So this item about a tentative agreement at WestJet caught my eye in my Twitter feed and I was excited. Smiley-faced happy workplace WestJet has a union now for its flight attendants. Finally. A positive first step for sure for anyone looking to make a career in the air. But
Continue readingTag: unions
Northern Insight / Perceptivity: Managers justify generous treatment of managers
In 2013, the consulting firm Ernst & Young was hired to review trends in compensation across the BC Public Sector. It is now available through the Legislature’s public documents. Reports of this kind are almost worthless documents of political propaganda. The only important question asked of the executives who commissioned
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Against Collective Forgetting
Workers must do our part to Stop Harper! Happy Labour Day! 🙂 In Stephen Harper’s Canada, we keep enumerating the things we’re losing: meaningful legislative debate, evidence-based policy, public science, a free and open society, among other things. But what happens if we go too long with a slow erosion
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Happy Labour Day
For a reflection on why unions are still so relevant and necessary, the protests of neoliberals notwithstanding, be sure to check out Kev’s post at Trapped in a Whirlpool. And for indications of a resurgence in the union movement, check out this editorial at The Toronto Star. Indeed, we shall
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Against Unions.
Me too! Err… Filed under: Humour Tagged: Humour, Unions
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Occupy Movement Has Changed the Narrative, But We’re Not Done
Recently, with the WEF spending the last few years acknowledging global income inequality is a problem, I’ve declared a kind of victory for the Occupy Movement: getting the lexicon on the 1% and inequality on the tongues of the sly gazillionaires who rule the world, and into mass consumption. Now
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The 1% Has More Solidarity Than We Do
In Davos, the 1% rule the world. Literally. They also have the guns. The 1% are claiming we have it out for them; that if we don’t tone down the rhetoric and stop calling them names like “the contemptuous rich,” we might end up starting a class war. But they
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: On talking about priorities: Oil spills and teachers strikes
On the same day one week ago, teachers in British Columbia began a full strike and the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline was approved by the Canadian government. With such telling coincidences, it is hard not to juxtapose the two broad social conflicts in which BC has become a flashpoint: that
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Hey, BC: Want More Jobs? Dump the LNG and Pipelines!
Well, I found yet another [like this] study showing how many MORE jobs we’d get by moving to a post-carbon energy infrastructure and dumping LNG, tarsands, pipelines and all the other Mordor Industrial Complex BC and Alberta are embracing. Not only is dumping the carbon energy infrastructure essential to do
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Alberta Federation of Labour’s Litmus Test for Alberta’s Opposition Parties
“Sometimes telling the truth hurts…and it will hurt here.”—Rob Anderson, Wildrose MLA at the Alberta Federation of Labour Conference in response to a question about the legal right to strike* The Alberta Federation of Labour held a two day conference this weekend in Calgary. Ms Soapbox was extremely fortunate to
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: On the job: Why unions matter
The Parkland Institute is releasing a report on why unions matter. I contributed to the report, which was spurred by Alberta government restrictions on collective bargaining and anti-union labour law. Perhaps not surprising for readers of this blog, we found that labour unions play an important role in improving wages, improving
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Denmark and Germany Show Us How Easy It Is
Seeking some climate justice and labour justice? You’ve come to the right place. Here’s how Denmark and Germany are showing us that it isn’t brain surgery. Why re-invent the wheel; just steal ideas from people who already get it. Simple! Denmark Someone once told me that Starbucks stores in Safeway
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: NDP Sectarianism Returns with a Vengeance
You have to wonder what Andrea Horwath was thinking. By bringing down the Ontario government a week ago and launching an election as a result, the NDP risks opening the door for the provincial Tories reclaiming power. Which would be a disaster for working people across the province, let alone
Continue readingMelissa Fong: The BC education system is broken
I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to go to a school where there wasn’t a regular community of teachers who knew each other and watched me […]
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Political Eh-conomy Radio: CLC Convention 2014
This week’s convention of the Canadian Labour Congress was more eventful than it has been in some time. There was a change of leadership and an energy palpable even from afar via social media. Of course, four days of convention does not a labour movement make and so today I’ve gathered
Continue readingcmkl: Ads vs organizing: it’s the wrong debate at the CLC convention
There’s a debate raging at the CLC now about whether the Congress should levy more money from its members (to the tune of $22 million) to fund a paid publicity campaign to improve the image of the labour movement in the eyes of TV viewers.
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: While Horwath is silent, labour and progressive speak: The Ontario Budget deserves support
While Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was silent on Ontario’s Budget today, continuing her approach that saw her take no position on the minimum wage and pensions, labour and other progressive are speaking loud and clear that Ontario’s 2014 Budget deserves support for the people of Ontario. JERRY DIAS, NATIONAL
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: While Horwath is silent, labour and progressive speak: The Ontario Budget deserves support
While Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was silent on Ontario’s Budget today, continuing her approach that saw her take no position on the minimum wage and pensions, labour and other progressive are speaking loud and clear that Ontario’s 2014 Budget deserves support for the people of Ontario. JERRY DIAS, NATIONAL
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: While Horwath is silent, labour and progressive speak: The Ontario Budget deserves support
While Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was silent on Ontario’s Budget today, continuing her approach that saw her take no position on the minimum wage and pensions, labour and other progressive are speaking loud and clear that Ontario’s 2014 Budget deserves support for the people of Ontario.
“Today’s budget will make a positive difference in the lives of working families in Ontario – and should be supported by the NDP…We hope the NDP will work with the Liberals to pass the budget.”
GAIL NYBERG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DAILY BREAD FOOD BANK
“Keeping poverty reduction on the table is always the right thing to do…Daily Bread has always been a strong proponent of the Ontario Child Benefit. Indexing it will allow low-income families with children to keep up with the rising costs of living such as food.”
ONTARIO HEALTH COALITION
“The good news: An Ontario pension plan that will provide an enhanced public pension for those with no private pensions.”
Politics, Re-Spun: Occupy Vancouver Reboots Tonight!
Occupy Vancouver reboots tonight to join the worldwide #WaveOfAction that began on April 4 and runs [at least] to July 4, 2014. We will meet in Grandview Park on Commercial Drive in East Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territories. 615pm is the start time, though honestly, I’ll be there a bit
Continue reading