When COVID-19 abates, there will be a great struggle over what policies and ideas take centre-stage. The public is certainly grateful to frontline workers right now – whether they are cleaners, couriers, medical dispatchers, postal workers, health care workers, or others on the frontlines. We must leverage this support to demand policies from governments that will actually help our society and working people.
We need to push for things like postal banking, an electric fleet at Canada Post, check-ins for seniors and living wages for all. There will be enormous pressure to return to the same dysfunctional policies as before to pay for the costs of COVID-19 and our country’s recovery: austerity, attacks on workers, the poor, and the earth, the push for smaller government, tax cuts for the rich, and dividing workers power by isolating us through working from home initiatives.
This is why, we are excited to announce that CUPW is a supporting partner in the launch of the Principles for a Just Recovery.
The principles are:
- Put people’s health and wellbeing first, no exceptions;
- Strengthen the social safety net and provide relief directly to people;
- Prioritize the needs of workers and communities;