NDP MPP Paul Miller to-day demanded that the Minister of Labour fire the WSIB Chair. “The appalling behaviour of the Chair, spending the Board’s money on a reception at a swanky Ottawa restaurant, shows his blatant disregard for injured workers, many of whom don’t have enough money to buy one drink or one hors d’oeuvres at Hy’s”, said Miller.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton says Dalton McGuinty’s economic policies are failing to protect Ontario’s good paying manufacturing jobs and sentencing more Ontario families to poverty.

The magnitude of the manufacturing jobs crisis was heightened today with the announcement that General Motors is closing its Windsor transmission plant, sending another 1,400 workers on the unemployment lines.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton today introduced a Private Member’s Bill that amends the Ontario Employment Standards Act to expand employer obligations to provide laid-off workers’ with severance pay and make other changes to treat laid-off workers fairly.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton said the McGuinty Liberals are condemning working Ontarians to harassment, intimidation and even termination by voting down his Private Member’s Bill to reintroduce card certification in Ontario.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton today joined with workers trying to unionize their workplaces to call for the immediate reintroduction of card certification in Ontario.

Under card certification, a union can be created without a ratification vote when more than 55 per cent of workers sign a union card. The Harris Conservative government removed card certification in 1995.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton today repeatedly grilled the McGuinty government for its inaction on improving Ontario’s workplace health and safety legislation.

“On this Day of Mourning in memory of workers who have been killed or injured on the job, in a province where there are more than 300 workplace fatalities every year, I simply see no evidence that this government understands the human tragedy of this situation nor feels any urgency to do something about it,” said Hampton.