By Alia Karim On October 1 Ontario’s minimum wage will increase to $11.40 an hour, a mere 15 cents increase from the current wage. As Trish Hennessy astutely pointed out we’ll have to wait until 2040 for Ontarians to finally achieve a $15 minimum wage. This raise, if we can even call it that, is Continue reading$15 and Fairness on a finite planet
environment
By Gerard Di Trolio The Trans-Pacific Partnership has quietly emerged as an issue during the federal election. It should receive the scrutiny it deserves. First we learned that Canada would continue to be part of the negotiations during the election with Canada’s Privy Council declaring that this was possible so long as no “drastic” actions Continue readingCan this election halt NAFTA on Steroids (a.k.a. the TPP)?
By Octavian Cadabeschi On July 4, 400 Vancouverites gathered on sunset beach, joining communities across Canada in a nationwide day of protest to stand up for jobs, justice, and climate action. Protests overlooked English Bay, the site of April’s bunker fuel spill, where the bulk carrier cargo ship Marathassa leaked thousands of litres of the Continue readingRaise wages not sea levels
By the Vancouver Ecosocialist Group, March 26, 2014 Chrysler Corporation announced last month that it plans to invest $3.5 billion to retool its assembly plants in Windsor and Brampton, Ontario and produce new lines of vehicles. But it set two big conditions—that the federal and Ontario governments provide $700 million in subsidies, and that the Continue readingEnd Chrysler subsidies: New transport vision needed
Earlier this winter Rankandfile.ca sat down with Herman Rosenfeld, a former CAW staffer and current member of the Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly to discuss the politics of pipelines and the environment within the labour movement. He authored an article entitled “Stop Line 9 Should Be Labour’s Demand”, which first appeared on the Bullet late last Continue readingLine 9 and the Labour Movement
By Roger Annis, Jan 14, 2014 No charges will be laid against the owners of Babine Forest Products for the fire and explosion that destroyed its sawmill located in Burns Lake, BC in January 2012. The explosion killed two workers and injured dozens. The Criminal Justice Branch (CJB) of the British Columbia government announced on Continue readingBabine Forest Products dodges charges for workers’ deaths in BC
The Vancouver Ecosocialist Group, including the trade unionists listed below, have issued this open letter to the International Longshore Warehouse Union. It responds to the union’s offer of a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of climate change protesters at the Port Metro Vancouver’s office. The open letter was originally published by Continue readingOpen letter: union needs to back climate change protesters, not persecute them
By Herman Rosenfeld One would have hoped that Canada’s newest and largest private sector union – UNIFOR, made up of the former Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) unions – would have been out front in the growing movement against Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline reversal. This key new organization of Canada’s working-class Continue readingStop Line 9 Should Be Labour’s Demand
Nearly a thousand men and women represented by United Steelworkers Local 8782 employed at US Steel Lake Erie Works have been locked out on Sunday April 28, 2013. This is the second lockout for Nanticoke workers after being locked out by US Steel for eight months in 2009-10. Hamilton steelworkers of USW Local 1005 were Continue readingNanticoke Steelworkers locked out