Publications

NUPGE's updated report on Social Impact Bonds explains how they work and how they will harm public services and increase costs. The report also provides information on research that found that, even if Social Impact Bonds work as claimed, the costs will exceed any possible savings. Updated October 2016.

This six-page pamphlet is for the people we meet during the Fairness Express campaign. In simple but detailed terms, it spells out why tax fairness, quality public services, labour rights, and a modern industrial strategy are all key to reducing income inequality.

The final report of the East Coast portion of the Fairness Express campaign, Income Inequality in Atlantic Canada details some of the many consequences of rising income inequality as discovered by NUPGE activists as they visited more than 30 communities in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Across the region, the activists people concerned about rising income inequality but unsure how it can be reduced, giving the activists a chance to engage in more than 3,000 one-to-one conversations about the ATN analysis.

Privatization is about corporations making a profit from public services. That doesn't change with new forms of privatization. This pamphlet looks at what behind new forms of privatization, what they look like and what we can do to fight them.

Governments across Canada and around the world are using Social Impact Bonds to privatize public services. This report looks at the problems, the costs, and the loss of accountability that come with Social Impact Bonds.

Social Impact Bonds are another way for governments to borrow money without it showing up on the books as debt.  IN the process social services are privatized with investor profits and the new layers of bureaucracy Social Impact Bonds require pushing up costs.  Because the intermediary organizations providing services must make a profit for investors, those most in need will have nowhere to go if it is too difficult or too expensive to help them.

Another pamphlet in the NUPGE series: Smart Money: Consumer self-defense for times like these. Scavengers in the debt crisis exposes the predatory nature of the Pay Day Loan industry in Canada. The piece explains the regulations by province, if any, to ensure readers understand what the companies can charge. The publication also sets out steps Canadians and our government can take to regulate the industry to protect people from outrageous interest and behaviour. The Smart Money series provides straightforward yet critical information on issues like these that families face today — and advice on how the public can fight back.

This paper provides an historical overview the scope of protection of workers' rights provided by Canadian courts in their interpretation of section 2(d) – freedom of association of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This primer counters all the myths surrounding 'Right to Work'' laws. Contrary to what the name suggests, 'Right to Work' laws have nothing to do with the right to paid employment. Instead, what they really do is make it easier for corporations to drive down wages for all workers. That’s why those who’ve seen what they do call them “Right to Work for Less” laws.

This pamphlet provides a summary of a March 2012 International Labour Organization report reviewing the extent of Canada’s compliance to the ILO’s most fundamental Convention – No. 87, Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize.  The report cites over 20 instances where governments across Canada have refused to change labour laws the ILO has ruled in the past to be not in compliance with Convention No. 87.

A sweatshop is a work environment where employees toil for long hours in unsafe conditions for low pay.  Sweatshop conditions are the norm in the apparel industry around the world and exist globally in many sectors.  It doesn't have to be this way.  Around the world, garment workers are organizing in their workplaces and communities to improve working conditions and end sweatshop abuses.  One of the best ways for us to support these workers is to become more conscious of what we buy and how it is made.  Better still we can change how our employers or governments purchase clothes and goods and services to pressure an industry to change. 'No Sweat' purchasing policies restrict a workplace to purchasing uniforms, goods and services that are made in factories that comply with internationally recognized labour standards based on Conventions of the United Nations and the International Labour Organization.  A 'No Sweat' policy says "no" to child labour, forced labour, discrimination, harassment and abuse, and "yes" to fair wages and hours of work as well as workers rights and safe, healthy working conditions.

Federal transfer payments to the provinces, through the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) and the Canada Social Transfer (CST), help fund public Medicare, post-secondary education and other important public services.  These important blocks of funding will be re-negotiated in 2014 by Harper and the Premiers. We need to ensure these transfers are protected and strengthened.  The three fact sheets look at the facts and importance of these transfers for Public Post-Secondary Education, Community-based Social Services and Medicare.

Federal transfer payments to the provinces, through the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) and the Canada Social Transfer (CST), help fund public Medicare, post-secondary education and other important public services.  These important blocks of funding will be re-negotiated in 2014 by Harper and the Premiers. We need to ensure these transfers are protected and strengthened.  The three fact sheets look at the facts and importance of these transfers for Public Post-Secondary Education, Community-based Social Services and Medicare.

Access to the Internet is rapidly becoming a necessity for many in the developed and developing world. In a very real way access to the Internet, in particular the high-speed broadband capability, is becoming yet another defining factor between the world's haves and have-nots.  This digital divide exists both between countries and within a country. It is not only between the have countries of the developed world and the have-nots of the developing world but between rich and poor, urban and rural in Canada.  In addition, some corporations want to create a two-tier Internet that would allow them to slow or even block content that is not in their corporate interests.  This issue is called Network Neutrality the "principle that all Internet traffic be treated equally, regardless of origin, destination, or application type."  This is not an issue solely about corporate profit or the growing power of telecommunications companies - it is also about the rights of citizens to exercise control over one of the greatest innovations in communications history.  Should these companies succeed, it will undermine the Internet's level playing field and will make it much more difficult for the small and independent voice to be heard on the web.

