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The BC Liberal government should not be considering discarding any laws that protect working people, CUPE has told a provincial committee reviewing employment standards.

CUPE members from across the country are encouraged to participate in a study on balancing work and family. You can participate by completing a web-based survey that explores the challenges facing our membership as we try to strike a balance between our work lives and our home at a time when there are increasing pressures on both fronts.

What began as strike support became a celebration when CUPE members from as far away as Ottawa, Hamilton and Windsor traveled to Kirkland Lake earlier this month to help CUPE Local 3440 members ensure they had a Christmas to remember.

(Halifax) Contract talks for 3,000 Nova Scotia hospital workers will resume in the New Year, with some slow but steady progress finally being reported.

(Sydney) Municipal workers with the Cape Breton Regional Municipality will be holding an information picket with a seasonal twist, throughout the day tomorrow (Thursday, December 20).

As expected, the Federal Government has earmarked billions of dollars to beef up security in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th. But Canadians need more than just secure borders ’ they also need social security. The Federal Government has chosen to pursue other priorities (including $100 billion in tax cuts) while the social needs of Canadians are once more ignored.

The 2001 federal budget does little to stimulate the economy, keep Canadians working and provide security for the unemployed. The number of jobless Canadians has increased in recent months and economists expect that more jobs will disappear as the current economic downturn results in yet more layoffs. The national unemployment rate increased 0.2% to stand at 7.5% for November 2001, which is the highest jobless rate since mid-1999. Much of the recent job loss has affected full-time workers. The decrease in the numbers of full-time jobs is occurring as less secure part-time jobs are increasing. In fact, Canada has now recorded its second consecutive month of increasing part-time and less full-time work. In real numbers, 45,500 fewer Canadians were working in November 2001 as compared to a month earlier. Security for the estimated 1,186,600 jobless Canadians would result in a major revamping of the Unemployment Insurance program to ensure that the unemployed are entitled to the benefits they have paid for through their UI premiums. Security for the unemployed would also take the form of a comprehensive training leave program. This federal budget does neither.

Air Transat flight attendants with the Airline Division of CUPE have officially opened bargaining for a new collective agreement. Key issues under negotiation will include wages, working conditions and pension benefits.

Montra006c, Monday, December 17, 2001 – Despite promises made by the Montra006c Transition Committee that the quality of nearby services would be protected in the new City of Montra006c, it will not be the case in the Borough of Anjou.

The 2001 budget is hailed as a security budget, but it does very little to secure better quality drinking water and more environmentally friendly ways of dealing with sewage treatment and waste management. Instead, it promises more privatization of infrastructure and municipal services that are being readied for foreign investment by trade deals such as NAFTA and the GATS.