Brandon Clinic workers settle
The 57 members of CUPE Local 2096 have voted to accept an offer from their employer, the Brandon Clinic in Brandon, Manitoba.
The local went on strike February 10 seeking wage parity with support staff providing similar services at the regional health association facilities across Manitoba.
CLC organizes rallies for jobs and EI, March 21
The Canadian Labour Congress is launching its campaign for action on the economic crisis with two rallies, March 21, in Hamilton and Belleville.
The campaign focuses on making changes to the Employment Insurance program that will protect workers during this recession.
Belleville:
DATE: Saturday, March 21, 2009
TIME: 12:00 p.m. ET
LOCATION: Constituency Office of MP Daryl Kramp (Conservative)
Hamilton:
DATE: Saturday, March 21, 2009
TIME: 12:00 p.m. ET
LOCATION: Hamilton Convention Centre
Ontario to exclude home care workers from new labour standard on severance
Dalton McGuinty’s plans to exclude home care workers from a new law that would give many other temporary workers the right to severance and termination pay has Michael Hurley in a rage.
Bill 139 would change the Employment Standards Act to give agency workers termination and severance pay when they lose their jobs. But not home care workers. Clause 74.2 of the Bill explicitly excludes them.
“The ugly truth is that this government relies on the pitiless exploitation of the women who provide home care even as it cuts hospital services,” says Hurley, President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.
OCHU is calling for public hearings on the Bill.
Medicine Hat security guards join CUPE
Security Guards employed by G4S Security Systems in Medicine Hat, Alberta have voted to join CUPE.
The 60 employees provide security services to the Medicine Hat Hospital, college, and other locations. They are also responsible for bylaw enforcement for the City of Medicine Hat.
CUPE signs on to UN complaint over federal pay equity law
CUPE has lent its support to a Public Service Alliance of Canada complaint at the United Nations over the Harper government’s effort to strip federal government workers of their pay equity rights.
The PSAC filed a notice with the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women over the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act which would restrict the scope of pay equity in the federal public sector, and deny women the right to submit pay equity complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
The act is part of the Harper government’s budget-implementing legislation. To add your voice, visit: cupe.ca/action/pay-equity-budget.
BC health care workers rally for living wages on International Women’s Day
BC hospital housekeepers and dietary workers held a rally March 6 to protest low wages and inadequate working conditions and how that affects families, communities and the quality of health care.
Talks between the Hospital Employees’ Union and Compass Group – the U.K. company contracted to provide cleaning and food services in the Provincial Health Services and Vancouver Island health authorities have stalled.
Workers spoke out about the frustrations and stress of huge workloads and low pay.
“They don’t respect us and when we go home we feel so tired,” said one housekeeper. “We don’t get enough pay and we don’t get enough respect.”
HEU is negotiating for 3,500 health care workers employed by Compass Group, Aramark and Sodexo.
Visit www.bclivingwage.org for more information.
CUPE Québec rallies to support emergency dispatchers
More than 300 delegates to CUPE Québec’s convention rallied in front of Québec’s National Assembly this week to support Montréal emergency dispatchers who have been seeking a new contract for six years.
Opposition leader Pauline Marois and labour critic François Rebello added their support. Marois said the dispatchers “deserve respect for the work they do”.
Said the dispatcher’s local president Martin Doyon, “We’re fed up with being told we’re receptionists whose work doesn’t matter – we help save lives.”
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