Submission by the National Union to the Parliamentary Committee on the Review of the Progress in Implementing the 2004 Health Accord.  National Union members who work in health care have a wealth of experience and knowledge and an important perspective on the implementation of the 2004 Health Accord. The document presents comments and recommendations in the spirit of helping to improve and expand upon Canada's crown jewel of public programs - Medicare.

A tool to be used during election campaigns asking candidates for public office to pledge to make health care a priority issue.  Candidates declare their support and, if elected, commitment to work for the implementation of three items of a health care agenda:  1) an end to the expansion of private, for profit, health care; 2) improving and expanding Senior Care services; and 3) the establishment of a national PharmaCare program to cover not just catastrophic medications but all medically necessary drugs.

The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) was initiated by the governments of Alberta and British Columbia in April 2006.  An inter-provincial trade agreement designed to "free" trade and commerce between the two provinces. TILMA is clearly of business, by business and for business. " Its sweeping  provisions impact almost everything our governments do, and affect every level of government as well as hospitals and school boards. The two provinces are already talking about expanding the agreement across the country.

Why don't we have a national pharmacare program yet?

Conference Report outlines tricks of privatization industry and tactics to fight back.

"Fighting privatization will not be easy. But as we learned during the International Conference on the New Forms of Privatization, it's a fight that we can and will win," says NUPGE National President James Clancy.

This publication outlines problems contained in the federal Conservative government's new, and far reaching, anti-terrorism bill. Bill C-51 lacks oversight and review mechanisms while giving increased powers to Canada's security agencies. Find out why Bill C-51 is such a dangerous piece of legislation.

A quick review of the kind of government Stephen Harper has given us during his three terms as prime minister of Canada.

A Young Person Graphically Organizes Three Ways Unions Matter, by Nicholas LeBlanc

Louis Fournier. 

1948-2014

A personal remembrance by James Clancy

This pamphlet summaries the NUPGE's webinar series on pensions. There will be 5 webinars: 

• Canada’s retirement system
• Plan funding and the role of the actuary
• Pension investment
• Pension law
• Capital Stewardship

This leaflet stresses the need for a universal early learning and child care program in Canada.  Research shows that access to quality learning and child care enhances children's development in every way — intellectually, physically, emotionally and linguistically. As well, an early learning and child care program creates jobs and economic activiity at the community level as the majority of child care dollars are spent locally and invested in people since the sector is labour intensive.  

Probation and Parole Officers are mandated with protecting the public, rehabilitating the offender and ensuring that justice is served.  They are integral parts of the entire process an offender passes through — from pre-trail to post-sentencing.  All of this would be a tall order under the best circumstances.  Unfortunately, the system in Canada is not operating as well as it should.  

Youth Correctional Professionals juggle the roles of social worker, counselor, educator, advocate, jailer and supervisor.  It is a tough job that is being made more difficult by federal and provincial governments.  Change is needed not just for the workers in the sector but also for the young offenders, their families and for protecting our communities.  

This primer frames labour rights as a critical component of human rights helping to protect and promote the social and economic well-being of the human population.  It examines how the erosion of labour rights weakens democracy and threatens the economic prosperity of a nation.

Are you concerned about the erosion of collective bargaining rights of working people in Canada and committed to reversing this dangerous trend?  If so, then make sure you get the elected leaders in your community to sign the Workers’ Bill of Rights, a pledge affirming that all workers have the right to join a union and bargain collectively.

This educational leaflet is designed to promote and strengthen Women's Committees in unions. This leaflet explains that women's committees are an essential factor in reaching our goal of creating stronger unions by empowering individuals and building solidarity. At the same time, women's committees bring us closer to our shared principles of equality, justice and fairness for all. Find out why every union needs an active women's committee by reading this pamphlet.

In 2013 the National Union's Women's Training Session brought together activists from across the country to discuss two important initiatives:  the Quality of Women's Lives project and the All Together Now! campaign's Women 4 Change.  Throughout the day and half training session, activists heard speakers on life balance/work balance, on the use of social media as well as information on the two initiatives.  During the training session, participants took part in two workshops.  They enthusiastically talked, debated, shared and strategized.  The report of the training session includes a summary of their hard work.

Canadians cherish our universal, public health care system. It provides access to quality life-long health care services for all Canadians, regardless of wealth, social status or other barriers. For the most part, this is true. Sadly, though, there is a hole in Canada’s health care system. For tens of thousands of Canada’s seniors today – and many thousands more in the years ahead – the universality of our health care system ends at the doors of nursing home facilities. Some of these facilities are excellent, serving as a beacon for the care of seniors. Sadly, they seem to be the exception. As a result of government neglect and corporate profit-taking, the needs of many seniors have been swept under the carpet, abandoned and ignored by health care commissions, politicians and policy makers alike. This report details the ongoing crisis in nursing home care across the country and it proposes a series of bold and sweeping reforms to ensure our elderly get the care they need and deserve.

This report outlines the work of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) for 2017.