Union slams Service Canada management for ‘incredible, irrational and insensitive’ move to declare Atlantic Canada a unilingual English region

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                      Friday, March 11, 2011

ATTENTION: NEWS EDITORS, POLITICAL REPORTERS

Union slams Service Canada management for ‘incredible, irrational and insensitive’ move to declare Atlantic Canada a unilingual English region

OTTAWA – The union representing Service Canada workers says the move by senior management to declare Atlantic Canada a unilingual administrative region is “incredible, irrational and insensitive”.

Jeannette Meunier-McKay, national president of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU) says the move was “a sad but all-too-predictable result” of Service Canada’s recent decision to amalgamate the region’s four provincially-based administrative units into one entity.

Meunier-McKay, herself a franco-Ontarian, says the decision “effectively makes second class citizens of the half-million French-speaking citizens of Atlantic Canada”.

The blunder by Ottawa-based senior management is threatening to become yet another worrisome issue for the Harper government on the eve of a possible spring election campaign. Opposition politicians from Atlantic Canada, and particularly those with sizable Acadian populations, are up in arms.

Theresa MacInnis, the CEIU’s national vice-president for Nova Scotia, headquarters of the new Atlantic Region, says that Service Canada workers throughout the region strongly support the rights of francophones to receive quality public services.

“This amalgamation has further distanced management from both the workplace and our clients and is causing additional stress among employees struggling under increasing workloads and cuts in term employment.”

The Canada Employment and Immigration Union represents more than 19,000 federal public service workers, including those who process employment insurance claims, provide pension and income security program assistance and provide citizenship and refugee services.

– 30 –

Contacts:

Jeannette Meunier-McKay, CEIU National President

(cellular) 613-762-1781

Theresa MacInnis, CEIU National Vice-President, Nova Scotia

(cellular) 902-227-8393