Danny Cavanagh: Actions speak louder than words

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Oh, how we forget. Mr. Erin O’Toole is no friend of workers or families. Now that there is an election, he is pretending he cares about workers’ pensions and other issues to get our votes.

As Dr. Phil would say, the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. Last December, Federal New Democrats presented a package of bills to protect and improve the lives of working people. It was NDP member Scott Duvall who introduced legislation back in December to protect workers’ pensions.

When it was time for O’Toole and the PC Caucus to help workers on pensions and support this Bill, they said no. So, don’t ask workers now for their support when you refused to support them.  Under Duvall’s proposed Bill, workers in a strike or lockout could have seen further guarantees to their rights to collective bargaining.

O’Toole should have stood up for workers and their families to help protect workers’ pensions and benefits they had due to them in retirement.

Again, he failed to step up in December and support similar legislation to protect pensions and stop large corporations from taking money meant for workers to pay shareholders and secure creditors. Duvall’s bill would have made a real difference to protect workers’ pensions and other benefits. It would have forced companies to provide termination and severance pay before secured creditors get paid.

Let’s understand that pensions and benefits earned by workers are deferred wages. When it comes to fairness for workers, the time for Mr. O’Toole to act was back then when his vote would have made a real difference.

Asking for workers’ votes today through promises on the election trail when he passed up the chance to do something authentic last December? Don’t buy into it.

Actions speak louder than words.

Danny Cavanagh is president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour