by Jon Milton Denyse Joseph is helping to manage a crisis team for her union. “We’re looking at everything that comes out each day, each hour, regarding this pandemic crisis,” she tells RankandFile.ca. “What are the measures the government is putting in place? Is it respecting the safety and security of our members?” Joseph is Continue readingCOVID-19: We Should Have Been Listening to Healthcare Workers
Quebec
By Jon Milton Simon Jolin-Barrette, Quebec’s Minister of Immigration, was inside the Montreal Chamber of Commerce on November 22, speaking to a who’s-who of Quebec’s business owners. The atmosphere, inside, was tenser than it usually is between the business sector and representatives of Quebec’s ruling right-wing party, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ). In his speech, Continue readingThe CAQ is treating immigration like a Temp Agency
Over the past summer, Montreal had heatwaves. Temperatures approaching 40 degrees with humidity prompted the city to issue warnings—stay hydrated, don’t spend too much time outside. Mohamed Ahmed was working during one of them, as a driver for Aux Vivres Cuisine. His job was to bring the company’s well-known vegan food to retailers across the Continue readingUnionizing a Montreal Kitchen
By Chantal Sundrum On August 4, when a nurse at the Gatineau Hospital in Hull was told she needed to stay after a 12-hour shift to work mandatory overtime—and responded she was too exhausted—eight of her coworkers held a two-hour on-the-job protest in solidarity. They stayed to work with her, demanding that the hospital pay Continue readingHull nurses stage second sit-in against austerity
Deborah Murray and Chantal Sundaram On January 29, at 8am, a young nurse in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, Emilie Ricard, published a Facebook photo of herself in tears. It was taken after finishing a night shift at the end of which she had to cover 70-76 patients. “I am broken by my profession, I’m ashamed of Continue readingQuebec hospital workers take on austerity
It has been a little over a year since the workers at the Old Port of Montreal went on strike for a starting salary of $15/hour, as well as paid sick days and vacation days. During the 5-month-long strike, from May to October 2016, the workers voted three times to reject managements’ offers, while galvanizing Continue readingReflections on the Old Port of Montreal strike for $15
By Ilija Dimeski Cineplex workers in Quebec. with local 262 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), are planning to go on strike. Created in 1912 in Montreal, this union has been actively fighting for decent work for theatre employees in Quebec. From representing the cinema projectionists, to the front of the house Continue readingBox office brawl: Workers take on Cineplex management
By Chantal Sundaram In April 2012, during the height of Québec’s Maple Spring, one of the key leaders of the student movement, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, said the hope was for that movement to be a “trampoline.” The “Red Square” movement gave voice to widespread popular opposition to austerity in Québec that both preceded and outlasted the student Continue readingFifteen plus: the minimum wage & austerity in Québec
By Nora Loreto On May 24, about 175,000 construction workers from across Quebec walked off their construction sites. The workers called an unlimited general strike, and construction across the province stopped. During the strike week, thousands of workers protested in Quebec City, plastering the streets surrounding the National Assembly with neon stickers that said: Ma Continue readingQuebec construction workers fighting for work-life balance
By Chantal Sundaram On October 20, more than a 100 people gathered at the Centre Tétreau in Gatineau, Quebec (Hull) to launch a local version of the campaign for a $15 minimum wage in Quebec. The crowd was made up of CEGEP and University students, local community and antipoverty activists, and union members and representatives Continue readingFighting for $15 in Quebec
Bill Hopwood interviews a Montreal Old Port worker, Jacques Fontaine, who has been on strike since May of this year. Q: Tell me the main points of the strike and why you are on strike. A: Some 280 workers of the Old Port of Montreal have been on strike since May 27. Our main goal Continue readingStriking for $15 in Montréal
By Sonia Singh Thousands of Quebec nursing home workers have walked off the job in their first-ever series of coordinated strikes. They’re demanding that all workers get a starting hourly wage of $15. It’s a big jump for a workforce where the average wage is $12.50. (Fifteen dollars Canadian is equivalent to about $11.71 in Continue readingQuebec nursing home workers strike for $15