Let's talk solutions
May 14, 2009
You just have to look at this website to see that
governments and employers aren’t responding to people’s concerns.
Witness just some of our stories:
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More than 11,000 children and youth in Ontario with at
least one diagnosable mental disorder find themselves on waitlists.
Instead of providing needed funding, the provincial government has
flat-lined core budgets for 14 of the past 16 years.
-
Thousands of laid-off workers are fighting back against
an Employment insurance program that has been slashed to the bone.
-
The cash-rich LCBO has failed to come to terms with its
responsibility to protect and provide good jobs, forcing our members to
take a strike vote to get their attention.
-
Hospitals across the province are reeling under deficits
that will force them to close beds and reduce services.
-
Workload, salary, and academic freedom are the top three
priorities for contract negotiations for college professors. Meanwhile,
college managers continue to stonewall the legitimate rights of
part-time employees to unionize.
-
In the province’s always-overcrowded jails, staff have
been forced to give up their time off this summer. That’s a powderkeg
just waiting to blow.
There is a lot that governments could do to alleviate these
situations. But they seem to be hiding behind the economic recession in
order to make more cuts. They fail to respond to crying needs in our
communities.
So why don’t they respond positively, instead of clinging to
tired holdovers from the past -- cutbacks, deregulation, privatization and
the erosion of full-time jobs – policies that got us into this economic mess
in the first place?
We want answers. It’s our duty to force governments to act
positively. That’s why, in the coming weeks, OPSEU will be sponsoring
“community response” forums in a number of cities across Ontario.
Our objective is to bring the right people together –
government, labour and business -- to discuss positive changes that could
make a real difference.
In a crisis, somebody has to take the lead. Let’s talk
solutions.
In solidarity,
Warren (Smokey) Thomas
President
