MESSAGE FROM LABOUR COUNCIL
Communications
City hall victory
Rally in the rain
London calling
HARD WORK PAYS OFF
Months of dedication and hard work paid off this month as City Council voted 23-21 to turn down Rob Ford’s slash-and-burn budget. He suffered a major political defeat as a majority of Council united against his agenda, and reversed just under $20-million of his proposed service cuts.
Those include the closure of three homeless shelters, lowering service standards on dozens of TTC routes this year, a $2.3-million reduction in community grants, cutbacks to library service, and the elimination of free youth programs at priority centres. But while residents celebrated the saving of those programs, city employees are still on the chopping block, with over 1000 positions being cut in this budget. A real disappointment was the loss of a motion to defer contracting out of cleaners by a vote of 20-24.
Those Councillors who had the courage to stand up to the Mayor’s cuts deserve to be congratulated. So too, do activists from the Steelworkers, UNITE HERE and other unions who helped pack the Council Chambers from morning till the last vote at night. Next up is the fight against the sell-off of TCHC homes and Toronto Hydro.
RESPECT IN THE RAIN
Several thousand people answered the call to come to Toronto City Hall on January 17th, despite the cold rainy weather. They heard from people on the front line – shelter worker Bernadette Hood of CUPE 79, library assistant Brian Raymer and solid waste collector Brian Demaraski. CUPE Local 416 was expecting a Ministry of Labour “no-board” report to issue on Thursday, setting the clock ticking towards a potential lockout of their members in early February.
Other voices included Rosie DaSilva of Tenants for Social Housing, Erin George of Mothers for Childcare, and Nigel Bariffe of Stop the Cuts and CORD. The rally turned into a spirited march around city hall, but a small number of protestors got into scuffles with police who had blocked the entrance to bar anyone from getting into the Council chambers.
MASSIVE RALLY AGAINST CORPORATE GREED
With thousands already signed up to board nearly 70 buses to London, and thousands more planning to travel by car, Saturday’s rally against Electro-Motive Canada and its parent company Caterpillar Inc. is expected to be the largest ever to take place in London.
“For workers across the province, this isn’t simply about protecting the jobs of 500 workers, it is about taking a stand against the worst kind of state-sponsored corporate greed,” said CAW President Ken Lewenza. “Prime Minister Harper is spending billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize tax cuts for corporations who are taking our cash ... and our jobs. It is like having our own money used against us.”
Dubbed a “London Day of Action Against Corporate Greed,” the rally to support the members of CAW Local 27 is slated to start at 11:00 am on Saturday, January 21 at Victoria Park in downtown London, Ontario. The park was the site of last year’s Occupy London tent city and serves as a powerful symbolic connection to a movement inspired to defend the interests of “99 percent.” The protest will target Electro-Motive/Caterpillar, which locked-out workers at its London-based diesel train plant on New Year’s Day in an attempt to slash benefits and cut wages in half, after a year in which Caterpillar enjoyed billion dollar profits and a 20 percent boost in productivity.
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