By Doug Nesbitt As COVID-19 took hold through the spring of 2020, it ravaged the elderly, particularly those in congregate settings such as long-term care homes. By late spring, it was apparent that the infection and death rates in Ontario’s long-term care homes were among the worst in the world. Of all COVID-19 deaths in Continue readingPutting the long-term care profiteers out of business
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“Work in the West” Podcast Series Interview participants wanted! With support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Drs. Shelagh Campbell and Andrew Stevens at the University of Regina, are facilitating a webinar and podcast series that focuses on the state of work and employment in Western Canada. This is an opportunity for Continue reading“Work in the West”: interview participants wanted!
By Lisa Cameron on behalf of the Halifax Workers’ Action Centre Workers at Wynn Park Villa, a long-term care home in Truro, Nova Scotia, are getting close to winning major workplace improvements. Less than a month since the abrupt termination of Tevin Crawford, a former long-term care nurse at the facility, the workers of Wynn Continue readingAfter nurse is fired, Truro long-term care workers go for union
Editor’s note: The author has been kept anonymous for privacy reasons and to prevent identification by the employer Most people I know would pinpoint mid-March 2020 when COVID-19 changed life as we know it. For myself, as a part-time worker at Shoppers Drug Mart, there were signs of what was to come over a month Continue readingPandemic Diary of a Shoppers Drug Mart worker
By Doug Nesbitt With files from Dan Darrah In a new press release, Uber has proposed new changes to “reinvent independent work” in Canada. Called “Flexible Work+,” Uber claims it will start paying into individual benefits, while calling upon provincial governments to make changes to policies to improve work conditions. Gig Workers United— a union Continue readingUber launches new union-busting offensive in Canada
Editor’s Note: This story contains descriptions of sexual harassment. Names with an asterisk (*) have been changed to protect the privacy of some individuals interviewed. An investigation by Cole Rockarts Over the course of the past six years, at least six women have documented accounts of sexual harassment within the Winnipeg labour movement. Among the Continue readingSexism in Winnipeg’s labour movement
By Zaid NoorsumarPart 8 of our Special Investigation into OPSWA The Ontario Personal Support Workers Association maintains a private Facebook group of 12,000 members. It is one of the main, regular platforms of communication between OPSWA president Miranda Ferrier and PSWs. During my investigation of OPSWA, I found multiple examples of her spreading misinformation. Here Continue readingOPSWA’s social media misinformation
By Zaid NoorsumarPart 7 of our Special Investigation into OPSWA I just find it interesting that you see all these OPSWA posts that claim they are there for the PSW, and support all PSW’s and all this. But if you question anything, ‘No, you’re blocked, that’s it.’ Stephanie Lynn, home care PSW and former OPSWA Continue readingBlocked: OPSWA and its critics
By Alice Chen & Zaid Noorsumar Part 6 of our Special Investigation into OPSWA The Ontario Personal Support Worker Association (OPSWA) is one of the only associations representing Personal Support Workers in the province. It has a president, but it has no governing board because OPSWA is in fact governed by its parent body, the Continue readingOPSWA’s governance structure: A family affair?
By Zaid NoorsumarPart 5 of our Special Investigation into OPSWA In late February 2021, the Globe & Mail reported the Ontario Personal Support Workers Association (OPSWA) had 49,000 members. If this is to be believed, then the association represents about a third of the province’s 130,000+ PSWs. According to the news media – which has Continue readingDoes OPSWA really represent 49,000 members?
By Zaid Noorsumar Part 4 of our Special Investigation into OPSWA Most Personal Support Workers I have spoken with support the demand for self-regulation. The consensus is that a regulatory body would standardize educational requirements, establish benchmarks, and hold workers to account when they make mistakes. The Ontario Personal Support Workers Association (OPSWA) has been Continue readingOPSWA, self-regulation and the Ontario PC Party
By Zaid NoorsumarPart 2 of our Special Investigation into OPSWA I think the thing that’s worrisome is that they just have not been there calling for the things that everyone else is calling for that would improve the livelihood of PSWs…And then you look and see that there’s funding and sponsorships, and so on by Continue readingOPSWA and its corporate friends