Publications

A fact sheet on the track record and campaign promises of the four major federal parties on anti-racism measures.

A fact sheet on the track record and campaign promises of the four major federal parties regarding the rights for people with disabilities.

A fact sheet on the track record and campaign promises of the four major federal parties on immigrant and refugee rights.

A fact sheet on the track record and campaign promises of our four main federal parties regarding LGBTQI2S Rights.

A fact sheet our four main federal parties' track record and campaign promises regarding Electoral Reform.

This report outlines the work of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) for 2018.

Labour Rights – Track Record & Campaign Promises fact sheet.

Privatization – Track Record & Key Issues fact sheet.

Track record and campaign promises about Women's Rights by all four major federal parties.

The track record and campaign promises about Pharmacare for all four major federal parties.

There are fears that the federal government's Social Finance Fund will be used to subsidize privatization schemes like Social Impact Bonds. This letter from NUPGE President Larry Brown to Jean-Yves Duclos, the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development asks the Minister to respond to comments that appear to originate with federal officials in recent media reports on the Social Finance Fund.

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.

The Labour Movement after Fraser is a report of a seminar held May 30, 2011 on the Supreme Court of Canada decision on AG of Ontario v. Fraser.

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.  

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.  

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

NUPGE's submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce on the problems with the proposed legislation to set up the Canada Infrastructure Bank in Division 18 of Bill C-44, the 2017 budget implementation bill.

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

The 2015 Federal Election Voting Guide.

This is a guide to aid NUPGE Components in negotiating fair and reasonable Essential Services language in the event of a labour disputre.

Volume 2 of Unions Matter:A Reader contains the next 25 very good reasons that unions matter.  This volume contains quips, quotes and poems from people like Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Jay Leno.

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.

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.

Why don't we have a national home care program yet?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This publication provides a summary of cases before the courts that challenge labour laws on the basis that they violate Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  It provides summaries of some 27 Charter challenges and is divided into three sections: challenges heard by the Supreme Court of Canada and decisions are pending; current challenges before the Courts; and, challenges where a final decision has been rendered in the last two years, either by the Supreme Court of Canada, or a lower Court and the decision was not appealed.

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.

Our Medicare is the triumph of values and economics.  It provides all Canadians with equal access to care on the basis of need, not wealth, privilege or status.  A large majority of Canadians are highly satisfied with the quality and standard of care Medicare gives them. Over the last 40 years our Medicare has served us very well. Our Medicare is worth celebrating and defending.  But more than that, our Medicare is, quite simply, a good and sensible idea that works.  But there is room for improvement. It is up to us to press for and win those improvements and still stay true to the idea and ideals of a universal, public health care system.

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.
 

In 2014 the federal Health Accord regarding the funding of the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) and, by extension, the Canada Social Transfer (CST), came up for renegotiation.  Unfortunately, many of our politicians and business leaders want to cut these transfers and cut those services.  We have had decades of tax cuts, tax breaks, deregulation, privatization and it brought our economy and our nation to the brink. Cuts to these transfers mean longer waiting times, larger caseloads in social services, higher tuition fees and poorer public services overall.  For workers, cuts in transfers mean layoffs and working longer and harder to keep up with the needs of the public they serve.  We need to work together to force them to put people before tax cuts and excessive corporate profits. We need to invest more money to keep that most prized jewel of Canadians-Medicare-strong.

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.

There are creative ideas and policies that can make the international financial system more secure AND pay for public services AND fight climate change-abroad and at home! The Robin Hood Tax is a proposal for a tiny tax (as low as 0.05%) on trades in stocks, bonds,
currencies, "derivatives" and other financial products. It would NOT affect ordinary consumers. It also could generate billions internationally to fight global poverty, and fund global public goods, such as health care, and to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

A tax on financial transactions could also play a role in creating greater stability of the financial system by reducing risky short-term speculation that is fueled by greed and which was a major cause of the current economic crisis.  Banks and financial institutions benefited for decades from the absence of meaningful regulation. This absence of regulation and their unbridled greed are largely responsible for the recent economic crisis. It is time for them to pay their fair share.

This is a pamphlet summarizing NUPGE's research paper and counters the corporate myths behind 'right to work' legislation.  It concludes the 'right to work laws only create more income inequality, not more jobs.

This pamphlet, published under the auspices of the National Union's Action on Retirees' Concerns (NUARC) Committee, offers a realistic, affordable and effective plan to rebuild and reform Canada's pension system.

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.

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.