CUPE’s National Executive Board met this week and passed a resolution pledging our continued report of the Canadian Labour Congress’s “Made In Canada” campaign, geared towards keeping well-paid manufacturing jobs in Canada. This campaign launched in May, and will enter into phase II on Labour Day.
Our president’s position is clear: “CUPE’s voice belongs with these private sector workers, ” Moist said. “Our parents and grandparents built this country and we need to take it back.”
Canada’s manufacturing sector is in crisis. Since 2002, Canada as a whole has lost more than a quarter million manufacturing jobs, about one in ten positions. These jobs, on average, paid wages of $20.68/hour. Despite a steadily growing workforce, the number of Canadians employed in manufacturing has fallen to its lowest level since January 1998. As a result, Canada’s economy is increasingly focused on the extraction of raw, non-renewable resources and more Canadians must make do with unstable, low paid jobs.
“Politicians at all levels of government must be questioned on their stance when it comes to keeping manufacturing jobs in Canada, and they must be held to account for the jobs lost in their constituencies,” said CUPE National President Paul Moist.