Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I'm Sam Hammond, President of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario.
We just finished watching Made in the USA, a great documentary put together by our friends
at OPSEU, highlighting the threat posed by American
style Right to Work laws. Make no mistake, Right to Work will affect
all workers in Ontario, all unions and the middle class.
It is a threat to our very existence, quite frankly, as a society.
What's very interesting is Right to Work does not in any way improve rights
or employment or wages for individuals, union members or anyone in society.
It is a threat that we must take very seriously. In fact, we could face an election here in
Ontario in the spring and we need to work together as members of
the labour movement, as citizens of Canada and here in Ontario
to ensure that this American style threat to our livelihood,
to the livelihoods of our families must not be implemented in Ontario.
I need you to talk to your friends, talk to your family,
talk to anyone who will listen about the value of unions,
about the value of social justice programs, about the value of public sector programs
in our society. It is so vitally important that we work together
to maintain an Ontario where we can thrive and grow together.
I want to end with a quote from Martin Luther King Junior in 1961.
"In our glorious fight for civil rights we must guard against being fooled by false
slogans such as Right to Work. It provides no rights and no work.
Its purpose is to destroy our labour unions and their freedom of collective bargaining.
We demand this fraud be stopped."