By fighting to raise the minimum wage labour is aiming to reconnect with its roots. By Crystal Warner A recent study by Oxfam predicts that by 2016, the 80 richest people in the world will hold as much wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people. In an effort to address income inequality, the British Columbia Continue readingBC’s Fight for 15: Broadening the tent of labour
Archives for February 2015
CP Rail strike | CP back-to-work law | Ontario CCAC strike | Southern Railway lockout | Saskatchewan teachers | Happy Valley-Goose Bay lockout | IOC Labrador City vote | Casino Rama unionization | Target bankruptcy | Winnipeg snow-clearing | Tar sands resistance Every Monday, R&F.ca provides a summary of the past week’s labour news. Here Continue readingR&F’S LABOUR NEWS UPDATE: FEBRUARY 16, 2015
by Doug Nesbitt The federal Tories are already introducing back-to-work legislation against CP Rail workers’ unions who are still in bargaining with a Sunday morning strike threat. The two unions are the Teamsters and Unifor. On Friday February 13 at 4:50pm, Minister of Labour Kellie Leitch introduced “An Act to provide for the resumption of Continue readingPre-emptive strike at CP: Tories planning back-to-work law
In Dresden, Ontario businesses refused to comply with the Fair Accommodation Practices Act the same year it was enacted. Ruth Malloy and Bromley Armstrong and other activists from the Toronto-based Joint Labour Committee for Human Rights conducted sit-ins in Dresden restaurants 61 years ago. The sit-ins tested the owners’ non-compliance with the law, and then Continue readingWeekend Video: Remembering the Dresden sit-ins
by Doug Nesbitt Target’s operations in Canada have got the go ahead for liquidation. In preparation for its liquidation sales, workloads for Target’s workers are increasing, morale has plummeted and absenteeism is rampant. How did it get to this? Let’s recap what we know. The Zellers/HBC deal The Hudson’s Bay Company fired roughly 25,000 workers Continue readingThe Target on our backs
By Gerard Di Trolio Around 300 people turned up in front of 89 Chestnut St. in downtown Toronto last week on a cold Friday evening to rally for a living wage for hospitality and food service workers. The rally, organized by UNITE HERE Local 75, Toronto and York Region Labour Council, and ACORN Toronto sought Continue readingRallying for a Living Wage in Toronto
By Wendy Goldsmith Words I remember as a child as I learned that (in the old days), the “letter carrier always comes”. Well over the past three weeks, I learned that letter carriers and other postal workers are true to their word. Together, concerned community members and postal workers in London Ontario have been going Continue readingLondoners for Door-to-Door
Every Monday, R&F.ca provides a summary of the past week’s labour news. Here are some of the major stories hitting the Interwebs. If you haven’t yet, check out these fabulous pieces featured last week on R&F.ca: THE POLITICS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO STRIKE – Charles Smith THE DEPRESSING WORLD OF CALL CENTRE EMPLOYMENT – Dylan Continue readingR&F’s Labour News Update: February 9, 2015
Almost 3,000 CCAC Health Professionals in Ontario are on strike, forced onto the picket lines by their employers in the name of fairness. The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) CCAC bargaining units have been seeking very small wage increases equal to the percentages given to the other 57,000 members of ONA in the hospital, public health, Continue readingWeekend Video: CCAC Health Professionals Strike
By Matt Davidson and Doug Nesbitt Despite the bitter cold, morale was good on the Peterborough picket lines of the Ontario-wide CCAC workers strike. The Peterborough nurses are part of a 3,000-strong strike of healthcare workers across the province at nine of the ten province’s Community Care Access Centres. All workers on strike are members Continue readingFor equal pay & quality healthcare: The CCAC strike
By Dylan Hackett Over the past seven years, 25-year-old Samantha Devine has worked at four call centres, starting at the first immediately after graduating high school. She is now unemployed, taking anti-anxiety medication and anti-depressants and has been through several rounds of therapy. “They didn’t really care what happened to you,” says Devine. The mother Continue readingThe depressing world of call centre employment
Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan By Charles Smith On January 30, 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) made its long anticipated ruling in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL) v. Saskatchewan.[1] In its decision, the SCC overturned its 1987 decision in Reference Re Public Service Employee Relations Act (Alta) (Alberta Reference). In the Alberta Continue readingThe Politics of the Constitutional Right to Strike