Editors’ note: Since this article was first published on August 17, the BC NDP has abandoned its election promise of $15/hour minimum wage by 2021 in favour of handing over the timeline questions to its fair wages commission. BC employer associations are already cheering on the decision. The decision is a dangerous setback for the Continue readingBC NDP’s crawl to $15
British Columbia
By Daniel Tseghay In 1974, Jean Swanson was a 31-year-old single mother working as a waitress at the Patricia Hotel when Libby Davies and Bruce Eriksen stopped in for a drink. She had seen them on TV, fighting for better housing conditions with the newly-formed Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) so she began talking with Continue readingA Political Revolution: Jean Swanson runs for Vancouver City Council
By Daniel Tseghay In 2015, 900 workers in the health services support sector – laundry staff, dietary workers, and housekeepers – lost their jobs and were forced to reapply for them. They worked for two BC Health Authorities, Vancouver Coastal and Providence Health, public health providers who had nonetheless contracted out some of their services Continue readingBC hospital support service workers ready to fight back
By Daniel Tseghay Last week, Rankandfile.ca published a write-up of the BC Employment Standard Coalition’s Summary Report, Workers’ Stories of Exploitation & Abuse: Why BC Employment Standards Need to Change. The report detailed the many hurdles and gaps in protection workers who rely on no more the Employment Standards Act, from wage theft and erratic Continue reading“Your Rights at Work 101” aims to educate service sector workers
By Daniel Tseghay Throughout the summer, Unifor members at hotels in downtown Vancouver and Victoria will be in bargaining. Members at Hotel Vancouver, the Coast Coal Harbour, the Residence Inn, and Victoria’s Hotel Grand Pacific are looking to benefit from some of the incredible profits these high-end hotels are making every year. Three of the Continue readingUnifor gearing up for bargaining at BC hotels
By Daniel Tseghay When Ontario’s Liberal government initiated the Changing Workplaces Review in 2015, to identify ways to improve the Employments Standards Act (ESA) and the Labour Relations Act (LRA) in light of the evolution of work, it led to a number of unions and labour activists offering their recommendations. That pressure led to the Continue readingNew report in BC gives workers a voice in highlighting abuse and exploitation at their jobs
By Daniel Tseghay Retail workers are some of the most precarious, lowest paid, and mistreated employees. Few are unionized and current employment standards leave many unprotected, as Rankandfile.ca detailed recently. But while the push for legislative changes to protect workers continues, Vancouver Island’s Retail Action Network (RAN) has launched a project, $15&Change: Rate Your Employer, Continue reading15 & Change: Grading retail workplaces
By Vanessa Simmonds Many families are suffering from the federal and provincial government’s weak action towards the ongoing childcare crisis in British Columbia. The suffering is a result of incomprehensibly high parent fees for childcare programs and waitlists that are far too long, forcing many families to chose unregulated childcare. The vulnerability of young children Continue readingA constructive solution to B.C.’s childcare crisis
By Daniel Tseghay On April 7th, Rising Up Against Unjust Recruitment, a coalition of organizations and individuals in British Columbia who are concerned about the mistreatment of temporary foreign workers (TFWs), delivered an open letter to the office of Shirley Bond, BC’s Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training in Victoria. The coalition has yet Continue readingRising Up Against Unjust Recruitment delivers a petition to BC minister
By Daniel Tseghay The Tyee recently ran a series on the experiences of retail, food and beverage, and hospitality workers, and their experiences of harassment on the job. One of the articles, “Slaps, Gropes and Comments ‘Non-stop’” by Rachel Sanders, noted that 80 per cent of food and beverage servers are women and they experience Continue readingSupreme Court decision will impact BC workers facing discrimination and harassment
By Daniel Tseghay On January 20th, migrant agricultural workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) working at Floralia Plant Growers Ltd. in Abbotsford, BC achieved an important victory. The B.C. Labour Relations Board ruled that Floralia broke labour laws by impeding the ability of migrant workers who are known to be union supporters to Continue readingMigrant farm workers achieve an important victory at Floralia
By Daniel Tseghay On December 16th, the Rising Up Against Unjust Recruitment coalition launched their campaign to highlight the mistreatment of migrant workers at the hands of third-party recruiters and a BC government that fails to enact policies to protect them. Members of the coalition point out that charging people money to find a job Continue readingRising up against unjust recruitment in B.C.