Fair is Fair Bus Tour

Fair is Fair!
Watch for the big green Fairness Express Bus in a community near you!

Come out and ride the Fairness Express!!!
First stop: Dartmouth Holiday Inn, Saturday, Sept. 14
11:30 A.M.
National Union (NUPGE) Launches “Fairness Express” Bus Tour To Combat Growing Wage Gaps

The Fairness Express will be visiting:

• Holiday Inn Harbourview in Dartmouth, on Saturday, Sept. 14 – starting at 11:30 a.m.
• Yarmouth International Air Show, on Sunday, Sept. 15
• Halifax’s Spring Garden Road on Monday, Sept. 16
• Loyalist Country Inn in Summerside, PEI on Monday evening, Sept. 16
• Queens County Fair in Caledonia on Wednesday, Sept. 18

We’re calling it “The Fairness Express” and it’s coming soon to your community. It’s a rolling roadshow of public service employees from all four Atlantic provinces (who are members NUPGE through their memberships in the local unions NAPE, NBU, NSGEU, and PEIUPSE) who are committed to turning the tide against growing inequality.
This definitely isn’t your typical union rally. Wherever you find our big green bus, you will find a BBQ, popcorn, cotton candy and games as we roll out our campaign across the Maritimes. It’s a celebration of the good we can do when we together the good for ourselves, our families, our communities, and our country.

As public service workers, we know firsthand that growing income inequality is ravaging our communities. People have to work more and go deeper in debt just to tread water, and more and more are falling through the cracks, coming to us for the help and support that we are struggling to provide in this era of tax cuts, privatization, and public service rollbacks.

Income inequality is on the rise in Canada, but it’s not on our governments’ agendas. The Fairness Express is meant to change that. So this fall, we’re hitting the highways and biways to spark conversations about the growing inequality between those who have money and power and the rest of us who don’t.

As we travel from community to community, we’ll be gathering and publicizing stories from people about how income inequality is hurting their lives and their families. We’ll also be reminding people that growing income inequality is not inevitable. It doesn’t have to be this way. As trade unionists who belong to democratic organizations that empower members to stand up for what they believe, we’ll be encouraging everybody we meet to demand that their politicians begin to deal with this issue in a meaningful way.

We’ll listen to people’s suggestions about how this can best be done, and explain our own four point plan:

• Ensure Tax Fairness: Ensure corporations and the wealthy are paying their fair share and tha those with too little aren’t overburdened.Strengthen Public Services: Public education, public health care, and public social services. Ensure that everybody has an equal shot at a prosperous and productive life.
• Create a Modern Industrial Strategy: For too long, our politicians have focussed on growing our economy through race to the bottom trade deals and the simple extraction and export of our natural resources. It’s time to build industries and economies that put people and nature first.
• Protect Labour Rights: Unions ensure decent wages, safe workplaces, and secure livelihoods. They also foster the greater good, leading the charge for things like Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, and respect for the basic human rights of women, minorities, people who are gay, lesbian, or transgendered, and people with disabilities.

The tour launches on Saturday, Sept. 14 with the big green Fairness Express Bus!

• Join us at the Holiday Inn Harbourview in Dartmouth on Saturday, Sept. 14.
• On Sunday, Sept 15, we’ll be at the air show at the Yarmouth International Airport.
• Through the day on Monday, Sept. 16, we’ll be near Spring Garden Road in Halifax where we’re sponsoring the 2:30 pm screening of some fantastic short documentaries at the Atlantic Film Festival.
• On the evening of Monday, Sept. 16, we’ll be at the Loyalist Country Inn in Summerside, PEI, to take part in the Health Accord Town Hall being organized by our brothers and sisters in the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
• On Wednesday, Sept. 18, we’ll be at the Queens County Fair in Caledonia.

For more information, visit the Fairness Express webpage hosted by NUPGE by clicking here. You can also call the NSGEU at 424-4063, or toll free at 1-877-556-7438 or by email at inquiry@nsgeu.ca.