Download the first issue of the re-named “OFL Action Report”
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT CHRIS BUCKLEY
Sisters and Brothers,
At our November 2015 Convention, the delegates of the Ontario Federation of Labour elected a new leadership team to pull Ontario’s labour movement together in unprecedented unity and solidarity. The timing couldn’t have been more critical.
The Ontario government is in the throws of a full-scale review of provincial labour laws and Ontario’s persistent gender wage gap.
Workers have a lot on the line.
It has been 20 years since Ontario’s labour laws were re-opened and that was under the nasty Conservative government of Mike Harris, when many of the gains made during the province’s first-ever NDP government were rolled back and plans for pay equity were shelved.
Since then, a steady decline of good jobs has occurred alongside the global erosion of workers’ rights.
A quarter-million jobs have completely vanished from Ontario and fully half of all Ontarians have seen little or no improvement in their incomes, while the top 10 percent are making off like bandits. When I look at the fact that one third of Ontario’s workforce is earning at or near the minimum wage, I feel sick for the future. We cannot sacrifice youth and young families on the altar of deficit reduction and corporate tax giveaways. It is time for a real plan to create meaningful jobs to support current and future workers.
We have to make Ontario a land of opportunity, where every job is a pathway out of poverty.
Our 2015 Biennial Convention gave the OFL new officers and Executive Board an incredible mandate to put a laser focus on changing labour laws in this province for unionized and non-unionized workers, but we can’t do it alone. When we asked you for your support in leading Ontario’s house of labour, we made a pledge to make it our top priority to lead the fight for a united, inclusive and activist labour movement that is the strongest this province has ever seen.
Our decision to re-name the “President’s Report” the “OFL Action Report” is an important start.
We believe that our labour movement transcends the elected leadership. This is a movement of the hard-working women and men who have dedicated themselves to trade union values and to a boarder commitment to equity, social justice and human rights. This report will become a record of our collective work as we strive to bind our movement together in the common struggle to improve the lives of everyone in Ontario.
I know that I speak for Patty Coates, Ahmad Gaied and the OFL staff when I say that there is no greater honour than to serve as the officers and staff of your Ontario Federation of Labour. We are committed to working with each and every affiliate, labour council, member, and community ally to make this province one that we can be proud of. We have had enough of the cuts and inequality. Fighting together, we are going to create the Ontario We Want.
In solidarity,
Chris Buckley
President of the Ontario Federation of Labour
