Latest News
Partner Organizations
Canadian Labour Institute
STRESS TEST
Topic
Social workers in Calgary counsel a homeless man
HELPING THE HOMELESS HURTS. This truth is revealed in a recent study by Professor Jeannette Waegemakers-Schiff at the University of Alberta.
Waegemakers-Schiff conducted interviews with 470 frontline workers at 23 organizatons and agencies working with the homeless in Calgary. She found that:
CODE CRITICAL
Topic
NS Paramedic Scott Sturgeon
THEY CALL IT "CODE CRITICAL". But the government continues to ignore warnings from the 1,100 paramedics in Nova Scotia. This is bad for the paramedics and bad for the general public, says the union representing them. So bad the paramedics have taken to twitter to warn the public about it.
SENT PACKING
Topic
PISSING OFF THE UNIONS DIDN’T HELP. But that wasn’t the only problem with the deal to bring the second Amazon headquarters (HQ2) to New York City. Amazon expected unanimous support and universal praise. They didn’t get it. Popular opposition turned the whole thing into a public relations shitshow. So, the largest corporation the world has ever known ran away. They just took their headquarters and ran back home.
SUPREME APPROVAL
Topic
UNIONS HAVE THE SUPREME COURT ON THEIR SIDE. The proof of that is set out in detail in Brave New World: Fundamental Labour Rights in the Charter Era, the latest major study from the Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights (CFLR)
The paper shows that the evolution of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) to “robust and progessive” support of unions amounts to a brave new world for labour rights in Canada.
CLEANING UP
Topic
SHIRLEY PECK BEAT THE ODDS. She and her union took on the Canadian military and won.
The DND (Department of National Defence) was all set to yank Shirley’s job away from her and six others last fall. Shirley, and her co-workers, and all the members of her PSAC (Public Service Alliance of Canada) union local refused to roll over and play dead. They took on the huge bureaucracy, fought to keep their jobs and won.
PAY UP!
Topic
“TELL ME HOW THIS IS DIFFERENT FROM SLAVERY?” It’s a question interns often ask—but always anonymously. That fact alone makes the case against unpaid internships self-evident.
Legions of young Canadians are desperate to find work. The competition is cut throat. They will do almost anything to prove their worth. That too often includes working for free—like slaves.
TEMP CONTEMPT
Topic
Joven Ednalaguim, forced to work for $3.73 an hour
THE BOSS CHEATED THEM, BUT THEY WERE HAPPY HE DID. Therefore, Hector Mantolino should not go to jail.
That was the pitch Mantonlino’s lawyer made to a court in Halifax January 25. It was an argument beneath contempt. But not really surprising in the trial of a man who had nothing but contempt for the workers be preyed on.
KILLER SHIFTS
Topic
RN Karen Noseworthy: “We’ve got to take the time to say ‘Good job.’”
NOBODY WANTS NURSES TO GET TOO EXHAUSTED TO CARE. Yet our provincial governments keep making that a real possibility. Nowhere more so than in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The government there refuses to spend money to hire the nurses the province needs. It makes the nurses they do have work overtime, instead. More and more for 24-hour shifts. This is bad economics and a health risk for patients and nurses alike.
N0 WAGE WEDGE
Topic
SAME WORK. SAME PAY. NO BRAINER. NOT YET. That’s why the 900 workers at the Saskatchewan Co-op operations in Saskatoon walked off the job on November 1 and were still there when this was written on January 23—84 days later.
Saskatoon Co-op management wants to pay new hires less. The 900 workers in UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) Local 1400 think that’s grossly unfair and unacceptable in any contract they could accept.
STRIKING BACK
Topic
THE RIGHT TO STRIKE IS NOT OPEN TO INTERPRETATION. That’s the principle at the heart of a case the BC Ferry & Marine Workers Union (BCFMWU) has taken to the BC Supreme Court.
