by Emily Leedham Update May 31, 2019: ATU 1505 Members have voted 97% against the City’s offer. Voter turnout was 84%. No job action announced for the weekend, but the union says there will be action in the “coming days,” and will inform the public ahead of time. ATU 1505 also invited the City back Continue readingWinnipeg Transit drivers may take job action this weekend
Articles
By Greg Albo, Bryan Evans and Carlo Fanelli The eminent conservative scholar of public budgeting Aaron Wildavsky characterized annual budgets as a record of “victories, defeats, bargains, and compromises.” The province of Ontario’s 2019 Budget, the first of the new Conservative government of Doug Ford, does indeed tell us something of this – additional fiscal supports for Continue readingAnother Round of Punishing Austerity in Ontario
By David Newberry and Sarah Neath In Ontario’s current climate of extreme austerity, you might think that injured workers have little to celebrate. And yet, on Saturday, June 1, that is exactly what they will be doing. For the 36th year in a row, injured workers and their allies from all over the province will Continue readingInjured Workers Day: Resistance Continues
As activists organizing with the Our Time campaign put together town halls in cities across Canada to discuss what a Green New Deal would look like for Canada, the wildfire season had already begun. Alberta’s High Level fire forced over 4,000 town residents and nearby First Nations communities to evacuate their homes. What does wildfire Continue readingWhat is it like to fight wildfires?
By Gerard Di Trolio Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s volte-face on liquified natural gas (LNG) projects in British Columbia is a welcome development. The policy reversal seems to stem from the recent victory of the Green Party in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith by-election on May 6 which saw the NDP lose a seat they previously held. Whatever Continue readingThe Pipeline Divide
By Jason Edwards Professional soccer arrived in Halifax last Saturday. The Halifax Wanderers FC defeated Hamilton Forge 2-1 on an exciting second-half goal by Columbian striker Luis Alberto Perea. The Canadian Premier League (CPL) is in its infancy; this was the Wanderers’ second game, their first on the Wanderers’ Grounds. But while fans are enthusiastic Continue readingCanadian soccer players need a union
On Monday, May 13th, WestJet announced it was being bought out by a private equity firm Onex for 5 billion dollars. This would take WestJet from being a publicly traded company to a private one. WestJet pilots and cabin crew members have unionized all within the past several years. Chris Rauenbusch, president of CUPE Local Continue readingWhat will WestJet’s sale to Onex mean for workers?
By Emily Leedham On Tuesday, May 14, the majority of Winnipeg Transit drivers, who are members of ATU Local 1505, did not enforce payment from transit riders. This “fare strike” is the first time the ATU has done this type of action in North America. “Well, our members are tired and they wanted some action,” Continue readingWinnipeg Transit drivers’ fare strike ATU’s first in North America
By Andrew Stevens For the first time in generations, international migration has helped to fuel Saskatchewan’s population growth. “Suddenly,” wrote Saskatchewan-based columnist Tammy Robert in Maclean’s in 2017, “Saskatchewan was the place to be — not the place to be from.” Starting in 2007, for almost a decade, a prolonged resource-led boom drew domestic and international migrants, reshaping the Continue readingYellow Vests and Migrant Worker Rights in Saskatchewan
By Tony Leah Did Jerry Dias make a deal to save the Oshawa plant, or did he give in and accept GM’s determination to end vehicle production in Oshawa? Just before Christmas last year, GM announced their intention to close Oshawa, meaning the loss of 5,000 direct jobs involved in the assembly of cars and Continue readingUnifor Settlement with GM: Footprint or Toe Tag?
Winnipeg Transit drivers, members of ATU Local 1505, will take their first job action on Tuesday, May 14th. Drivers will not be enforcing fares tomorrow. Essentially, if you don’t pay, drivers will look the other way. Members of ATU 1505 and community volunteers will leaflet bus stops today to inform transit riders of Tuesday’s job Continue readingWinnipeg transit drivers not enforcing fares on Tuesday
The 1919 General Strike anniversary conference in Winnipeg kicked off on Wednesday, May 8, with labour activists and academics from across Canada congregating at the University of Winnipeg. The intention of the conference was to not only reflect on the lessons of the general strike, but understand where Canada’s labour movement is at today. Specifically Continue readingBoots Riley on labour organizing for social justice