“Good job creation in Canada needs Obama-like leadership,” says Canada’s largest private-sector union

Canada’s largest private-sector union is calling on Canadian politicians to follow the example of US President Barack Obama in making the creation of good jobs a top priority.

TORONTO – The national leader of Canada’s largest private-sector union says US President Barack Obama’s September 8 message to the US Congress is just the kind of thinking and leadership working families need in Canada.

“With elections underway in Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, I truly hope every worker in Canada had a chance to hear Barack Obama’s message to Congress and the world on September 8,” says Wayne Hanley, national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada).

“It’s high time for Canada’s political leaders – at every level of government – to start putting the needs of working families first. We need our political leaders to invest in a national direction for the future based on creating good jobs that can support a family and rebuild the middle class,” adds the leader of Canada’s largest private-sector union.

In President Obama’s address to Congress on September 8, he strongly urged the US legislature to pass an Act that will provide the US with a plan for job creation, including a private fund to rebuild public roads and schools, a tax cut for companies that hire workers, and help for the long-term unemployed.

“The wasted economic potential of unemployed Canadians is a national tragedy that weakens our communities and undermines our potential as a country. Rising unemployment rates clearly demonstrate that bending over backwards for bankers and multinational corporations just doesn’t work when it comes to creating the jobs that Canadians need,” says Hanley.

“Canada’s working families need bold political leadership that will restore our confidence in government by getting serious about the unemployment crisis and prioritizing our country’s need to create sustainable good jobs. Canada desperately needs Obama-like leadership – at the national, provincial and municipal levels of government – when it comes to creating the good jobs that we and future generations of Canadians need.”

“But getting the kind of government we need as workers and middle class Canadians starts with us. With a number of provincial elections on the horizon, it is essential for us to mobilize and put our total support behind the candidates and political parties who represent the interests of working families, and who embody the type of leadership we can and must have.”

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada) is Canada's largest private-sector union representing 250,000 workers, primarily in the food, retail and commercial industries. UFCW Canada protects the rights of workers and strengthens the middle class by fighting for workplace fairness, human rights and social justice. For more information about the UFCW Canada effort to protect workers and strengthen the middle class, visit www.ufcw.ca .