By Daniel Tseghay On November 8, the Unifor National Executive Board voted to revoke the local union charters of a number of British Columbian staff representative locals. These previously Unifor locals were made up of members who worked at other unions. This consisted of members of Unifor who work for the British Columbia Nurses’ Union, Continue readingUnifor de-charters BC locals
British Columbia
By Daniel Tseghay When an employee of the BC Nurses’ Union (BCNU) was diagnosed with cancer she had many medical appointments to keep. After returning to work, she still has to go to the Cancer Agency every 3 months for a check up. While she and her colleagues originally had medical appointment leave in their Continue readingThe BC Nurses’ Union uses scabs and pits unions against one another
By Daniel Tseghay On October 17th, BC’s Education Minister, Mike Bernier, fired all nine elected Vancouver School Board (VSB) trustees. The province’s reasoning is that the elected school board failed to pass a balanced budget by the June 30th deadline, violating the School Act. Bernier has now replaced the board with an appointed trustee, a Continue readingEntire Vancouver School Board fired: The crisis of education funding continues
By Daniel Tseghay On October 3rd, the BC Liberals announced a Job Creation Plan that they claim would benefit people with disabilities. The project, in alliance with the Rick Hansen Foundation, WorkBC Employment Services Centres, and the Victoria Disability Resource Centre, would temporarily employ 14 people as “access assistants.” “Participants will complete about 90 on-site Continue readingThe BC Liberals and a Disability Jobs Plan that does not deliver
By Daniel Tseghay Since Aug. 2, members of locals 9 and 11 of the Education and Training Employees’ Association (ETEA) have been on strike over wages, unpaid work, and workplace surveillance. They made the decision to strike after negotiations broke down. Local 9 represents private instructors at Vancouver English Centre (VEC) in Vancouver and Local Continue readingPrivate schools hoard profits: Picket pay an upgrade for striking instructors
On this second episode, Rankandfile.ca’s West Coast Correspondent Daniel Tseghay interviews Farah Shroff, First Vice-President of the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils and Lisa Descary, a teacher and activist in Richmond BC. Both guests discuss the ongoing effects of cuts to public education in British Columbia and what must be done to fight the Continue readingRankandfile.ca Podcast Episode #2 – Education cuts in BC
by Daniel Tseghay Rankandfile.ca’s BC correspondent Last week, British Columbia’s Liberal government announced it would raise the minimum wage in two stages. From the current minimum wage of $10.45 – the lowest in Canada – the government will increase it to $10.85 in September of 2016, and then to $11.25 the following September. This increase Continue readingBC’s piece rate farm workers left out of minimum wage increases
by Daniel Tseghay On March 21st, members of Sanctuary Health, a network of healthcare workers and organizers, met for a vigil in front of the Fraser Health Authority Offices, one of BC’s largest health-care providers, in Surrey. They were there to honour the victims of a practice which puts migrants without permanent residency status at Continue readingHospitals are not border checkpoints
by Daniel Tseghay A long line of people stand under a grey sky, awaiting their bus. Others pass them, flooding the loop, having descended from the Skytrain at Surrey Central station. It’s a Saturday afternoon but people look rushed, with many likely on their way to, or from, work. Most of them will pass by Continue readingChristy’s Crumbs: Fighting for $15 in BC
Stage production explores the struggles of the Canadian Seamen’s Union 30 years ago, Jim Green, former Vancouver city councillor, longshoreman, steel cutter, shop steward, taxi driver, academic, community organizer, and university lecturer, wrote Against the Tide: The Story of the Canadian Seamen’s Union. It’s the story of a cross-Canada union that fought some hard battles Continue readingCharles Demers talks commies, mobsters and seamen
By Daniel Tseghay They worked 12 hours a day, with no more than an hour break under an unrelenting sun, for six days a week. When one worker left the work site without authorization he was imprisoned for four months. Working for the equivalent of $30 a month, they were rewarded with inadequate food and Continue reading“Labour Struggles truly have no borders:” Vancouver’s connections to Slave labour in Eritrea
By Daniel Tseghay British Columbia isn’t known for its black population. Only about a single per cent of the greater Vancouver area is populated by black people. Those who’ve been here have been displaced, like the members of Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley. But black people have been here. And the black experience has also been a Continue readingA glimpse of black workers’ history in Vancouver