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Saint John – On March 29th, over 200 workers and supporters rallied at the Canadian Red Cross provincial headquarters in Saint John, New Brunswick. CUPE Local 4598, which represents 136 Canadian Red Cross home support workers in NB, are denouncing their employer’s immobility at the bargaining table.

On April 1^st, just after the Easter weekend, the home care employees begin a ninth year without a collective agreement.

“The employer needs to bring real wage increases to the table. If they can’t do that, after nine years, they should admit it to the public,” saidThérèse Duguay, President of the Local 4598.

Duguay has been working for the Red Cross for over 15 years, but only makes $13.65 per hour.

“The Canadian Red Cross has annual operating revenues of over 300 million dollars, yet they can’t find a way to lift their own workers out of poverty?” asked Duguay.

“As stated in Ontario’s “Sunshine List”, Red Cross’s CEO, Conrad Sauvé, made $332,000 this year. Meanwhile, seniors and vulnerable people depend on us, and we can’t make ends meet. No guaranteed hours and a low pay hurts us and our families. It means high worker turnover and dissatisfaction – that hurts everyone,” she added.

“The whole sector of home care in our province is a sad mess. The province needs to step up to make things right for seniors and workers,”said Daniel Légère, President of CUPE NB.  “That why we have started the “Who Cares?” campaign for community care workers, because this government needs to intervene immediately for workers and clients,” added Légère.

At the rally, Daniel Légère reiterated his challenge to all political parties to include fully publicly managed community care services in NB in their electoral platform.

Black History Month Events in NB: Check out the event calendar of PRUDE – Pride of Race, Unity and Dignity through Education https://www.prudeinc.org/black-history-month

Every February, CUPE celebrates Black History Month (also known as African Heritage month) when we pause to reflect on the efforts of the many union activists and community organizers of African descent who lead the fight for inclusive communities and workplaces.

This fight happens every day, as CUPE members bargain for more inclusive and equity-based language in our collective agreements, challenge racism in our governments, workplaces, schools and our communities, and contribute to on-the-ground organizing and mobilizing.

We are grateful to all those who are working to build a non-racist world in our unions, workplaces and communities. Canadian society has seen a lot of progress over the decades, but the realities of differential treatment towards African Canadians continue.

At the global level, the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent is educating people on the history of enslavement, discrimination, bigotry and criminalization. We can all learn from this history as we deal with systemic barriers that continue to confront Black people. The UN General Assembly has proclaimed 2015-2024 the International Decade for People of African Descent to promote and protect their human rights.

At our 2017 National Convention, CUPE delegates passed a Strategic Directions document that commits our union to fight racism and hatred in all its forms and to empower our members to speak and act against discrimination. Delegates also adopted a resolution to pressure governments to eliminate racial profiling, and to publicly oppose any legislation that promotes and supports it. Racial profiling is an invasion of privacy and a form of discrimination, which violates Canadian human rights law.

As a labour union, we are committed to negotiating and enforcing collective agreements that do not tolerate discrimination. We continue to fight against racial harassment in the workplace and work with our allies to pressure governments to adopt employment equity legislation.

CUPE encourages members to celebrate Black History Month and to keep fighting anti-Black racism in their locals, workplaces, schools and communities. Here are some ideas:

Learn

• Order free copies of CUPE’s anti-racism brochure Diversity, our strength and our Black History Month bookmarks from cupe.ca.
• Invite a Black activist or community organizations to speak to your local.
• Ask for CUPE’s Creating Racial Justice workshop, Human Rights workshop and anti-oppression workshops to be delivered to members in your region.

Act

• Celebrate and promote black history month within your local
• Lobby your government for the implementation of legislation that addresses anti-Black racism in your region, including employment equity legislation.
• Support community organizations and movements such as Black Lives Matter and other community organizations that fight against systemic racism and violence.
• Visit blacklivesmatter.ca or follow #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter.

Bargain

• Bargain employment equity language into your collective agreement to help ensure that your workplace represents the diversity of your community.

Stay tuned for CUPE’s new ‘bargaining employment equity’ guide, which will be part of our bargaining equality resource collection.

Interested in learning more about Black History in our province ? A good starting point could be this short book written by W.A. Spray in 1972, titled The Blacks of New Brunswick. This book is available in all provincial libraries.

Tracadie –  CUPE Local 4598, which represents 136 Canadian Red Cross Home support workers in New Brunswick, criticizes their Employer’s inaction when it comes to negotiations.

