Annette Toth, President of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, has issued the following statement regarding the federal government’s proposed amendments to the Canada Labour Code:
Our national union stands alongside the Canadian labour movement from coast-to-coast to condemn this attack on the fundamental right of workers to stand up for better conditions.
The Carney government may be hiding these changes using worker-friendly buzzwords, but the flowery language cannot disguise the clear and apparent curtailing of a worker’s right to strike. This legislation is the selling out of our Canadian rights and freedoms to big American corporations at the direct expense of working people across our country.
These changes will suppress wages for workers at a time when cost-of-living is already a crisis, lower the standards of working conditions, and put the health and safety of workers at risk.
We cannot give up a single centimetre of space on our absolute right to strike in Canada, a right that is as Canadian as maple syrup and universal health care. If we give a centimetre every time they come for our hard-fought rights, we will look back one day at the kilometres of progress lost.
When workers go on strike, they’re not just doing it for themselves. They are sending a message to government and the public that workers everywhere deserve good working conditions and to receive fair compensation that matches the importance of their work and allows them to take care of their families. By suppressing the right to strike, it weakens workers’ ability to bargain strong collective agreements.
These proposed changes are a direct attack on working Canadians. It is not the Elbows Up mentality that Prime Minister Carney has championed. It is the equivalent of taking away protective equipment from the players.
Our union is calling on Prime Minister Carney and the federal government to take these proposed anti-Canadian changes off the table entirely. We are also calling on every Member of Parliament who believes in the fundamental rights and freedoms of Canadians to speak up and demand that this government be one that works towards enshrining our rights as workers, not one that crushes them.
