The annual Labour Day Picnic at Riverside Park brought local labour groups and supporters together for an afternoon of food, fun and music.
“Every Labour Day we celebrate labour’s efforts in the past year and remember those who have been injured or killed on the job,” said union activist Terry O’Connor. “We are also taking time to celebrate what has been going on in the country, the province and particularly in the city because we’ve had a lot of collective agreements settled in the past year that have advanced workers’ rights particularly around health and safety issues.”
There was music by local artists, Scotty Hertz, Jennis, Laura Bird and Robert Reid as well as face painting and other children’s activities including a chance to explore one of the Guelph Fire Department’s fire trucks.
“We’ll get rid of a couple thousand hotdogs today,” said O’Connor. “There’s also corn and samosas.”
It was an afternoon of family fun but representatives from the various unions reminded picnickers about the serious challenges workers are facing. An issue on many people’s minds was labour law reform as well as efforts by government at all levels to privatize public services.
“I think the whole political agenda is against workers and against unions,” said O’Connor. “They try to beat down wages. Pension plans are disappearing. Benefits are disappearing. There is a lot of part-time work replacing fulltime jobs that people need to raise their families. People are working two or three part-time jobs to get by.”
Picnic organizers, including Guelph and District Labour Council president Janice Folk-Dawson, were happy to see representatives from many unions and social justice groups at the picnic.
“Labour law reform is happening right now and this is a time when all the unions are coming together to make sure we get some labour law reforms that work for all of us not just one particular union,” said Folk-Dawson. “So, we are really pleased to see UNIFOR is in the house, UFCW, the teachers, CUPE – it’s a really good turnout.”
She said a lot of their recent focus is on city hall.
“It looks like our city council is going to do a service review,” said Folk-Dawson. “We are very privileged to have the municipal workers here with us to explain what the service review is, how it is going to impact us and potentially some things we can do to influence the decisions being made.”
Paul Clulow, president of CUPE Local 241 representing Guelph municipal workers urged picnickers to sign a petition urging city council not to privatize municipal waste processing services. He invited everyone to attend a rally at City Hall Monday, Sept. 18 to voice their opposition.
“This is about protecting jobs now and in the future for our children and grandchildren,” said Clulow. “We must preserve public services and protect public service jobs.”
O’Connor said if there was ever a time for organized labour it is now.
“People say unions are outdated but no, they’re not,” said O’Connor. “We know that because look at what happened with minimum wage. We lobbied the government for years and years to increase the minimum wage and now it is going to happen. There is a great poster that says – ‘Do you like your vacation? Do you like your weekends? – Brought to you by organized labour’.”
