> Date: Fri, 06 Mar 1998 20:10:09 -0500 > Subject: MAI Targets Women's Jobs -- CUPE > > > NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CANADIAN CORPORATE NEWS > MARCH 6, 1998 > > MAI Targets Women's Jobs and The Services They Depend On > > OTTAWA, ONTARIO--In a statement released for International Women's > Day, the head of Canada's largest union condemned the Multilateral > Agreement on Investment (MAI) as an attack on women and the public > sector. > > "First there was the "war on the deficit". Now there is the MAI. > In both cases, it is women who bear the brunt of the attack," said > Judy Darcy, National President of the Canadian Union of Public > Employees. > > "The MAI targets the public sector in a way that NAFTA never did," > said Darcy. "It will encourage the privatization of existing > public services and make it impossible to create new public > services. And that will hurt women." > > Women depend on the public sector for good jobs that pay decent > wages and offer good benefits. In the last five years, 120,000 > jobs have been lost in the public sector. Last year alone, 12,000 > hospital jobs were cut. > > "It is women who have born the cost of these cuts. It's their jobs > and the services they use that have been cut. And it's women who > are expected to fill in the growing gaps in service, caring for > the young and the ill and the frail," said Darcy. > > "For years, women have been mobilizing in support of a national > child care system, a national pharmacare plan and a national > program for home care. Each of these desperately needed services > would be more difficult to achieve under the MAI," said Darcy. > > "If the MAI had existed forty years ago, the Saskatchewan > government would never have been able to launch medicare," Darcy > added. > > She called on women to make International Women's Day an occasion > to redouble their efforts to stop the MAI. > > "The momentum behind the MAI has begun to falter," said Darcy. "If > we work together, we can stop this trade deal in its tracks. And > wouldn't that be a sweet victory to celebrate on March 8, 1999?" > > The Canadian Union of Public Employees represents 460,000 members > coast to coast to coast, 60 per cent of whom are women.
