ESSEX, ON – After only three days of negotiations and on the first day of conciliation talks, Essex County Public Library management asked the Ontario Ministry of Labour to start the countdown to a legal lockout or strike as early as June 25, warns the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing 58 library workers.

“Management pulled the trigger and started the possible shutdown of Essex County libraries at the end of the month,” said Lori Wightman, unit chair for CUPE 2974. “We were there to bargain and reach a fair deal so our members can continue to serve the families and children during the busy summer months. Instead of bargaining – management was more interested in dictating terms, and then they called for a ‘no-board’, stopping all bargaining on day one of conciliation.”

“Our library patrons look forward to the summer programs offered at our libraries,” continued Wightman. “With a looming shutdown of the libraries, these popular programs offered to children, teens, adults and families will be severely affected as the workers could be locked out by management. The library board and management will have to explain to the community why they pulled the trigger to shut down libraries instead of working with workers to reach a fair contract.”

In 2015, over 4,000 library patrons attended 226 different summer programs that were offered at 14 library branches around Essex County. Both parties are scheduled for mediation talks on June 22. The workers’ last contract expired on March 31, 2016.

www.cupe.ca

The union representing the Newfoundland and Labrador’s library workers says the latest developments in the Ed Martin severance deal are dramatic proof that closing 54 libraries had no basis in economics. CUPE NL President Wayne Lucas says, “First we learn, that the $1.4 million in severance was more money than the actual savings from the library closures. Then this week we find out from Mr. Martin that the premier himself was directly involved in the deal that saw him leave gracefully, provided government would pay him his severance – even though he wasn’t supposed to get it if he retired voluntarily.”

CUPE Local 2329 President Dawn Lahey says, “I would like the premier, as well as his Education Minister, Dale Kirby, to explain to the communities who will be losing their cherished libraries, as well as the mostly female workforce who will be losing their jobs, how they can now justify these brutal closures.

“Dale Kirby has gone on record as stating that there is not much they can do because the decision to close down 54 libraries was made by the board of directors. As a library worker with 35 years’ experience, I would have to put that right in the Fiction section along with the yarn they are spinning on the Martin severance deal. “The people of Newfoundland and Labrador are simply not buying these falsehoods and misrepresentations any longer. Minister Kirby needs to reverse this decision to close half the province’s libraries,” says Lahey.

www.cupe.ca

National Day of Mourning Statement

April 28, 2016

On this Day of Mourning, let’s make all Canadians safer.

Let’s win a comprehensive ban on asbestos.

On Thursday, April 28, the flag on Parliament Hill will fly at half-mast and people across the country will light candles, don ribbons and remember colleagues, friends and family who have been killed because of workplace-related hazards and incidents.

We can’t bring back those who have died, but we are working hard to make workplaces safer today. That’s why this April 28, Canadian unions are calling for a national ban on asbestos, a known killer that causes disease, suffering and death — all of it preventable.

It is estimated that more than 2,000 people die every year in Canada from diseases caused by exposure to asbestos, like mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. It is the number-one cause of occupational death in Canada and since 1996, asbestos-related diseases have accounted for about a third of the workplace deaths recognized by workers’ compensation boards.

Despite this, imports of items that contain asbestos, like brake pads and cement pipes, are on the rise. The lack of a formal registry of buildings known to contain asbestos also adds to the risk of needless exposure. Plans for new spending on infrastructure at all levels of government make it urgent to put a ban in place now to guarantee those projects are asbestos free.

Unions have already made a difference over the past year by reducing the hazards people face when working in confined spaces. They have fostered workplace protections for victims of domestic violence. Recognizing that not all injuries are physical, unions are also taking on the stigma of mental illness and factoring it into what makes a workplace healthy and safe.

Those unions, through organizations like the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), continue to stand up for the health and safety of everyone who works for a living. They work with employers to improve working conditions. They work with governments to improve workplace health and safety standards and pass laws to punish employers who put lives at risk for their own gain.

Twenty-five years ago, the federal government proclaimed April 28 as the National Day of Mourning for workers injured or killed on the job. This year, Canada can take a giant step forward with a ban on asbestos to make all of our workplaces, homes and public spaces safer and heathier.

Together, let’s work to make it happen.