CUPE, along with other labour unions and women’s organizations, are calling on the Harper government to deliver the “real and measurable results” promised in its address to the United Nations this week.
Canadian women, who were in New York for a meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, are noting the huge gap between the federal government’s words and its actions on delivering equality for women. CUPE has joined other unions and women’s groups in a joint statement exposing the reality gap between the Canadian government’s international rhetoric and its actions here at home.
In its recent federal budget, Harper’s Conservatives did little to address the equality needs of millions of Canadian women. The federal government chose to use surplus to cut taxes, reduce debt and spend on war rather than focus on addressing women’s poverty, the growing wage gender gap, and improving benefits for women under the EI program.