Corporate Tax Cuts: Not Wage Cuts, Not Service Cuts

The Ontario Public Services Employees Union has taken the strategic step of campaigning to stop the latest phase-in of the provincial corporate tax cuts.

In the ongoing jobless recovery, Royal Bank of Canada, Rogers, and Imperial Oil don’t need the support; we do.

The impetus for the campaign began when the provincial government announced in the 2010 budget that it was planning on instituting a two-year wage freeze (which translates to a cut if you factor in inflation, which rose 2.4% last year) on government workers.

The province argued the wage freeze was justified because of the provincial deficit.  The government’s argument, however, falls flat when you consider its plan to phase in corporate tax cuts, equates to a loss in government revenue of $2.4 billion a year. Compare that to the $1.8 billion savings made by taking money out of the pockets of Ontario government workers,  like lab technicians and secretaries.

Business often pulls out the dubious-line that tax cuts make us competitive, but Canada already has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world?

Ireland is erupting in protests due to the massive government budget cuts that are a condition for the IMF to bailout the banking industry.   Unions, students, and workers are taking to the streets in Greece and the United Kingdom to stop attempts to gut government programs, like education, and lay off thousands and thousand of workers.

The wave will reach Ontario’s shores, and we will all be affected.

It’s important we work with OPSEU and others to promote a meaningful alternative solution (stop the corporate tax cuts) to the “stop-the-gravy” train mentality that hurts workers and guts public services, like health care and education.   Workers are not the problem.

Check out “Understanding the McGuinty Wage Freeze,” OPSEU’s new video on YouTube!

Join OPSEU’s protests on Dec. 2nd and Dec. 3rd.

Read OPSEU’s brochure on the corporate tax cuts. Contact OPSEU for brochures to distribute.

Let your MPP know what you think.

Check out the Labour Council’s cancel the corporate tax cuts website.