LONDON Whether its public private sports and entertainment facilities or contracting out waste management, municipal workers must campaign to stop privatization because its bad for workers and for local taxpayers, says Sid Ryan, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario.
Ryan will talk strategy tomorrow (Thursday) morning with about 200 union activists meeting here at the annual CUPE Ontario municipal employees (OMECC) conference.
Even the John Labatt Centre in London, which has been touted as a successful public private partnership (P3) at the municipal level, is now under scrutiny, Ryan said. Taxpayers are forking out $4.5 million a year to service the debt, paying almost half a million in management fees and still most of the profit is going to the private partners.
Thats not building the community, he said. Community building happens when the returns from publicly-funded projects go back into the public purse for reinvestment in services and directly into the community through wages paid to public sector workers.
Conference delegates will also hear from CUPE National President Paul Moist.
- Who:
Sid Ryan, President, CUPE Ontario - What:
Speaking to CUPE Ontario municipal employees conference - When:
9:00 a.m., Thursday, April 7, 2005 - Where:
London Hilton Hotel, 300 King Street
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Sid Ryan, President, CUPE Ontario, 416-209-0066 (cell)
Pat Daley, CUPE Communications, 416-616-6142 (cell)