Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Union Rallies To Fight DND’s Plan To Cut Cleaners Who Make $12 An Hour – Opposition MPs Try Unsuccessfully To Get Details About Other Cuts

The Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE) is hoping to bring some heat and light Wednesday on the Defence Department’s decision to cut 60 per cent of the cleaning jobs at CFB Borden.

At the base the contracted-out cleaning services provided by Koprash Inc. will be eliminated by the end of the year, the union says. The loss of the contract will mean 120 cleaners will lose their jobs, effective December 31st. This represents 60% of the cleaning staff on the base, according to UNDE. On average these workers earn $12 per hour; yet, their combined salaries represent a monthly loss to the local economy of over $200,000, the union states in a news release. The union represents the contracted workers.

“This news is devastating. Yet, these workers and their families aren’t the only ones affected,” states Sharon DeSousa, PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for Ontario, said in a statement. “There are hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses that will be affected by the loss of spending power through these layoffs.”

The union is going to try to raise public awareness in the area with a news conference Wednesday at the Angus & Area Chamber of Commerce in Angus.

Recently Defence Watch noted that the Borden cuts would mean that soldiers and base military staff, along with a small cadre of cleaning staff still in the civil service would be required to keep base facilities, from offices to kitchens, clean. “This will mean significant change to work processes and schedules, resulting in reduced services in all areas of our business and potentially cleaning of office and training facilities after hours and/or weekends,” stated the Oct. 15 email to administrative military staff at CFB Borden. Defence Watch obtained the email.

The email pointed out that the government’s decision not to renew the cleaning contract “will have considerable impact on all CFB Borden units and personnel.”

UNDE, which represents the cleaners, says the cutbacks at Borden show that cutting $12 an hour cleaning jobs won’t contribute much to the government-mandated savings that the DND needs. The DND is required to come up with $1.1 billion in savings.

Meanwhile, opposition attempts Tuesday to get more details on DND spending were met by what Canadian Press called “lawyerly objections” from Conservative members of a House of Commons committee.

Government MPs, led by junior defence minister Chris Alexander, tried to limit the scope of questions put to Defence Minister Peter MacKay by New Democrats and Liberals to a table of supplementary budget documents, according to the CP article.

Both opposition parties were stymied in their efforts to find out precisely what is being cut and how the department will meet its budget targets, the article added.

Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: David Pugliese

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