Rally at Queen’s Park
Against Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) and the Privatization of Public Services
Saturday June 3, 2006
1:00 p.m.
More information on Bus Registration for June 3
EXPOSE AND OPPOSE P3s AND PRIVATE HOSPITALS
The OFL’s campaign to expose and oppose privatization and Public-Private Partnerships has been traveling across the province in April and May conducting workshops for union members and engaging local media in the debate around the issue of building and rebuilding public services.
“The McGuinty government is more than a little touchy on this topic since they campaigned and got elected on a platform of opposition to the former Tory government’s P3 hospitals in Brampton and Ottawa. Once elected, Premier Dalton McGuinty allowed the hospital deals to go ahead,” OFL secretary-treasurer Irene Harris told the Chronicle Journal in Thunder Bay (May 6, 2006) after the Thunder Bay Expose and Oppose workshop.
“Public-Private Partnerships are a way to borrow money for public capital projects without appearing to be spending money and thereby showing a deficit. The problem is that while this looks good on Budget Day, borrowing from the private sector costs more. So the taxpayer – that’s you and I – end up paying much more in the long run,” Harris said.
“P3s are a major mechanism for introducing the private sector into public services, especially sensitive services like health, prisons and education. These deals are bad deals,” said OFL president Wayne Samuelson at the workshop in Kitchener-Waterloo. “It basically comes down to this,” Samuelson told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. “If you have a $1 to spend on health care, we want it to go to services and not to profit margins and fees.”
“People need to hold the government to its pledge to steer clear of Public-Private Partnerships,” Samuelson said.
OFL executive officers Samuelson, Harris and Downey are traveling to London, Kingston, Thunder Bay, Kitchener-Waterloo, Peterborough, Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie during the month of May to meet with local media outlets and municipal officials to share what they know about this very real threat to all of our public services - including education, health care, post offices, water treatment plants, highways and electricity.
SolidarityWORKS! 2006
Union Education and Activism Project
for workers under 30
The Ontario Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress are co-sponsoring the 2006 SolidarityWORKS! Project.
SolidarityWORKS! 2006
Thursday July 6 - Sunday July 16, 2006
Brock University, Lowenberger Residence
St. Catharines, Ontario
Since 1999 the Project has provided a forum for labour and community activists for workers under 30 years of age to receive hands-on training on labour issues such as workers’ rights, human rights, health and safety, education, organizing and mobilizing.
“SolidarityWORKS! training has been designed to give young workers the necessary skills and tools to function effectively as an activist in a union or community setting,” said Terry Downey, OFL executive vice-president in a letter to the OFL’s affiliated unions.
NATIONAL DAY AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA
MAY 17, 2006
This year marks the third annual National Day Against Homophobia. The Day was initiated in 2003 by Québec-based Fondation Émergence. The purpose of this annual event is to raise peoples’ awareness of homophobia’s harmful effects, to provide a positive image of homosexuality and sexual diversity, and to combat exclusion. The Ontario Federation of Labour actively joins with our community partners calling on cities and towns to officially recognize the Day.
The right to dignity, justice, equality and a life free from all forms of discrimination continues to be a major priority for the labour movement. The struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and family recognition has been an essential part of our work in society, in the workplace and in our own unions.
Unions have been proactive in addressing homophobia through collective bargaining language, anti-harassment policies, members’ education and working with our community partners to fight for rights in Parliament and the courts.
Information is available on the following websites: http://www.homophobiaday.org and http://www.rainbowhealth.ca.
Statement by OFL president Wayne Samuelson
