National union leaders to tour axed Veterans Affairs office in Sydney

SYDNEY, NS – Public Service Allianceof Canada (PSAC) National Vice-President Chris Aylward and Union of Veterans Affairs Employees (UVAE) National President Yvan Thauvette will tour Veterans Affairs Canada’s Regional Office in Sydney Thursday to see first hand which services Canada’s veterans stand to lose when the office closes its doors in 2014. Their visit comes on the heels of a report released Tuesday by the Nova Scotia Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA-NS) that finds the Atlantic stands to suffer disproportionately from federal austerity, in particular its smaller often rural communities.  The union officers also visit the office as advocates for the workers who provide critical public services to Canada’s veterans and as supporters of the veterans who are fighting to keep it open.

WHO:              Chris Aylward, National Vice-President, PSAC
                         Yvan Thauvette, National President, UVAE

WHEN:             2pm, Thursday, November 29, 2012

WHERE:          Veterans Affairs CanadaRegional Office, 308 George St., Sydney, NS

The officers will be available for questions from media in front of the Regional Office at 2pm, directly after their tour.  They will also be joined by members of the veterans’ community.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada is the largest federal public sector union representing upwards of 180,000 workers.  The Union of Veterans Affairs Employees is a component union of PSAC.

Contact: Lesley Thompson, PSAC Communications, 902-471-6201

The CCPA-NS study Public Disservice: the Impact of Federal Government Job Cuts in Atlantic Canada can be downloaded in full here