CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT: April 2016 by Barb Abrams.
On February 29th, we had (35) more new retirees come out of the plant. Roger and I always come and meet with the new retirees and let them know what is offered to them as a retiree and what activities are available. A lot of our activities need more people. We encourage them to participate in the hall and as always we need more bartenders. We will have a smart serve course for those who are interested. We do ask those who have taken the smart serve to please work on the bar. Many of us are doing double duty.
On the day that these new retirees came out there was a rally in Hamilton in support of the fired CHCH workers. I received a call from Laurian Sabourin who had worked with CHCH since 1988. She was one that was fired. We talked for about half an hour and told me that they were not getting any severance or anything. Shameful. Thanks to all who attended this rally. I know that some from the local went but should have been more support at the rally even from the public. I will not watch CHCH any more as all you are doing is putting their rates up which means more money in their pockets. Since CHCH is Unifor, I did ask at our executive board meeting last week in Toronto and I was told that, it was a good question but did not get any answer.
I was planning on having a member of the Fraud Department here at our meeting. If they come, the meeting has to be opened up to the public and the meeting would be 1-2 hours. The police would issue a public notice and I did not feel that this membership would be in favour of opening our meeting up to the public. They will be having meetings on “Scams and Elder Abuse” on March 29th in Port Dalhousie at the “Older Adult Centre”, the old Firehall 19 on Brock Street at 1:00 p.m. There will be a luncheon at this meeting at 12:30 p.m. If you are interested in attending the luncheon, there will be a cost and you have to let them know ahead of time.
Other meetings will be held April 4th at 4:00 p.m. in Niagara-on-the-Lake at St. Mark’s Church, Addison Hall, and on April 19th at the Salvation Army at 400 Niagara Street from 1-2:00 p.m. If the membership would like a special meeting on a different day, I will gladly arrange one for us if the hall would be available.
There will be a meeting in London with the leadership from the Detroit 3 planning committees. We have had a number of discussions on future activities, as well as co-ordinating events, considering that Unifor will be going into 2016 bargaining with the Detroit 3.
On Monday, March 21st at 6:30 p.m. at St. Catharines City Council, Bruce Allen will be presenting a resolution on TPP. Please plan to attend if you can. Bruce presented this last week at Niagara Falls Council.
Please sign the cards in Support of a stronger public health care and leave them on the tables and I will pick them up and have them sent out.
On behalf of the “Retired Workers Executive”, I would like to wish everyone a “Happy Easter”.