It’s time we did better in Ontario. Voting for better means voting for the Ontario NDP with Andrea Horwath as Premier and voting out the failed government of Doug Ford and the Ontario Progressive Conservatives (PCs).
Steelworkers are involved in politics because laws and politics have a big impact on our workplaces and our communities.
I am calling on members of our union to get involved and to be sure to vote in the June election. Here’s why.
Steelworkers know we need to bring back good manufacturing jobs in Ontario. We need to develop the value of our natural resources here at home from start to finish. We need a partner in government to do that – someone we can trust. That’s Andrea Horwath and the Ontario NDP.
Andrea and the NDP have an infrastructure program that will create good-paying unionized jobs while adding to our long-term care capacity and tackling the school repair backlog.
Members of our union want to see commitments to use Canadian-produced steel, cement, aluminum and wood in Ontario’s infrastructure projects. Choosing local is good for jobs and the environment, as Canadian-made inputs are greener than materials brought in from elsewhere.
We need to invest in clean, green industries – while insisting on good jobs that are unionized with benefits, pensions and paid sick days.
We need a partner in government that will make it easier for workers to form and join unions.
Unions give workers better wages and a voice at work. Union members strengthen our public services. With good union jobs, workers earn better wages, benefits and pensions. All that contributes to our province’s tax base to fund the quality services that we need starting with health care and education.
We want a government in Ontario that will prioritize social justice and work to end inequality.
Our union is proud to have five Steelworkers in the current NDP Caucus. They ran for the NDP because it’s the only party that truly shares our working-class values: Gilles Bisson (Timmins); Guy Bourgouin (Mushkegowuk–James Bay); Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre); Michael Mantha (Algoma–Manitoulin); Jamie West (Sudbury).
This election is our chance to do all this and more. We can build a better future in Ontario, by electing Andrea Horwath and the NDP.
Ford has failed us in so many ways. His PC government has attacked workers, collective bargaining, health and safety on the job, education, health care and seniors.
Ford and the PCs attacked free collective bargaining with Bill 124, that caps wage increases to 1% in the public sector. It leaves workers’ behind when inflation is at record levels. The USW is part of a union coalition fighting back with a legal challenge to Bill 124, to assert our union and worker rights to bargain freely.
The wage cap bill has led to the short staffing we’re seeing in health care and other sectors. Frontline heroes such as nurses and other health-care workers are leaving the profession! Our own USW members in health care and post-secondary education are actually going backwards on wages when you factor in record inflation rates.
Ford’s PCs failed workers by cancelling the $15 minimum wage and repealing paid sick days as one of his first acts. He rolled back other protections workers had waited over 15 years of Liberal governments to get.
Workers won’t be fooled by Ford’s false reversal on workers, reinstating the $15 minimum wage three years late.
Andrea Horwath and the Ontario NDP have a better plan for workers, promising a $20 minimum wage within a first term. And the NDP will bring in permanent employer-paid sick days, not just three temporary days as the Ford government reluctantly did, under pressure from public health experts.
Ford’s bad decisions bungled Ontario’s pandemic response. As of January, 2022, more than 3,800 seniors in long-term care have died due to COVID-19. The PCs’ response was callous: bringing in a law to protect long-term care businesses from lawsuits from families who lost loved ones. The PCs are too often choosing corporate profits and priorities over people’s needs.
And don’t forget, it was the corporate-friendly Liberals who relaxed Ontario’s long-term-care home inspections in the first place, long before the pandemic.
Andrea Horwath and the NDP will improve long-term care by increasing spaces, reducing wait times and transitioning to a system that removes greedy corporations from the sector so our elderly are safe and dollars are directed to better care, not profits.
The Ontario Liberal Party had their chance. After 15 years of pro-corporate government, facing historically low popular support, they waited until the very end of their term to propose changes that workers needed. This made it easy for Doug Ford and his PC government to roll back labour reforms when they formed government in 2018.
Clearly, the Liberals aren’t the answer. The Liberals directly attacked workers and unions during the last election, in a desperate attempt to stop the NDP.
It didn’t work. The Liberal party has been in a shambles since the last election when they didn’t win enough seats to keep official party status.
For election 2022, what we need is a real plan and hope for a better future. And that’s just what Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is offering.
She’s from Hamilton, a real Steeltown scrapper. She understands the working class and the struggles we face.
In the last election, the Ontario NDP finished second with 40 seats and formed the Official Opposition. That’s a strong position to build from this time, in 2022.
I call on Steelworkers in Ontario to get involved in the election. Volunteer for your local NDP candidate. Get involved in our Steelworkers Vote program. Talk to your family, friends and co-workers about how Andrea Horwath and the Ontario NDP are the better choice. Together, we can do this.
In solidarity and please stay safe,
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