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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.

CUPE Local 1190, representing New Brunswick Highway workers, held a news conference today urging the Transportation Minister to overhaul the Department’s snow removal program.

“Last week’s weather bomb gave citizens a clear picture of the current difficulties plaguing the Winter Maintenance Program,” said Andy Hardy, president of Local 1190.

The union identified three major issues that need attention:

• The 11 p.m. – 4 a.m. shutdown Department directive;
• The 7 cm of snow restriction; and
• The uniform salt and sand directive for districts, which fails to take into account provincial weather patterns.

The 11 p.m. – 4 a.m. shutdown directive forces plow operators to stop operations at night. The Department also demands its operators follow the “7 cm of snow” rule: to reduce the overall number of runs, plows can only hit the roads once 7 cm of snow has fallen.

“Our Divisions operate with no spares, and people need to take sleep breaks, so management got creative to mask the holes in what should be a continuous operation,” said Hardy. “However, Mother Nature works 24/7,” he added.

“We call on the Minister Fraser to take the bull by the horns: get rid of these directives that make our roads unsafe. Deal with their root cause: start with hiring one spare per division. This would be a good step to begin reversing the cuts to permanent staff and equipment over the last years,” said Hardy.

Local 1190 estimates that over 80 operator positions and 40 plows have been eliminated since 2011‑2012.

At the conference, CUPE Local 1190 officially relaunched their “Bad Road Hot Line” for tracking road conditions. The public is invited to use the hashtag #badroadsNB to share pictures and driving stories on social media to get heard by politicians.

Hardy was joined by Local 4848, representing CUPE Paramedics, and Local 1253, representing CUPE school bus drivers.

Every new year, the provincial daily L’Acadie Nouvelle publishes a list of the most influential New Brunswickers. This year, CUPE NB President Daniel Légère made the 19^th position, moving up from 22^nd position in 2017. As one of the dominant voices of the labour movement in NB, Brother Légère is the only trade-unionist to figure on this list of NB Francophones “holding an important economic and political power”.

CUPE has earned a lot of media attention this year, particularly on the issues of privatization in healthcare (Sodexo and Medavie), the new legislation on first contract arbitration, pay equity, precarious work and the sale of cannabis.

Link to the Acadie Nouvelle article: www.acadienouvelle.com/actualites/2017/12/30/30-neo-brunswickois-francophones-plus-influents-2/

It’s not always easy to hold a protest at noon on a snowy weekday, but CUPE NB took up the challenge last Monday. On December 11, some 175 people gathered with signs at Prime Minister Brian Gallant’s constituency office in Dieppe on Monday, December 11. All were demonstrating against the Liberal government’s leadership on health care in New Brunswick. CUPE NB stood side by side with community groups, students, seniors and many others to say no to Sodexo and Medavie.

“The privatization of extramural and Tele-Care management at Medavie is as frustrating for citizens as the privatization of food management for cleaning and patient transportation,” said Daniel Légère, President of CUPE NB.

Victor Boudreau, now ex-health minister, explained that privatization would not be a “cost-cutting exercise”. His successor, Benoît Bourque, has not denied this but still refuses to disclose the terms of both contracts to the public.

The province has been negotiating with Sodexo, a for-profit company, since 2014. However, there are rumours that the Sodexo case could be turned due to unforeseen costs.

Medavie Health Services, headquartered in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is scheduled to take over the management of the Extra Mural on January 1, 2017. Medavie has been awarded a 10-year contract without having to switch to through a tendering process or an ordinary tender. The CBC reported that the expected cost of transferring the transactions will be $ 4.4 million for the first year.

Jennifer McKenzie, NB NDP Leader, attended the event. “It’s not just about ending privatization, it’s about reversing it, reversing the damage,” McKenzie said.

Representatives from the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau Brunswick rightly noted that “it was problematic that an insurance company, Medavie Blue Cross, would now get access to thousands of patients’ health files”.

As of today, Medavie and its subsidiaries (including Ambulance NB) have not been subjected to impartial external (rather than internal) performance evaluations of their public-private contracts.

Saint John – Recently, the provincial government has given more attention to intimate partner violence issues. CUPE NB exhorts the government to enact legislation similar to what was done one year ago in Ontario, with Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act passed in 2017.

Amongst many other changes, this law provides ten days of leave, with five days of paid leave, as well as unpaid leave and the opportunity for flexible work arrangements for victims of sexual, as well as domestic violence.

 “We have one local, CUPE Local 846 in Saint John, who just signed a contract which has similar language to what is written in Bill 148, to deal with domestic violence” said Daniel Légère, President of CUPE NB. CUPE Local 846 represents dietary workers at the Ridgewood Addiction Services in South Bay.

“To my knowledge, I do not know of any other workplace in New Brunswick that has this kind of language. This is groundbreaking and I am proud that CUPE got it for those members. CUPE will push to spread this language in other agreements. I seriously urge employers and the government to accept this language in their coming negotiations. This should be the norm, not the exception,” said Légère.

“Government is looking to update the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It’s time we also look to update the Employment Standards Act to help all workers dealing with intimate partner violence, unionized or not,” concluded Légère.