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“Instead of addressing the issue of low wages and insecure employment, it appears that PC leader Tim Hudak is threatening to make the situation much worse.” - OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas.
Toronto (7 July 2011) - Hospital professionals represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) have targeted the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) pledge to undermine job security through competitions for jobs public sector workers already have.
OPSEU/NUPGE's Hospital Professional Division has posted a YouTube video showing the Tory platform for what it is – a terrible step backwards in workers' rights.
“Increasingly workers are finding out they are being left out of the economic recovery,” says OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas. “Instead of addressing the issue of low wages and insecure employment, it appears that PC leader Tim Hudak is threatening to make the situation much worse.”
Substituting modern health care professionals for displaced farm workers from the dirty thirties, the video reminds viewers of what can happen when government places the interests of Bay Street ahead of Main Street.
“I think most Ontarians oppose the idea of their government deliberately creating a low wage economy in this province,” says Thomas. “By attacking job security and wages in the public sector, they are attacking all workers who are struggling to maintain their standard of living.”
Adjusted for inflation, wages for the middle class have remained stagnant for close to 30 years while the top 20 per cent of Canadians have made considerable gains. Canada’s income gap between rich and poor is among the fastest growing in the developed world.
The video was shot in Port Perry in June.
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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