Dear Sisters and Brothers

please join us for a solidarity picket for locked out CAW local 27
workers this Saturday at 1100am. Warm drinks and food are always
appreciated as well as financial contributions. We are all affected by
this struggle so please dig deep to help our sisters and brothers to
confront Caterpillar and corporate greed.

Following the picket at 100pm at the CAW local 27 hall there will be a
joint union/community meeting which will include discussion of support
actions for the locked out workers. We welcome your participation and
ideas!

Solidarity
Patti Dalton

Our Regional Vice-President, Sharon DeSouza, has sent this call-out for action around provincial budget cuts. The focus is on post-secondary education.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals have asked Don Drummond, a pro-privatization economist, to conduct a review of public services to see what can be cut. Health care and education will undoubtedly be key components of this review.

Post-secondary students in Ontario already pay the highest tuition in the country. With further cuts to post-secondary education that may come out of this review, tuition rates will be raised even further.

Post-secondary students are already burdened with massive student debt. A survey conducted by Statistics Canada found that 70 per cent of high school graduates who do not pursue post-secondary education stated it was because of the tremendous cost.

On February 1, students across the country will be organizing a national day of action for affordable, high quality, barrier-free, public post-secondary education.

For a complete listing of events happening in Ontario please visit: http://educationisaright.ca/en/section/41#sec-2.1

PSAC is in full support of this National Day of Action.

Education is a right and should not become a privilege that only the wealthy can afford.

PSAC members are encouraged to show their support by attending an action within their communities to ensure that public education is affordable and accessible to all.

In Solidarity,

Sharon DeSousa
REVP Ontario
Public Service Alliance of Canada

To Local 27 of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, 

You are standing against the myth that profits necessarily entail prosperity for all. 

You have been asked to reduce your income by half. You have been asked to give up your pension. You have been asked to ignore cost of living in relation to your income. You have been asked for concession after concession despite Caterpillar’s 20% increase in production and booming profits--$1.141 billion in the third quarter of 2011. 

What Caterpillar will not acknowledge is that you are responsible for its profit. You take materials, and through your skill and ingenuity, you produce engines. Caterpillar tried to replace you and failed—plants they started in the United States after their purchase of the Electro-Motive plant have not been able to meet industry standards. 

We are proud to be part of a community that takes the exploitation of Caterpillar seriously. As workers, we have been moved by the support the labour community and the community of London have demonstrated. Being locked out and walking the picket line isn’t only about protecting 500 well-paying jobs at Electro-Motive or the 12000 jobs that support or rely on the Electro-Motive plant for their security. Your picket line fights the corporate greed of multi-nationals and their shareholders. You fight the growing wage inequality in Canadaand the other parts of the world. 

You are fighting the wealth and the influence of global capitalism, and we fight with you in solidarity.

In solidarity,

Katy Fulfer, President PSAC DCL 610