A year of labour unrest
Posted Sep 4, 2012 07:08:10 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
This year’s Labour Day events in Halifax came as one union remains on strike and others are recounting a year frought with job action and layoffs.
Members of the Nova Scotia Union of Public and Private Employees (NSUPE) had been on strike for 117 days and counting as of Monday.
The maintenance, security and housekeeping staff at Cole Harbour Place make slightly over minimum wage, and are looking for $12 an hour.
“The only thing that frustrates us is that it’s an HRM-owned building, and why isn’t HRM stepping in,” union president John Mason told Global News.
2012 began with Metro Transit workers striking for two months.
That was followed by the NDP government’s deep cuts to education in the provincial budget, which resulted in dozens of layoffs.
“I hope to raise the profile of teachers, and to have the funding restored to education, so that our students get the best possible education,” Shelley Morse, newly elected president of Nova Scotia Teachers Union, told Global News. “If we continue down this road not only will we have a deficit in education, we’ll have a deficit in student learning.”
Between 300 and 400 union members and their families gathered for a Labour Day rally at Victoria Park that included songs, chanting and speeches before a march to the Halifax Common.
During the speeches, Nova Scotia Government Employees Union president Joan Jessome said negotiations between the union and the provincial government had not always been smooth, but that the government has always respected the workers right to strike.
“I’m very thankful, after watching government come after us – the public sector – that we still have that right today,” Jessome told the crowd.
