February was another busy month for our council. We participated in the CLC lobby campaign regarding Unemployment Insurance. We did not receive a response from either Peter Milliken or Larry McCormick the Liberal MP's for our area. The council also sent out press releases regarding Health Care and the February 14th Ontario Health Coalition campaign. As usual the media chose not to report or print our material.

The council also supported the UNDE 641 three-day strike against the Federal Government. We also supported the CEP members from Bell Canada who are fighting to retain their jobs at Bell Canada. Brenda Vaudry and members of her executive are going to address our meeting tonight.

The council also taped three Labour's Voice in the Community Television shows in February. The first one featured Leah Casselman informing our community of the pending OPSEU strike votes and bargaining taking place with the Harris government. Another show featured David Armour, President of the United Way of Canada Centraide. David will also be joining us at tonight's meeting. The final show featured Linda Dumbleton from CUPE addressing the issues facing the membership at the Kingston Regional Laundry.

Natalie Mehra conducted another excellent Growing Gap workshop at the Steelworker's hall. The workshop was well attended and she is planning to facilitate another on February 23rd.

Labour Council was represented at the Ryandale homeless shelter fundraiser held at Martha's Table. Participants assumed the role of people on Disability pensions, Welfare, and Family Benefits while participating in the Adversity Challenge game. This exercise should be mandatory for all elected officials before they enter politics.

Our council raised $907 for our United Way in a hockey ticket raffle. Peter Boyle deserves our thanks for all his work in selling tickets at the OFL Health and Safety conference in Toronto. Peter also has been updating the Kingston Labour Homepage http//www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8775/ I would recommend all our delegates to check this site out and see what an excellent job Peter is doing for our council.

We have applied for a UI recipient to work for the council from April until September. If we are successful the person will update our labour council directory and hopefully add to our affiliation. We owe Natalie our thanks for informing us of this program. We will be applying for a summer student placement at the end of the month.

Guy Kennedy, a Steelworker from Pubelo, Colorado will address the council meeting tonight, antd tell us how the Scotia Bank is helping his employer CF&I Steel, break labour laws.

We are going to support the Males against Male Violence walk next month and will be attending a planning meeting shortly. We will have two of the organizers speak at next month's meeting.

Kingston and District Labour Council has been chosen as one of three cities for a Literacy program which the CLC are conducting with support from a Federal government grant. Gerry Lee Miller from the congress will address the delegates at the March meeting.

We received a refusal under the freedom of information request in terms of workfare in the Kingston area. We are joining with the community in appealing this decision. If workfare is so good why all the secrecy?

Tonight we will be looking for volunteers to form several committees and I would ask all the delegates at tonight's meeting to consider participating as we spread the workload out in this very important year for labour.

In closing, I would like to thank all those who have made this council so successful as the struggle for justice continues.

As always,
In solidarity,

Charlie Stock
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