News, Actions & Events

Re-circulated by the New Westminster & District Labour Council

NWDLC Office Closure

Our office will be closed on Monday, December 20th  and  re-open Tuesday, January 4, 2022.

We wish you all a happy and safe holiday season.

Shared on behalf of the Canadian Labour Congress

We are happy to announce that the Canadian Labour Congress is preparing a new flagship campaign on care work and care jobs.

Despite care being essential, these services are often unavailable, inadequate or unaffordable. Even before COVID-19 exposed the gaps and shortcomings in Canadas’ care systems, we were approaching a crisis point. And with the ongoing pandemic, the climate crisis, an aging population and other challenges, it is even more urgent that we address Canada’s crisis in care. 

At the 2021 CLC Convention, delegates adopted various resolutions and policy paper recommendations prioritizing care work – demanding better wages, safer working conditions, stronger systems of care and laws and policies to support care workers. Clearly, strengthening our care economy and advancing decent work for care workers is a major priority for our movement. As we build this new campaign, we are counting on the active engagement and support of all affiliated unions, federations of labour and labour councils to help make it a success.

The campaign will have a soft launch on December 21, and continue throughout the holiday season. Our goal will be to highlight the paid and unpaid care work that is happening all around us, every day. This work does not stop over the holidays – in fact, for many, it increases during this busy season, when many will be gathering with family, friends and community. 

Care work is vital to the wellbeing of our families, communities, and economy, yet, it continues to be undervalued and widely unrecognized. This campaign seeks to change that by engaging Canadian workers and the broader public to think about care work, who is doing it, how we can support and value care workers, and how we can make concrete improvements to Canada’s care system. 

What do we need from you?

The stories of care workers, caregivers and people who need care will be central to our campaign. We want the public and decision makers to understand why care is important, what care jobs entail, and how investing in care would make a difference for care workers and the people who rely on care. We want to hear stories about all aspects of care work – paid and unpaid, in child care, long term care, health care, home care and other care services for the elderly or people living with disabilities.

Stories may be submitted using this form.

While the campaign will expand in 2022 with further consultation with affiliated unions, we need your immediate help to ensure this campaign has an impact when we do our soft launch on December 21. We are creating three distinct action tools for your members to engage in and urge you to promote these tools with your members: 

Add your voice – Sign up for the care campaign and help us fight for a recovery that ensures care workers have better, safer jobs with fair wages and working conditions.

Send a letter – Send a letter to MPs and urge them to invest in the care systems that support those who need and provide care.

Share on social – Tweet your MP and prime minister on social media using our simple share tool. 

We will forward the links to you to share with you lists and on social media by December 21.

We would like a contact person from affiliated unions and federations of labour to help us shape the campaign in the coming months. Please send names and contact information to politics@clcctc.ca. We will schedule a meeting early in the new year to plan next steps for a campaign that we hope will be flexible, adaptable and effective.

Building an inclusive and equitable recovery means investments in better, safer jobs for care workers and stronger care systems that ensure that all of us have access to quality, public care services.

We look forward to collaborating with you on this important campaign so we can address Canada’s care crisis.

In solidarity,

Bea Bruske

President 

Shared on behalf of the BC Building Trades

On Friday, January 7th, 2022, BC Building Trades Unions will remember the workers who were killed in the Bentall Construction tragedy in 1981. 

We invite you to join us in paying homage to these four workers as well as the over one thousand others who have died in the BC construction industry since then. 

The event will take place at 11:30am. We are hosting an intimate in-person ceremony with the victims’ families and speakers. We encourage members of the community to tune into the livestream broadcast at https://video.ibm.com/channel/6E9YdRqX6fQ or www.bcbuildingtrades.org on January 7th. We welcome you to send a message to the families using the chat feature on the livestream.

In the past some organizations have elected to send a wreath. Should you choose to do this, we will be using Adele-Rae Florists and they will be delivering directly to the site on the day. They can be reached at www.adeleraeflorist.com.

We hope you are able to take time out of your schedule to view the Ceremony and to honour the precious lives lost. If you have any questions, please email:  jlosito@bcbuildingtrades.org

105-3920 Norland Avenue

Burnaby, BC V5G 4K7

Phone: 604-291-9306

www.nwdlc.ca 

Facebook: nwdlc  Twitter: @nwdlc

The NWDLC acknowledges that our office is located on the traditional and unceded territory of Coast Salish Peoples including xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) territories