Mar 252013
Nestle targets campaigns to limit bottled water.
from the Canadian Union of Public Employees
CUPE's involvement in campaigns to limit the use of bottled water is based on nothing more sinister than concern about the toll the bottle water industry takes on municipal public water systems, says CUPE National President Paul Moist.
Moist was responding to a letter published in the Chatham Daily News recently by John B Challinor, Director of Corporate Affairs for Nestle Waters Canada, prompted by a request Chatham-Kent city council is considering to limit the sale of bottled water at civic events. A Chatham area teenager, Robyn Hamlyn, asked council to consider the motion as part of the Blue Communities campaign sponsored by CUPE and the Council of Canadians.
Challinor’s letter to the editor painted CUPE’s involvement as rendering the Blue Communities initiative as suspect.
Moist's March 15 letter in response states that while CUPE is proud to be a part of campaigns highlighting the value of publicly-operated water systems, the call to limit bottle water originates not from "big labour" but from "the grassroots advocacy of concerned citizens like Hamlyn".
"Nestle pays a mere $3.71 per million litres they extract, bottle, and sell to Ontarians. Pressuring the Chatham-Kent council to ignore the concerns of its citizens and the millions of Canadians recognizing the waste of bottled water is nothing more than a cynical attempt to protect these lucrative profits," Moist's letter states.
Reference
About Canadian Union of Public Employees
With 618,000 members across Canada, CUPE represents workers in health care, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social services, public utilities, transportation, emergency services and airlines.
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