Union group is rocking out to get support
Aug 20, 2008 - 09:16 AM
DURHAM -- Rock and roll is helping the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) spread the word about provincial under-funding.
On Aug. 20, CUPE is trying a softer approach to gathering support for its causes with a free April Wine concert at the Ajax Community Centre park at 7 p.m.
On Tuesday, the day before the concert, several CUPE members held a media event at the Ajax Community Centre to discuss some of its provincial concerns and the importance of public services.
“CUPE is there when your first child’s born in the hospital,” said Sid Ryan, CUPE’s Ontario president. From birth, to school and, in some cases, even in the graveyard, CUPE is there.
And the best way to deliver community services is to keep them funded through public dollars, he said, not through private-public partnerships.
“We’re saying to the public get behind your public services,” Mr. Ryan said. The concert is a new, softer way of delivering that message.
Durham is the most underfunded region per capita for health care in the Greater Toronto Area by about $300 million, he said. Education is also being short changed, he added.
“The schools for example, my daughter is being laid off,” Mr. Ryan said. She’s a teacher for the Durham Catholic District School Board which is closing some Oshawa schools this year in light of enrolment decline.
“The cuts to education are affecting my members in several ways and they’re affecting our children in major ways,” said Marion Moore, chairwoman for CUPE Local 218, educational assistants bargaining unit.
Educational assistants are doing more general supervision to address downloading, which equals less time with kids, Ms. Moore said. The workers see what needs doing and how they can help the children, but aren’t being allowed to do their job, she said.
“The government needs to step in and put the money into our future,” Ms. Moore said.
Also attending were CUPE members representing the Rouge Valley Health System to discuss the elimination of 71 positions at the Ajax and Scarborough hospitals.
The free concert will help show people CUPE’s not just about strikes, Mr. Ryan said.
“We’re looking forward to this concert,” he said.
Shuttle buses for the concert will operate from the Village Arena, 100 Church St. N., and from Lakeside Public School, 4 Parkes Dr., at 6:30 and 7 p.m., returning at 10:30 p.m.
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