This past week the Congress of Union Retirees of Canada participated in the Annual Lobby Day organized by the Canadian Labour Congress, we have done it many times before.
About 300 workers, labour leaders and union retiree activists from across the country gathered to meet with elected officials on Parliament Hill. These face-to-face conversations serve as a critical platform for workers to share their personal experiences and advocate for the urgent action needed to address the pressing challenges facing Canadians today.
Workers will advocate, propose solutions, and demand immediate action on three key priorities: making life more affordable, supporting workers, and strengthening Canada’s public health care system.
The rising costs, on everything, has imposed an immense strain on working families. Canada’s unions are urging the federal government to take decisive action to make life more affordable for Canadians.
“This isn’t just an affordability crisis—it’s an inequality crisis. Canadians are being squeezed from every angle, and the government has a responsibility to act now”, said Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress. “Housing, groceries, healthcare—these aren’t luxuries; they are basic human rights. It’s time for bold action to make life affordable and hold corporations accountable for their role in this crisis.”
Canada’s unions are demanding strong government actions that support workers and the economy. This includes expanding EI access, investing in skills training, strengthening the care economy, and improving workplace standards and union access to protect workers’ rights and ensure better working conditions.
Furthermore, Canada’s unions are demanding concrete actions to protect and strengthen our public healthcare system. From coast-to-coast, workers agree that healthcare must remain a universal right, driven by need—not by the ability to pay or private insurance coverage. The growing shift toward privatization threatens equitable access to care. People don’t need less access to care, they need meaningful investments in public healthcare.
“Every day, workers are feeling the pinch of higher costs, a strained and underfunded public health system with an exhausted and overburdened workforce, and inadequate workplace protections. Lobby Day is our opportunity for workers to bring these urgent concerns directly to decision-makers and demand action,” said Bea Bruske. “Canada’s unions are ready to work with the government to find solutions that will improve the lives of millions of Canadians.”
CURC’s opportunity was to meet with the Minister Responsible for Seniors, same scenario, lots of talk about seniors this week, we kept focussed, we have an affordability crisis, and many union retirees and seniors are struggling. With a few minutes left in the meeting the Minister presented a stat, a stat that could suggest that seniors are doing ok, and the Minister knows that since his government adopted a new measurement to identify poverty, we have argued that measurement method is not adequate to address seniors living expenses and income, as it may with other groups of the population. We are widely supported, the two measurements contradict the results. “The discussion will continue.”
CURC will continue planting the seed, educating on the issues of union retirees and seniors, making change.
Read more - https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/december-2023/poverty-seniors-measurement/
Source: https://canadianlabour.ca/