Canadian workers have celebrated their achievements on Labour Day ever since it was declared a national holiday in 1894. The focus of the Canadian Labour Congress this year continues to be on retirement security. Most Canadians cannot save enough to live with dignity in retirement and 60 per cent of workers have no workplace pension at all.
The labour movement, along with retiree and community groups, continues to call on the federal government to legislate modest increases in contributions to the Canadian Pension Plan which will produce thousands of dollars a year in extra benefits for workers when they retire. The CPP is safe, secure and indexed, and its management costs are lower than those charged by the private financial service institutions or RRSPs. The CLC will keep up this fight to improve our CPP.
We should all take a moment on Monday to celebrate our contribution to Canada. Working people, union workers and non-union workers alike, should be proud of the country they have built. And we should remember what sacrifices were made to make this country great and never waiver in our efforts to make improvements to our wages, improvements in our workplace environments and improvements in our society as a whole.
On behalf of the over 4,000 members of the South Okanagan Boundary Labour Council, we wish everyone a very happy Labour Day.
Brent Voss, president
South Okanagan Boundary Labour Council