By Jesse McLaren Precarious work is a threat to your health. Poverty wages undermine access to the social determinants of health—like food, shelter, clothing, education, which is why there’s a clear correlation between wealth and health. Poverty wages also undermine access to healthcare, preventing those with the greatest health needs from filling their prescription and Continue readingFighting for $15 and Fairness is a matter of health
Archives for February 2017
Fix Hydro | ATU Local 113 Crisis | Bob White | Fired SFU food workers | Jamieson workers hit picket line | Teachers’ strike windfall | American jobs | 10,000s strong Immigrant workers’ strike | York U discrimination accusation | Janitors’ landmark first contract | Phoenix pay problems | CETA costs workers $2,460 | AB Continue readingLabour News Update: February 27, 2017
Harlan County, USA is a 1976 Oscar-winning documentary film covering the “Brookside Strike”, an effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company’s Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, southeast Kentucky in 1973. Directed and produced by Barbara Kopple, who has long been an advocate of Continue readingWeekend Video: Harlan County, USA
By Paul Kahnert Hydro in Ontario is a mess and rates are skyrocketing. The high number of people who have trouble paying or can’t pay their Hydro bills is growing by the day. Businesses are leaving the province and/or refusing to locate here because of high Hydro rates. A group that is especially being ignored Continue readingTime to Fix Hydro ‘Mistake’
By David Bush The crisis embroiling ATU Local 113 continues as Bob Kinnear, the trusteed President of Local 113, won an injunction on February 21 against the trusteeship of the local by ATU International. The decision by the Superior Court reinstates Kinnear as president. This decision was followed quickly by a vote of no confidence in Continue readingBob’s Back: ATU Local 113 crisis continues
By Herman Rosenfeld With great sadness, I learned of the death of Bob White. In 1978, he became the leader of the Canadian section of the UAW about a year and half after I started working on the line at GM. Little did I know what an amazing leader and pioneer in working class history Continue readingRemembering Bob White
Nova Scotia Teachers strike | Strike at JIBC bookstore | Toronto garbage privatization plan kicked to the curb | York food workers take on Aramark and the university | Long hours, low wages linked to rise in accidents on Pearson tarmac | EU parliament ratifies CETA | Tensions high as negotiations continue about future of Continue readingLabour News Update: February 20, 2017
In December 2011 Bristol Radical History Group were invited to participate in a ‘history’ meeting in Detroit, USA. This gathering included ex-members (such as the late General Baker) of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, the radical black working class organization. Also present was Marvin Surkin, one of the authors of Detroit: I Do Mind Continue readingWeekend Video: League of Revolutionary Black Workers
By Suzanne MacNeil, President of the Halifax-Dartmouth & District Labour Council Today, 9300 Nova Scotia public school teachers, with Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU), will be on strike for the first time in its 122-year history. The strike will be a one-day walkout. Teachers from across the province will be picketing at the legislature, where Continue readingStriking Nova Scotia Teachers are making history
By Brad Walchuk The lines between fact and fiction have become increasingly blurred in recent weeks thanks to the newly elected Trump administration in the United States. Outright lies are being cast as “alternative facts,” while evidence based arguments are dismissed as fake news. In such a climate, even north of the border, it’s something Continue readingToronto mayor’s garbage privatization plan kicked to the curb
By Parmbir Gill This being Black History Month, it’s apt to begin with the words of Malcolm X: “We declare our right on this earth…to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which Continue readingYork food workers take on Aramark and the university
By Jamie Partridge “We Won! The U.S. Postal Service and Staples deal is over!” proclaimed the headline on the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) website. A three-year battle against the outsourcing of living-wage, union postal jobs to the low-wage, nonunion Staples ended January 5 when USPS management informed the APWU that the “approved shipper” program Continue readingHow U.S. postal workers removed the Staples