Working people under assault
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Updated: September 03, 2009 3:30 PM
Editor: This decade has been unkind to those who toil on a daily basis to make this province work. Pay cheques have shrunk for many people and real earnings have stagnated.
Now, with the most recent economic meltdown, unemployment lines are growing in the province. Despite the stock market’s so-called turn around, and a “jobless recovery,” there is little hope for those living without a pay cheque. The very employment insurance scheme they pay into has been revamped so less than 50 percent get a cheque.
For those who worked their entire life to build British Columbia, the picture couldn’t be worse. Seniors who trusted RRSPs to take care of them have been let down by a deregulated financial system that rewarded criminal behaviour.
Now the Liberals are set to rob us of another $2 billion so they can give huge tax breaks to their friends in industry. Not a penny of the tax increase from HST will go to upgrade health care, open doors for students or deal with the crisis for seniors.
Meanwhile, Premier Gordon Campbell tells the rest of us to earn less, pay more and tighten our belts while he has increased his own pay by $127,000 a year, an increase of 109 percent.
Good pensions, proper help for the unemployed, liveable wages, decent health care and education — none of them came easily. They all required a fight that was started by the people who came before us.
Let’s celebrate those contributions and recommit ourselves to creating a province where dreams are possible, prosperity is shared and hope is the right of all citizens.
Happy Labour Day.
Jim Sinclair, president,
B.C. Federation of Labour
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