Home Care Rallies a Success

Today we held a rally in Kitchener and Guelph in front of the MPP offices to raise awareness about the impending Red Cross home care strike and the governments lack of action to address the driving time issue for home care workers.

In Kitchener the local radio station interviewed 2 homecare workers and myself yesterday and carried it on their news broadcasts all day. Also the story was carried today by the Kitchener/Waterloo Record newpaper and CTV. The stories are already on their websites even though CTV has us negotiating with the government instead of Red Cross (but that is somewhat true) and was airing our story on the 6 and 11 o'clock news. The local fm radio station in Guelph also did an interview with us and the local Guelph newspaper came out this afternoon to take pictures and carry the story. All around it was a very sucessful day with lots of media coverage to get the public informed and I'm sure a few Liberals in the area too. 

Thanks to Charlie Renaud for his support in both Kitchener and Guelph and Bill Hulme for his enthusiastic chanting with the members in Kitchener and the coffee i desperately needed and special thanks to Pat Chestang from the National for her work over the weekend to drum up the media and collect the data from the Red Cross members These come right after two sucessful meetings last week with Jim Bradley and Kim Craitor MPPs in the Niagara peninsula and a meeting with Linda Jeffrey in Brampton.

Tomorrow Barrie, Friday, North Bay and the beat goes on.

I will keep you up to date as as much as possible as we go forward on this campaign to win rights for our home care members. 

Your support during the next couple of months as we continue to meet with MPPs and go back to the bargining table imeans a great deal to the members.

Thanks in advance for all your efforts and assistance.  Hopefully, together we can make a difference.

Cathy Carroll
Secretary Treasurer
SEIU Local 1 Canada