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Cam Nelson, President of SEIU Local 2 BGPWU welcomes you to our Union & Website
2012 is the 110th year of our Union representing Canadian workers. Not many companies, countries, or Unions survive and prosper for 105 years and more. When our Union began its history in 1902, the Autoworkers Union did not exist in either Canada or the United States and neither did the Teamsters or the Steelworkers. Canada itself was only 35 years old.
Our Union has prospered because throughout its history its leadership has been both tough minded and imaginative and our members have worked together to win the benefits that unionism makes available to working men and women.
In February of 2005, the Executive Board and membership of BGPWU demonstrated that skilled leadership and solidarity when, after an exhaustive process, our Union entered into a ground breaking merger with North America’s largest union – SEIU.
We arrived at this decision after thorough discussions with seven of the strongest and most creative unions in Canada. We chose Service Employees International Union because it offered our Union an unparalleled opportunity to grow while maintaining our present structure, independence, democracy, culture and name.
The motto of the SEIU is “Stronger Together”. We believe that being stronger together is what trade unionism is all about and believe that this merger agreement will do just that – make us stronger.
In the last 20 years, while most North American trade unions have been shrinking in size, the SEIU has more than doubled its membership to 2,100,000, making it the largest and fastest growing Union in the world. Only through sheer size and strength can Unions effectively defend their members against an increasingly hostile, globalized economy and multinational employers.
Since joining with SEIU in 2005 our Local has been the fastest growing Local Union in Canada. We have almost tripled our size – growing from 4,500 members to our current 12,000 members and expanding across Canada. We believe that growth is the single most important goal for the labour movement today and the very best way for Unions to make the lives of their members better.
As we move forward in 2010, we are continuing to grow and build a strong Canadian SEIU Local in the private sector in Canada. Our website is continually updated to keep you informed about the latest news in Local 2 BGPWU and elsewhere in SEIU.
Welcome….
SEIU Local 2 BGPWU Constitution
Letter to the Editor: Union leader accuses OLG of ‘hypocrisy’
Dear Editor, I could not help but shake my head at the irony when I read the recent announcement that Fallsview Casino recently made a $50,000 donation to Niagara College for a new food lab “that will help teaching of large scale, high volume cooking”. Ironically, Fallsview Casino is wholly owned by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp (OLG), the same Crown Corporation responsible for shutting…
Reverse slots decision
Source: windsorstar.com
In announcing their permanent closings, the OLG reported last week that the slots operations at the border racetracks of Fort Erie, Windsor and Sarnia generate a combined revenue stream of more than $100 million per year.
Letter to the Editor that has been run in St. Thomas newspaper and Niagara Bullet News:
“OLG moans: Border Tracks Generate only $100 Million…”
In announcing their permanent closings, the OLG reported that the Slots operations at the border racetracks of Fort Erie, Windsor, and Sarnia generate a combined revenue stream of over $100 million per year. All three Slots facilities proudly deliver enormous revenues to the OLG, each churning multi-million dollar returns annually while simultaneously generating (directly and indirectly) thousands of good-paying jobs in their respective communities.
Slot jobs are completely self-financed by the paying customer happily parting with his/her entertainment dollar on gaming machines. The OLG has lost sight of the main economic and social purpose of the Slots for Tracks programme namely, the successful creation of self-financing, good-paying jobs in local communities, all the while providing the Province with bonus windfall revenues.
So let’s recap – the OLG rolls into these border communities whining it is only pulling down $100 million a year with these three operations and as such, their business plan is to (wait for it): close the doors on April 30th, abandon their lucrative local customer base, and add over 700 more hard-working folks to Ontario’s unemployment lines. With the Slots closed, hundreds more racetrack and other dependant jobs in the community will also disappear. This is the OLG’s grand and socially-responsible business plan for Ontario?
Recently, both the Liberals and the Conservatives have, in one way or another endorsed the OLG’s new direction to privatize Ontario’s gaming operations (sad, but true). In conjunction with same, the lightning-speed decision to close these three slot facilities was obviously predetermined by the OLG long before their “recent” announcement was surprisingly carpet-bombed on these unsuspecting communities (who’s kidding who).
Despite the OLG’s smoke and mirror theatrics, there is still sufficient time to apply the brakes to this out-of-control OLG freight train and give each racetrack a genuine and realistic opportunity to present their business case to run their Slot parlours as a socially-responsible private contractor, thereby preserving thousands of good jobs in these Ontario communities.
SEIU Local 2 is the largest Union in the horse racing industry and as such, we have consistently called for extensive consultation with all industry stakeholders to identify viable economic alternatives before proceeding with this scorched-earth policy regarding the Slots for Tracks programme. In their misguided zeal to now maximize OLG revenues (and its executive bonuses) at the expense of the Crown Corporation’s equally-important social mandate, the OLG no longer cares about maintaining good-paying, self-financing jobs in these hard-hit border towns, even though most folks in Ontario completely disagree with this misguided decision.
In Fort Erie, the community-based, non-profit FELRC has already submitted a serious and legitimate proposition to assume the Slots operation while guaranteeing the OLG a million dollar per year profit (licence fee) without any expenses/risk to the OLG. This innovative business model is being pursued purely in an effort to save the jobs of Fort Erie’s largest employer. Accordingly, the OLG’s political masters need to do the right thing and do it before April 30th. We’re asking readers to please contact Premier McGuinty immediately at dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org and demand the Provincial Government via the OLG grant the FELRC preferred private contractor status. It’s a win-win solution.
Ted Mansell
Executive Vice-President
Service Employees International Union Local 2
cell (905) 941-1229
Queen’s Park Rally held on March 26, 2012.
NDP MP Malcolm Allen and NDP MPP Cindy Forster stand up against Liberals short-sighted plan
Protect Horse Racing
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Your livelihood is under attack, read about SEIU Local 2′s Response to this threat. Queens Park Rally Postponed. You can help by, using this special page to email every member of Provincial Parliament to protest. |
