Countdown to cuts
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Two days in advance of further layoffs in the OPS, members and supporters rallied in front of a downtown hotel where Premier Dalton McGuinty was talking to business leaders about his plan for deep spending cuts.
The rally’s message was clear: create jobs, don’t cut them. When people have decent jobs, they buy the goods and services that businesses make which in turn creates more jobs.
Slashing jobs and services shrinks the economy because people won’t spend when they don’t have money in their pockets.
“Shame on McGuinty for making workers pay the price for something they didn’t cause, the financial crisis and global recession of 2008,” said Rod Bemister, Executive Board Member, Region 5. “Shame on McGuinty for cutting the services that people need in these times of economic uncertainty.”
On November 17, 231 OPSEU members will get layoff notices. This is in addition to the 417 OPSEU members who lost their jobs earlier this year. Vacancies have also been cut, likely in the hundreds. These job cuts are part of the government’s plan to slash the OPS by 5,000 jobs by 2014.
More than 1,000 leaflets were distributed to people going into the hotel to listen to the Premier’s speech. Members leafleted two entrances, including a temporary one that was opened in an attempt to get people by the rally.
The Premier was not seen. He was presumably whisked into the hotel another way, so he could avoid the very people who provide the public services on behalf of his government.
Thanks to the members of the Society of Energy Professionals, ONA, CUPE and the Toronto and York Region Labour Council who came out to the rally to show their support.
