Revealed Sep 02, 2024 • Final up to date Sep 02, 2024 • 3 minute learn
An indication of solidarity on the annual Labour Day parade in Port Elgin on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Scott Dunn/The Solar Occasions/Postmedia Community)
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Union solidarity was expressed by the marching ft of an estimated 1,500 individuals on the annual Labour Day parade in Port Elgin Monday.
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Individuals watched from the sidewalks on essential road beneath sunny skies on a cool, fall-like morning. Many had been household of the estimated two-thirds of parade members who had been native.
“They always have our back,” mentioned Jessica Murphy, of Dobbinton, referring to unions and significantly her Ontario Secondary College Lecturers’ Federation. She’s an schooling assistant at Saugeen District Senior College.
“And our union has actually fought a lot in the last year for us for pay increases and more fairness,” mentioned Murphy, whose husband, Mike Murphy, is within the Boilermakers union and works at Bruce Energy. He needed to work Monday or he’d have been within the parade, she mentioned.
Retired instructional assistant Lynn Sanders, of Southampton, cited wages and higher working circumstances as union advantages, though greater wages aren’t essentially a certainty with union membership, she mentioned. Her husband is a retired unionized tradesman.
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Ready for the annual Labour Day parade in Port Elgin, from the left, Lynn Sanders, Harper Murphy, 11, Holly Murphy, 10, and Jessica Murphy on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Scott Dunn/The Solar Occasions/Postmedia Community)
“I think it keeps things fair,” Sanders mentioned of unions. “The rules are set out. Like you’re hired based on skills. They also encourage further education.”
Howard and Barbara Wrightson of Port Elgin got here down to look at the parade too. Each are retired union members and due to the union, they had been in a position to retire earlier, each agreed.
“It’s a lovely Labour Day morning,” Howard mentioned.
“We’re here to watch the parade because we were union workers,” Barbara mentioned.
Howard retired in 2005 from the nuclear plant the place he labored as a mechanical maintainer, whereas Barbara retired from the workplace at Southampton hospital two years after.
“We wouldn’t have been able to retire,” with out the union’s pensions, he mentioned. “We were not that old.” Barbara, who was a union steward, mentioned unions advocate for future advances for employees and provides employees a say in what that appears like.
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“You may not get it, but you always had to put out what you thought was good for your union people,” she mentioned.
Govt members of the Gray Bruce District Labour Council, who led the parade, greeted every new wave of union members on the finish of the parade. “I love today. Just to see this,” mentioned president Kevin Smith, as a cheer went up for CUPE Native 255 because it handed.
Gray Bruce District Labour Council govt members Dave Trumble, left, and Kevin Smith on the annual Labour Day parade in Port Elgin on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Scott Dunn/The Solar Occasions/Postmedia Community)
He and Dave Trumble, the labour council’s Bruce County vice-president, deliberate to make political remarks later within the afternoon on the Unifor Household Training Centre barbecue, the place everybody was invited.
“Try not to elect a Conservative federal and provincial government,” Smith mentioned. “Take care of our own. It’s pretty sad when we have families that can’t make ends meet and they’re working two and three jobs.”
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Mentioned Trumble, “It’s the old story: Vote like somebody you love depends on it.”
A number of unionized employees labored on the space’s largest employer, Bruce Energy, earlier than the continued Main Part Alternative undertaking started and now there are much more. Six of the eight reactors are being refurbished by way of 2033.
Wanting forward, if the deliberate Bruce C nuclear producing station is authorized, following Bruce A and B, it should signify a brand new, generational alternative for organized labour, Trumble mentioned.
“Let’s face it. It’s all good. How else can you describe it? We’re going to need more electricity. We’re going to make green electricity. We’re going to be employing people for generations . . . to me, I just don’t see a downside.”
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