By Haseena Manek The Ontario Municipal Employee Retirement System (OMERS) Sponsors Corporation Board of Directors will be voting on whether or not to scrap guaranteed indexing for members in favour of a proposal they call “Shared Risk,” on June 24. OMERS is a defined benefit plan for about half a million municipal workers in Ontario, Continue readingShared Risk? OMERS indexing dispute fits pattern of attacks
CUPE
by Emily Leedham To address the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other medical equipment such as ventilators, workers are demanding former General Motors plant in Oshawa be converted to produce these supplies to support frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. “There’s a dire shortage of that equipment, it’s being rationed,” Michael Hurley, President Continue readingWorkers demand Oshawa GM plant converted to produce medical equipment
by Emily Leedham In a move that shocked trade unionists across the country, the Regina Police Service arrested Unifor National President Jerry Dias and thirteen other Unifor members at Gate 7 of Regina’s Co-op Refinery Complex on Monday, January 20, 2020. About 730 refinery workers, members of Local 594, have been locked out for the Continue readingLabour unites around Unifor 594 after arrests at refinery lockout
Winnipeg’s city council proposes an austerity budget which would close libraries, pools & cut public transit. Meanwhile, police still receive the bulk of public funds.
On Monday, September 9, Winnipeg took a big step towards ending the airport-like security screening at the downtown Millennium library. The metal detector and bag check screenings were introduced by library management in February, responding to staff safety concerns. CUPE 500 President Gord Delbridge, representing Millennium Library workers, also supported the screenings. This was the Continue readingA Step Towards Removing Winnipeg’s Invasive Library Security
Last week, negotiations between the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ (CUPE) bargaining agent the Ontario School Board Council of Union (OSBCU) and the province move to mediation as bargaining makes no progress for the 55,000 education workers CUPE represents across Ontario. RankandFile.ca spoke with OSBCU President Laura Walton about the role of the government and Continue readingOntario’s education workers inch closer to strike position
On July 31, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) filed for conciliation after 10 days of bargaining with the Council of Trustees’ Associations (CTA) and the provincial government. RankandFile.ca spoke with Laura Walton, President of CUPE’s provincial bargaining agent, the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), to discuss bargaining so far and the Continue readingBargaining stalled for Ontario’s education workers
Read Part 1 of this look into the conditions of long term care in Ontario here. By Zaid Noorsumar On Jan. 23, 2007, 73-year-old Betty Moseley-Williams testified to the legislative standing committee about Bill 140, the Long-term Care Homes Act. Moseley-Williams, who had worked as a nurse for 50 years, harkened back to a conversation Continue readingIs it Time to Care Yet?
By Zaid Noorsumar Punched. Groped. Kicked. Violence in long-term care homes has to stop. Staff and residents are caught in a vicious cycle of violence in Ontario’s nursing homes. Caregivers who are punched, kicked, and spat on as they tend to residents. Caregivers who are scratched and bitten. Accustomed to bruises and burns. Groped and Continue readingBreaking Point: Violence in Long Term Care
By Haseena Manek On November 15, representatives from employers and unions with members in the OMERS pension plan came together to vote on changes proposed in June. The result was 50% plus one in favour of the changes, a thin majority that fell short of the two-third majority required to make changes to the OMERS pension Continue readingVictory at OMERS
By Haseena Manek In June, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) announced it would be voting on a number of changes that would hugely impact the 500,000 workers that contribute to it across Ontario in November. According to Fred Hahn, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario, at the latest OMERS sponsors Continue readingCUPE fighting scare tactics at OMERS
By Robert Devet KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Employees of the Community Justice Society (CJS) have been on strike since July 30, looking for something closer to equity with government probation workers, whose jobs are very similar. However, the workers have no quarrel with their employer. They are looking at the provincial government to offer a solution. CJS administers the Continue readingJustice for justice workers: ‘Many of us have stuck around because the work is so powerful’