BC Liberals must reinvest in environmental standards and enforcement
When I saw the images on TV and the internet of the tailings pond beach at the Mount Polley mine earlier this month my first thought was that there must be some mistake, that things like this don’t happen in BC. How wrong I was—and how wrong the BC Liberal government has been to think […]
Convention to set stage for political action heading into local elections
Welcome to the Convention 2014 edition of the Public Employee. You’ll notice a new look and a new logo for our union as we close the book on our 50th anniversary and begin the second half of CUPE BC’s first century. As a union we’ve experienced tremendous growth over our first 50 years. While that […]
Uniting for fairness: strengthening our union and our movement
These are difficult times for union members in Canada. Over the past several decades, labour leaders and activists in our country have quite rightly pointed to wave after wave of anti-union sentiment and laws in the United States, as things like so-called “right to work” states emerged and resulted in a serious decline in union […]
Business’ group’s claims of over taxation inaccurate, misleading
Note: This column was originally submitted to The Vancouver Sun on November 12, 2013. Nobody is crazy about paying taxes but the Canadian Federation of Independent Business makes more noise about it than most people. Major media in BC give them a regular platform to complain that business property taxes are too high, property taxes […]
Community Social Service Worker Appreciation Day statement
Wednesday, November 6 is Community Social Service (CSS) Worker Appreciation Day, and in addition to showing gratitude to those workers who provide vital services across British Columbia, we should also reflect on how society treats our most vulnerable citizens and their support workers. There are more than 10,000 unionized community-based service workers in BC and […]
Prince George facing challenges and opportunities
Since my election as your president last April, I’ve been trying to spend as much time as I can out on the road across BC meeting members in the communities where they live. Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Prince George, where I met with local presidents and executives from Prince George […]
This Labour Day, let’s reflect on our accomplishments—and work even harder
Let’s face it, for most people in our society, the real meaning of Labour Day has faded over the years. It’s now less about acknowledging the role workers have played in building our society, and more about the last long weekend of summer. As union members and leaders, we have an obligation to the generations […]
