By Lynne Fernandez This fall Winnipeg City Council will determine the future of waste and recycling collection in our city. Current contracts with Emterra Environmental and Progressive Waste Services will expire in 2017. At least eight private companies have expressed interest in putting forward a proposal, and it will be up to council to select Continue readingWinnipeg should consider benefits of in-house waste collection
public services
By Michal Rozworski Recycling is supposed to be a good thing, so when the federal Liberals quietly announced that “asset recycling” would be part of their strategy for meeting their much-ballyhooed infrastructure promises, not many eyebrows were raised. They should have been. Asset recycling is an obscure code word for selling our public goods for Continue readingHow not to fund infrastructure
By Crystal Warner Deputy Trustee BC/YT, Canada Employment and Immigration Union Initiated in 2009 by the Conservative government in an effort to modernize pay, Public Services and Procurement Canada unveiled a plan to centralize compensation for federal workers in Miramichi, New Brunswick. In February of 2016, on the watch of the Liberals, the IBM-created Phoenix Continue readingAll work and no pay: The Phoenix debacle
By David Bush The negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have been underway for over eight months. The two parties are far apart on a number of issues: pay equity for Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers, the introduction of two-tier pensions, improving the short-term disability plan, and improving working conditions Continue readingThe crooked intentions of Canada Post
By Robert Green Prior to the holidays, teachers, parents and students in Quebec received some hopeful news: the Common Front, consisting of unions representing over 400,000 of the province’s half a million public sector workers, had overcome their final hurdle and arrived at an agreement on salaries. The news was filled with stories of satisfied Continue readingQuebec’s Proposed Deal With Public Sector Workers: A Hollow Victory for Unions?
By Ben Sichel One of the best parts of being a teacher is when students let you know they appreciate the work you do. It happens more than you might think. Despite the common, timeless sentiment that kids-today-ain’t-got-no-respect, students do express their appreciation in lots of ways: a thank-you in passing, a question that shows Continue readingNova Scotia Can Afford to Respect its Public Sector Workers
By Tara Ehrcke With only a little bit of fanfare, the BC government announced last week that most of BC’s public sector workers would be receiving a surprise .45% pay increase next year under the “economic dividend” clause negotiated into most contracts. Labour leaders rightly pointed out how meagre this .45% increase really is. CUPE Continue readingEconomic dividend symptomatic of state of public sector labour movement in BC
By Robert Green As if to remind teachers of the reason they would be walking the picket-line, many teachers throughout Quebec woke up on the first of several rotating strike days to the news that the government had found $1.3 billion dollars to once again bail-out Bombardier. For months the Quebec government had been telling Continue readingQuebec teachers expose government hypocrisy in public sector bargaining
By Dan Darrah Publisher of Durham Region’s labour newsletter Critical Perspectives, available at www.criticalperspectives.org HAY RIVER, NWT – After a gruelling six-month strike, the municipal government of the small community of Hay River has ratified an agreement that agrees to the workers’ hard-fought demand for wage increases. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which Continue readingSolidarity in the North: Hay River strikes new deal for labour peace
On February 25, 2015, Bill S-221 became law after unanimous all-party support in the House of Commons. The bill is designed to allow judges to issue stronger sentences when transit operators are assaulted. The new law covers drivers of public and school buses, trains, subways, streetcars, taxis and ferries. At least two thousand assaults against Continue readingWeekend Video: Ending violence against transit workers
by Wael Afifi, Unifor Local 2025 Vice President, Human Rights In this province, the daily services in the K-12, post-secondary, health and community social services sectors as well as the provincial public service and Crown corporations and agencies are provided by approximately 316,000 public sector unionized employees. They also represent slightly over 60% of the Continue readingThe “forgotten struggle” and the race for the BCFed leadership