Hundreds of trade union delegates attending the Ontario Federation of Labour's convention took to the streets during a raging downpour to march on Queen's Park. Our message to the Ford Administration was clear: labour and community allies will fight back against Ford's austerity measures and drastic cuts to our province's health care, education, library and public services.
City Workers from Local 79 and Library Workers from Local 4948 were leafleting together outside City Hall protesting the underfunding of and cuts to public services, including the introduction of staffless libraries. And look who we ran into . . . we were able to bring our message directly to Mayor John Tory. Please support your City and Library workers as they advocate for the public services that our Toronto depends on.
Toronto Public Library Workers were outside the OMERS office bright and early before work today to protest the backroom deals taking place that would drastically affect our ability to have a say in OUR pension. We were leafletting and making our voices heard on behalf of our members.
For CUPE Ontario Members Wanting to Connect with OMERS:
OMERS is the pension plan for almost 125,000 members of CUPE in Ontario. It is our pension plan and plan members have the right to have their concerns heard by OMERS. For members looking to contact OMERS, there are several ways to directly connect.
Member Services can be reached, toll-free at 1-800-387-0813, or by calling 416-369-2444.
OMERS has a Facebook Page which can be found by searching for @OMERSpensionplan in Facebook. By following the page, members can also comment on posts.
OMERS recently launched an Instagram Page which can be found, followed and commented on by searching @WeAreOMERS.
Remember, OMERS only exists because of the hundreds of thousands of workers, many of them CUPE Ontario members, who contribute their hard-earned wages so they can have a decent pension when they retire. It is our plan and our right to give feedback and be heard.
Library Workers attended the demonstration at Doug Ford's constintuency office to demand that he enact the law to protect temp agency workers. We are calling on Ford to sign section 83(4) of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act which will make sure that companies like Fiera Foods are held financially responsible under WSIB for the deaths and injuries of temp agency workes. Five temp agency workers have died on the job at Fiera Foods - with two of them during the Ford administration.
You can help by emailing Ford with the petition at www.15andfairness.org.
Fair labour laws save lives.