CAW Calls for Renewed National Health Care Accord, in Advance of Thursday Rally in Niagara-on-the-Lake

TORONTO/NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, July 23, 2013 /CNW/ - The CAW is calling on all provincial and territorial premiers to press the federal government to reach a new agreement on health care. The existing health care accord expires in 2014.

CAW President Ken Lewenza raised concerns about the federal government's retreat from supporting universal health care and warns of encroaching privatization, which would see medical care become inaccessible for many Canadians.

"The federal government is bent on a pro-business agenda, at the expense of Canadians and our long cherished universal, public health care system. There is an essential fairness built into our health care system, which I believe reflects the real values of Canadians."

Lewenza will be speaking at the mass rally to be held on Thursday, July 25 at 11:30 a.m. 

The rally, organized by the Ontario Health Coalition and Canadian Health Coalition, will take place at St. Mark's Anglican Church, 41 Byron St. Niagara-on-the-Lake.

If a new agreement is not reached, Lewenza warned, the federal share of funding for health care will decline by $36 billion in coming years. In a further show of ill-will by the government, it has also cut health care for refugees, the RCMP, veterans' long-term care beds, and the Health Council of Canada.

The CAW represents more than 26,000 health care workers from across the country. The CAW will be sending eight buses of local union leaders, activists and retirees from across the province to participate in the rally.

The CAW and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) will be joining together to create a new Canadian union - Unifor, with the goal of ensuring safer workplaces, secure employment and wages and benefits that provide a decent standard of living. Unifor will hold its founding convention over Labour Day weekend, August 30 - September 1, downtown Toronto.

SOURCE: Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW)

For more information, please contact CAW Health Care Director Katha Fortier (cell) 416-799-4679 or CAW Communications Director Shannon Devine (cell) 416-302-1699