The second day of CUPE Nova Scotia’s 62nd annual convention opened with a smudging ceremony led by Ty Loppie, Local 1082 member and member of the CUPE Atlantic Maritimes Indigenous Council. On the convention floor, proceedings started with a toast to public water, led by Local 227 workers. The morning brought remarks from CUPE Nova Scotia Division President Alan Linkletter, who took delegates on a whirlwind tour through his first year in the role, celebrating our successful charter challenge which found former Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil’s draconian anti-labour legislation Bill 148 to be unconstitutional. Delegates also heard from CUPE National President Mark Hancock, who encouraged delegates to take heart in how our provincial struggles fit into the national picture. Midday, delegates took to the streets to demonstrate outside of Premier Tim Houston’s speech to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce at the Nova Centre. Hundreds of delegates and CUPE Long-Term … Read more…

ATTENTION STRIKING LONG TERM CARE WORKERS AND ALLIES! This is a super critical time. We’ve been on the picket line for six weeks. We’re continuing to strike AND work, under ESA legislation. We are all tired and government knows this. Tim Houston knows this. MLAs have closed their offices. The PCs are hiding. The provincial government cannot keep ignoring workers. We’ve made our priorities clear. Workers need a living wage. It’s that simple. While our elected representatives close their offices and avoid our calls, and while thousands of workers are on picket lines across Nova Scotia, Premier Houston is delivering a state of the province address at the Halifax Convention Centre on Monday. So while Houston delivers his state of the province address inside, we’ll be outside, making noise about the state of long term care! All striking locals are asked to collapse their picket lines and join us outside … Read more…