by Tom Rouse, retired truck driver The Newfoundland and Labrador Employers’ Council (NLEC) rages about the benefits of Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) after commissioning a report by two Memorial University professors. P3s are NLEC’s answer to what it calls a perfect storm of shrinking government revenue and increasing demand for services from an aging population. But there is mounting evidence Continue readingLooking for Solidarity: Oceanex and the OP Trust
OPSEU
In the summer of 2015, summer student caseworkers at Parkdale Community Legal Services joined the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union. Two worker-organizers who were central to the campaign, Jenna Meguid and Parmbir Gill, took time to answer some questions from Jason Edwards for Rankandfile.ca. Rankandfile.ca: The Ontario Labour Relations Board certified your bargaining unit as Continue readingHow student caseworkers unionized their summer jobs
CarePartners is a for-profit company which is in turn contracted by the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant CCAC. Nurses are currently paid by the visit rather than by the hour. They have no sick days or compensation for overtime. This is appalling treatment of staff whose work is so vital to the community. Staff turnover rates Continue readingWeekend Video: CarePartners workers on strike
By Marion Pollack The Salvation Army’s mission statement identifies respect as a core value, which includes a commitment to promote the dignity of all persons. According to its website, the Salvation Army helps one person at a time, believing that each person is infinitely valuable and equally worthy. Yet often, the Salvation Army’s organizational values Continue readingRespect begins at work: a short labour history of the Salvation Army
Fighting for the rights of Ontario college workers By Tracy McMaster We’ve all followed the news that part-time, insecure employment is growing. I work at an Ontario college as a full-time library technician. Every day I work side by side with part-time employees whose jobs are the same as mine, but whose working conditions are Continue readingShaking Off the Part-Time Blues
by David Bush and Doug Nesbitt Toronto is in the midst of an unprecedented strike by over 10,000 Teaching Assistants and contract faculty at York University and the University of Toronto: the country’s two largest universities. Only blocks away from the University of Toronto picket lines, the Liberal government in Queen’s Park has been waging a Continue readingAusterity Strangles Ontario: the TA strikes in context
Last week RankandFile.ca interviewed Roxanne Barnes and Myles Magner from OPSEU at the union’s rally against Premier Wynne’s austerity agenda. Barnes, OPSEU’s chair of the Central/Unified bargaining team for the Ontario Public Service (OPS), and Magner, the regional Vice President of OPSEU Region 5, offer insight about the union’s bargaining and mobilization strategy for the OPS contract Continue readingRankandFile.ca Interview: OPS bargaining and mobilization
Over 800 OPSEU members converged on Queen’s Park in Toronto, Ontario at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning to send a loud message to the Kathleen Wynne Liberals: Spend public dollars on public sector services and public sector workers. Ontario’s Auditor General reported that the Wynne Liberals spent $8.2 billion too much for 75 major infrastructure projects. Continue readingWeekend Video: What could you do with 8.2?
By David Bush Over 800 OPSEU members and allies rallied in front of the Ontario Legislature on Tuesday morning to welcome back sitting MPP’s with a strong anti-austerity message. The rally organized by OPSEU and supported by other public sector unions in the province such as AMAPCEO, CUPE, ONA and PEGO, was called to put pressure Continue readingOPSEU says no to Wynne’s austerity agenda
CEO pay soars | Storms ahead for Quebec labour | Ontario mental health staff cuts | Castlegar agreement ratified | Corner Brook firefighters | Ontario public service bargaining | Migrant workers in Lebanon From RankandFile.ca: In case you missed them during the holidays! Happy New Year from RankandFile.ca 2014: The Canadian Labour Movement in Review Continue readingR&F’s Labour News Update – January 5, 2015
By Larry Savage and Stephanie Ross There is no shortage of reasons for the labour movement to organize against the re-election of the Harper government. On the labour rights front, the Conservatives have aggressively used back-to-work legislation to end or preempt legal strikes, attempted to undermine unions’ political capacity through onerous and one-sided financial disclosure Continue readingDivisions in labour movement undermine effort to stop Harper
By Hassan Husseini At a time when the right is escalating its attacks on workers’ rights across the country, labour leaders seem to be a lot more interested in parochial turf wars than the deteriorating conditions of the working class. There is no place where this turf war is more pronounced than at the Ontario Continue readingDivided Ontario labour in need of a revolt