by Peoples Voice Niagara Bureau
* Eleven members of CUPE 1287 at the Lincoln County Human Society are on strike and picketing to fight management’s attempt to bring in two-tier wages with no health care or sick time for new workers. They’ve been working without an agreement for 14 months while the Society reported a surplus in its last disclosure.
* Meat-processor New Food Classic laid off 120 workers from UFCW 175 a year after getting $1 million from the province to move from Alberta. Plant Chair Kate Jones told reporters “We feel like we were duped when we into negotiations... We made a lot of concessions.” The staff representative was left hoping on another buyer, saying “We’re going to know more as we go along”. Fifty-nine of the workers had been recalled from being laid off from the former owner of the plant.
* Twenty OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union) members picketed the provincial government in downtown St. Catharines against the privatization of ServiceOntario. They were followed by an Occupy Niagara protest against corporate tax cuts and austerity measures recommended by the Drummond Report.
* Despite earlier saying that the province’s intervention into the Niagara Health system means the Ombudsman can now investigate complaints into closures of emergency rooms and cuts in services, the Ombudsman has only referred the more than 80 complaints to the provincially-appointed supervisor who has already publicly said he won’t undo cuts.
* The Ft. Erie race track’s more than 300 workers have started a letter-writing campaign against the Drummond Report, which recommends closing the track as an austerity measure, despite the provincial revenue coming from slots at its on-site casino.
* Port Colborne’s food bank ran completely out of food, underscoring how poverty is a bigger problem than charity can solve.
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