.

According to the Straight, “public slap” will also get your message banned from the City of Vancouver if you put it in the subject line.

Any CUPE member can sign up for a free, web-based email account at cupe.ca/signup.


Toronto Sun won’t print Ryan article on Journal de Québec

The long tentacles of the Quebecor “family” reached all the way to Toronto to pull a column by CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan this week.

Ryan, who publishes a regular column in the Toronto Sun, chose this week to write about the lockout at Le Journal de Québec.

But the Toronto Sun - owned by the same company as the Journal - refused to run the column.

Said CUPE Québec’s website:  “it’s particularly scandalous that this censorship is being imposed by an organization that should be fighting tooth and nail for freedom of expression and freedom of information.”


Still time to register for pension trustees meeting

If you are a trustee on a pension plan board of directors, you still have time to register for CUPE’s second pension trustee strategy meeting.

The meeting takes place May 12-14 in Ottawa.

Trustees from across the country will share knowledge and experiences of the many complex issues they face.

They will continue to develop strategies to defend and strengthen our members’ pensions and expand pension coverage to all.

For more information visit:

http://www.cupe.ca/pensions/CUPEs_second_nationa

or email Nancy Parker, nparker@cupe.ca

:te/cope 491