Political Action

PSAC representatives were in Charlottetown this weekend to present its pension petition to Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

For want of a few more pairs of hands, new immigrants to Canada will have to wait longer gain citizenship.

Canada Employment and Immigration Union president Jeannette Meunier-McKay detailed how the departmental spending freeze announced in this years budget will affect immigrants in a presentation to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration

The Federal Budget released by the Harper Government has set a clear direction for balancing the budget within the next five years by targeting the federal public service through austerity measures. The budget freezes federal departmental spending with the goal of reducing the debt on the backs of public service workers.

The government plans to restrain federal program spending overall. It will do this by freezing the total amount that government departments spend on salaries, administration and overhead, and by undertaking an aggressive review of all departmental spending. This is a direct threat to our jobs and the services we deliver.

The fact that Public Sector Pensions were not directly attacked in the budget is our victory and a testament to our ability to work concertedly and in unison.

The Atlantic Region is mobilizing around retirement security. We are organizing town hall meetings and plant gates, and taking advantage of every opportunity to collect signatures for our petition to Prime Minister Harper. Contact your regional office to arrange for a workplace information session. And visit http://www.psac.com/petition-pension/ to sign our on-line petition and get campaign information. 

Over the last few weeks, several locals asked us about the PSAC’s position concerning the sale of NB Power.  

The Regional Offices have received buttons for distribution to locals/members impacted by the Pension Surplus Litigation Trial currently being heard before the Ontario Superior Court; contact the Halifax Regional Office to request your button.

The PSAC will post update during the course of the hearing on a regular basis.  Below the link to the webpage.

http://www.psac.com/issues/campaigns/pensions/info-e.shtml

OTTAWA – “Higher unemployment. Massive loss of full-time jobs. Lower participation rate. Public sector and private sector, there is serious deterioration in the job market,” says Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress about today’s Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey. (See below detailed analysis by the Canadian Labour Congress’ Senior Economist Sylvain Schetagne.) To read the complete text, click here. At the bottom of that html page, you will find an easy to print pdf.