Wednesday, September 06, 2006
12 Critical Months
Earning a living.
That shouldn’t be too much to ask in a society as affluent as ours, but thousands of Ontario workers are in the fight of their lives – just to earn a living.
We have a jobs crisis here in Ontario. Since June 2004 this province has lost more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs. This means 100,000 workers have lost their livelihoods and communities that once thrived are barely surviving.
Hard hit are the manufacturing jobs in our resource-based economy. When a plant or a mill closes in a one-industry town the whole community is shattered. Families move away in search of work, students can’t afford tuition for universities or colleges – opportunities dry up and the future is uncertain.
After the loss of 100,000 jobs the government of the day, the McGuinty Liberals at Queen’s Park are missing in action.
We need to protect the future of young people and communities across this province and build a sustainable economy. This cannot wait; we must have a job protection and growth strategy in this province.
When a plant closes the effects are felt immediately but there are thousands of other Ontario workers whose jobs and the services they deliver are at risk today and every day – year after year. The threat to these workers is the unrelenting push for privatization by the Ontario government.
The people who deliver our public services are constantly fighting for their jobs as government continues to cut services and programs, contract out public services to profit-seeking corporations, and chronically understaff and underfund the delivery of services province-wide.
Often the first step on the privatization agenda is to enter into public-private partnerships where large for-profit companies are invited in to bid against local non-profit agencies and service providers.
Business exists to turn a profit. Governments are mandated to be guardians of our citizens – all of them. It is the duty of governments to preserve and protect the public services we all need. Privatization means fewer services for working families, the most vulnerable – the sick, elderly, children and the poor – will suffer most.
The Ontario Federation of Labour is campaigning against privatization wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head. People need high quality services. They don’t need a two-tier health care system where you get quality health care only if you can afford to pay extra.
The fight for jobs will continue. We must be vigilant and fight back when government decisions threaten the livelihood of working families and whole communities. The untiring ingenuity of the entire labour movement will be needed to find, time and again, new tactics to fight privatization and prevent the erosion of the public services we all need and the senseless job losses by the workers who deliver those services.
With one in ten manufacturing jobs wiped out in the last two years and the unprecedented push to have taxpayers dollars go to profit-seeking corporations it's time for a full public debate of the McGuinty government's policies and actions.
Over the next 12 months let’s have a real debate about job loss and privatization schemes and carry the debate into the scheduled provincial election next October.
Earning a living.
That shouldn’t be too much to ask in a society as affluent as ours, but thousands of Ontario workers are in the fight of their lives – just to earn a living.
We have a jobs crisis here in Ontario. Since June 2004 this province has lost more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs. This means 100,000 workers have lost their livelihoods and communities that once thrived are barely surviving.
Hard hit are the manufacturing jobs in our resource-based economy. When a plant or a mill closes in a one-industry town the whole community is shattered. Families move away in search of work, students can’t afford tuition for universities or colleges – opportunities dry up and the future is uncertain.
After the loss of 100,000 jobs the government of the day, the McGuinty Liberals at Queen’s Park are missing in action.
We need to protect the future of young people and communities across this province and build a sustainable economy. This cannot wait; we must have a job protection and growth strategy in this province.
When a plant closes the effects are felt immediately but there are thousands of other Ontario workers whose jobs and the services they deliver are at risk today and every day – year after year. The threat to these workers is the unrelenting push for privatization by the Ontario government.
The people who deliver our public services are constantly fighting for their jobs as government continues to cut services and programs, contract out public services to profit-seeking corporations, and chronically understaff and underfund the delivery of services province-wide.
Often the first step on the privatization agenda is to enter into public-private partnerships where large for-profit companies are invited in to bid against local non-profit agencies and service providers.
Business exists to turn a profit. Governments are mandated to be guardians of our citizens – all of them. It is the duty of governments to preserve and protect the public services we all need. Privatization means fewer services for working families, the most vulnerable – the sick, elderly, children and the poor – will suffer most.
The Ontario Federation of Labour is campaigning against privatization wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head. People need high quality services. They don’t need a two-tier health care system where you get quality health care only if you can afford to pay extra.
The fight for jobs will continue. We must be vigilant and fight back when government decisions threaten the livelihood of working families and whole communities. The untiring ingenuity of the entire labour movement will be needed to find, time and again, new tactics to fight privatization and prevent the erosion of the public services we all need and the senseless job losses by the workers who deliver those services.
With one in ten manufacturing jobs wiped out in the last two years and the unprecedented push to have taxpayers dollars go to profit-seeking corporations it's time for a full public debate of the McGuinty government's policies and actions.
Over the next 12 months let’s have a real debate about job loss and privatization schemes and carry the debate into the scheduled provincial election next October.
