Federal budget | Nova Scotia Bill 100 | Ontario teachers | New Brunswick healthcare privatization | Winnipeg transit | Calgary school custodians | Saskatchewan education workers strie | Newfoundland & Labrador education cuts | Air Canada CEO pension | Cape Breton injured worker cuts | Canada Post catches hell in Mission, BC
Bill 100 kills collective bargaining, threatens higher education and academic freedom
Robert Devet, Halifax Media Co-op
April 26, 2015
Bill 100, the Universities Accountability and Sustainability Act, is before the Nova Scotia legislature this week. Danny Cavanagh, regional vice-president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees says: “This bill is yet another piece or undemocratic anti-union legislation from this Liberal government…Along with Bill 30 (home care workers) and Bill 37 (health care workers) this bill too will restrict people’s bargaining rights. In fact it takes them absolutely away.”
New Brunswick to privatize food, cleaning and other non-medical hospital services
CBC News
April 23, 2015
The New Brunswick government is moving to privatize the management of non-medical services in the province’s hospitals, which could save millions of dollars, but mean job losses, according to Health Minister Victor Boudreau. He announced Thursday that the government is currently negotiating with a private company to take over areas such as food services and cleaning, but declined to name the company.
Federal budget reader:
The five most outrageous things about the Conservative budget
Jim Stanford, Rabble.ca
April 21, 2015
Conservative budget balanced on the backs of the unemployed
Angella MacEwen, Rabble.ca
April 21, 2015
Tory MP Pierre Poilievre: $900 million cut to public servants “set in stone”
CBC News
April 22, 2015
Unions brace for battle over sick days
Jeremy J. Nuttall, The Tyee
April 23, 2015
Feds cutting corners on meat inspection in Quebec: union
Kelsey Johnson, iPolitics.ca
April 20, 2015
Buried on budget day: Tories close third Coast Guard base in BC
Unifor
April 21, 2015
Winnipeg transit workers escalating job action; refusing voluntary overtime
CBC News
April 24, 2015
The Winnipeg transit workers’ union, ATU Local 1505, has asked its active members to stop doing any voluntary overtime effective Monday. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 is in a strike position after members overwhelmingly rejected the city’s latest offer of a settlement last week.
Ontario Education Strikes
Ontario teachers strike against Liberal’s austerity agenda
Tim Heffernan, Rankandfile.ca
April 22, 2015
Sudbury and area teachers on strike this Monday
Sudbury Star
April 25, 2015
ETFO moves closer to strike; Catholic teachers back strike mandate
CTV Kitchener
April 24, 2015
Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association opposes job cuts; class size increases
VOCM
April 25, 2015
Education Minister Derrick Dalley announced yesterday that just over 77 teaching units will be eliminated resulting in a reduction of about 150 positions across the province, most of those through attrition. Dalley says class sizes for grades 4 and up will see an increase of one or two students.
Calgary school custodian: I can’t clean an entire school on my own
Jeremy Nolais, Metro Calgary
April 22, 2015
“The phones, the door handles, those things should be done on a regular basis,” said Joe, a facility operator. “If I can get to them once a week, I’m doing good.” There are some duties, such as dusting, that go for months without be performed. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has said there are 30 custodians in Joe’s current predicament but the school board has warned of further cutbacks to cleaning budgets as it works to overcome a remaining budget shortfall of $12 million this year and further struggles in the years ahead.
Education support workers strike in southeast Saskatchewan
Labour Report
April 23, 2015
As many as 250 education support workers represented by SEIU-West in Saskatchewan are on strike. The union represents education assistants, library technicians, custodians, kitchen and cafeteria staff, bus drivers, maintenance employees and journeypersons in more than a dozen rural communities.
Air Canada doubles CEO pension while still owing billions on workers’ pension fund
Janet McFarland and Greg Keenan, Globe and Mail
April 22, 2015
Air Canada has given CEO Calin Rovinescu an enhanced pension that will almost double his retirement pay to $791,300 a year by age 65. Unifor President Jerry Dias says employees “gave up a ton” at Air Canada when the company filed for bankruptcy protection a decade ago and and on two other occasions when it sought to restructure. “When I start to see the CEOs taking care of themselves very well as it relates to their pension plans, then it’s about time the workers get back some of the stuff that they had to give up.”
Nova Scotia Liberals cut Cape Breton injured workers group funding
Elizabeth Patterson, Cape Breton Post
April 24, 2015
A Sydney organization that helps guide injured workers through the workers’ compensation system has lost its funding, leaving it and 500 to 600 clients wondering what’s next. The association learned their $100,000 funding had been cut for the upcoming fiscal year on March 27, just days before the year ended on March 31.
Canada Post under fire at Mission, BC town hall
Carol Aun, Mission City Record
April 21, 2015
Canada Post Corporation was accused of destroying a public service Monday night as residents and postal workers packed council chambers at municipal hall to discuss the elimination of door-to-door mail delivery in Mission.