“On March 31, 2018, it will have been nine years since our collective agreement expired”, says Local 4598 President Thérèse Duguay. Despite the employees’ best efforts, the Red Cross still refuses to negotiate a new contract.

CUPE also criticizes the disintegration of home support services on the following issues:

• The availability of services and the hours for each client.
• Retention, salary ($13.65 per hour) and failure to recruit.
• The inacceptable delays in services.
• The travel policy of 12 ¢ per hour of driving.

“On top of not having guaranteed hours of work, we really earn less than 11$/hr because we have to pay for our own transportation when visiting our clients.  Is the Red Cross asking us to subsidize them?” asks Thérèse Duguay.

“I have never seen an employer do that, to have so little respect towards its employees and its clientele. The Red Cross is one of the worst employers in NB.  The government must intervene immediately to force the Employer to start negotiations,” says Robert LeMoignan, CUPE representative.

The service agreement between the Province and the Red Cross was supposed to guarantee a reasonable level of home care services that would be accountable, efficient and transparent. The last eight years show how this agreement has failed.

“Their work organization is dysfunctional and demonstrates a certain complacency in its management of services, and clients and workers are the one paying the price for this.  Grants and subsidies given by the government don’t trickle down to the front-line workers.” says Robert LeMoignan.

“The solution is to make home care services a public service. Public services respect their duties of being accountable, negotiate reasonably and to deliver results.  It’s time to make home care services a public service for the good of the clients and workers”, says Duguay.

At the press conference, Daniel Légère, CUPE NB President, challenged the current government to immediately raise the salary of community care workers to $15 an hour. He also challenged all political parties to include fully publicly managed community care services in NB in their electoral platform.

CUPE Local 4598 represents 136 Canadian Red Cross home support workers.  They work in Grand-Falls, Edmundston, Campbellton, Bathurst, Tracadie, Miramichi in Richibucto areas.

Fredericton – This week, New Brunswick’s Finance Minister Cathy Rogers tabled her $9.6 billion budget, which contained much needed investments in healthcare, education and community care.

“This is not an austerity budget, it is a normal electoral year budget. Minister Rogers said, “you have to spend money to make money”, and I agree. Our sluggish provincial economy needs to be stimulated, and the best way to do so is through investments in key public-sector services like childcare, education and health,” said Daniel Légère, President of CUPE NB.

The Health Department budget was increased by 3.7 per cent to $2.75 billion. Spending for Education and Early Childhood Development stands at $1.26 billion — up 6.1 per cent. A notable increase was made in community care services, with $12 million invested in special care home employees and home support workers’ wages.

“This $12 million should all go to raise front line wages in home care and community care services. The women working in this sector deserve much more, but this is encouraging. I challenge the government to immediately raise the wages of all workers in community care at $15 an hour,” said Légère.

“And for those care workers driving to meet their clients, it’s time they received mileage compensation that follows the government travel policy. The current “12 cents an hour of travel” in home care is simply not enough,” added Légère.

“As Health and Education Departments have seen their budgets go up beyond inflation, I hope workers will obtain increases in wages. Real wage increases are a priority, because most workers’ pay has not followed cost of living increases of the last 10 years,” concluded Légère.

CUPE NB applauds the provincial government’s investment to enact free childcare for low-income families and raise salaries of early-learning and childcare workers.

“This is a step in the right direction. Low income single-parent families are the ones who will benefit the most,” said Daniel Légère, president of CUPE NB. “More spaces, more accessibility, lifting people out of poverty…This is certainly good news,” said Légère.

However, families with an annual gross income over $37,500 (pre-tax) will not qualify for the Free childcare program. “I am troubled to notice how two parents, with full-time minimum wage jobs, will not qualify for the program,” noted Erin McAllister, NB representative on CUPE’s National Child Care Working Group.

Families earning over $37,500 could, however be eligible for targeted childcare subsidies, following a sliding scale.  Province-wide implementation of this subsidy system is scheduled for March 1, 2019, six months after the coming 2018 provincial election.

“I hope the principle of universality in child care becomes a reality in our province. Universality means everybody has access, regardless of ability to pay, but everybody chips in their measure through a fair progressive taxation system. Unlike sliding scales, it is simpler, it reduces red tape and does not penalize any parents,” said McAllister.

CUPE, anti-poverty activists, professionals and academics recognize how making childcare accessible to all is among the best investment government can make, both socially and economically.

CUPE’s National Child Care Working Group advocates for universal, affordable, not-for-profit, regulated, high quality, unionized child care.