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"How many court challenges and Supreme Court of Canada decisions will it take for this government to realize that the right to strike is a constitutional right?" asks NSGEU/NUPGE President Joan Jessome.
Halifax (24 April 2015) — Nova Scotia's Liberal government is once again attacking workers’ rights, this time in the university sector. “In the same way that Bills 1 and Bill 37 attacked health care workers’ rights, Bill 100 (the Universities Accountability and Sustainability Act), introduced on April 22, will create a tool to do exactly the same thing to unionized workers throughout the University sector,” said Joan Jessome, President of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU/NUPGE).
Bill 100 gives universities undergoing a "revitalization process" sweeping powers to forbid the signing of any collective agreement, to ban strikes, and to take away the ability of unionized employees to start or continue any grievance that relates in whole or in part to the development of that "revitalization process."
"The McNeil Liberals are once again attacking workers."
“In giving universities these unprecedented powers with this Bill,” said Jessome, “the McNeil Liberals are once again attacking workers, while at the same time, eroding the relative autonomy of our universities. How many court challenges and Supreme Court of Canada decisions will it take for this government to realise that the right to strike is a constitutional right?”
Jessome concluded that, “Bill 100 is a heavy-handed tool being given to the employer while trampling on the rights of workers. What is worse is that this government is trying to sneak this past Nova Scotians. This is a government that has shown once again it has a complete disdain for workers’ rights confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada.”
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The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE