Article content material
NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario, Feb. 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Tons of of commerce union and neighborhood members, together with well being care and training staff, joined a rally organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) through the Ontario PC Occasion’s 2024 coverage conference in Niagara Falls on Saturday.
The rally highlighted the Ford authorities’s document of corruption, closures, and cost-of-living disaster, and featured labour and neighborhood audio system from the Niagara Area and throughout Ontario.
Article content material
“If ever there was a ‘best-before’ date for governments, this one is properly previous it,” stated Jackie Taylor, Govt Vice-President of the OFL. “Nearly six years after Ford’s election, life in Ontario is more durable and dearer for staff and their households.”
Rally audio system condemned Ford’s privatization agenda and its devastating influence on public providers, particularly well being care.
“Ford has no thought simply how offended our neighborhood is about his cuts to well being care in Niagara,” stated Heather Kelley, Chairperson of the Save Fort Erie Hospital SOS marketing campaign. “Rural well being care issues, it stands between life and demise. And we’re not backing down until we save our hospital.”
Chris Byford, President of Native 846 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), quoted Nineteenth-century Black American abolitionist and civil rights chief, Frederick Douglass, as he known as on the rally to hitch the motion for a greater Ontario: “‘If there isn’t any wrestle, there isn’t any progress…. Energy concedes nothing with out a demand. It by no means has and it by no means will.’ It received’t be simple to defeat Ford’s agenda, nevertheless it’s well worth the combat.”
Article content material
Private and non-private sector unions alike organized contingents for the rally, and have been joined by a spread of neighborhood campaigns, such because the Niagara Well being Coalition, the Ontario Autism Coalition, and the Ontario Community of Injured Staff Teams.
Ahmad Gaied, OFL Secretary-Treasurer, introduced that the labour motion would host a province-wide day of motion on June 1, 2024 in assist of injured and ailing staff, amongst different initiatives.
“After we combat Ford’s agenda, we do it collectively–with seniors and college students, injured staff and their households, neighborhood members and allies,” stated Gaied. “And we’re simply getting began. In each a part of the province, we have to construct a united motion that wins a greater Ontario for all of us.”
Photographs and movies of the rally can be found on the OFL’s social media.
The Ontario Federation of Labour represents 54 unions and a million staff in Ontario. It’s the largest provincial labour federation in Canada. Go to OFL.ca and observe @OFLabour on Fb, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
For extra data, please contact:
Jenny Sellathurai
Interim Director of Communications
Ontario Federation of Labour
jsellathurai@ofl.ca | 416-894-3456
Share this text in your social community