Men, especially white men, sleep too easily at night while women earn 70 per cent of what we do. Secretly, I think we’d prefer to not have to talk about this much. Sure, March 8 and December 6 are days we set aside for reflecting on this, but, most likely,
Continue readingTag: unions
The Canadian Progressive: Harper Conservatives must back track on Employment Insurance changes
By: Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union | (Press Release) | Mar 2, 2013: OTTAWA – Changes to Employment Insurance (EI) affecting thousands of seasonal workers and their communities must be overturned, says the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP). Further to the harmful changes, the government began making unannounced house visits to EI
Continue readingParliamANT Hill: ObamAnt’s State of the Union Address
Inspired by the U.S.A.’s State of the Union Address last night.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Timely Reminder From Linda McQuaig
Fanned by a corporate-dominated media, it is hardly a surprise that anti-union sentiment seems to be rampant today. Everywhere we look, there are articles decrying the ‘unchecked power’ of union ‘bosses’ and strident rallying for more ‘workplace democracy’ and ‘right-to-work legislation,’ thinly veiled euphemisms for the ultimate dismantling of unions,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Foundation Skills Assessment: Another Dirty Trick
By Rachel Goodine The FSAs, or Foundation Skills Assessment tests, administered annually in British Columbia since 2000 to students in grades 4 and 7, are once again under way. They began on January 14 and will continue until February 22, 2013. In the meantime, the debate is on. For many,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Millennials Can Improve Everyone’s Job Satisfaction
Quack. It’s 9am, do you know where your millennial employees are? No? No worries. It’s all good. They’re not factory chickens. People who study characteristics of different generations have some incredibly important things to say about how different groups work. Organizations, however, are typically run by older people with their
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Ignorant scapegoating: a feel-good pastime for the thick-headed…
Ignorant scapegoating: a feel-good pastime for the thick-headed and big-mouthed Anyone who doubts that racism and religious bigotry are alive and well in Canada in 2013 simply needs to read the online comments for articles about natives or Muslims, or listen to the callers (and sometimes the hosts and guests)
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: National labor union urges Harper to meet with hunger striking Chief Theresa Spence
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), one of Canada’s largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members, is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to meet with hunger striking Chief Theresa Spence. The Chief of the northern Ontario First Nation reserve of Attawapiskat began a hunger strike here
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Not-So-Hidden-Hand of Harper
Although I believe unreservedly in the vital role that unions play in both protecting and promoting workers’ rights, I make no apologies for the times that I have been critical of them. Cronyism, questionable expenditures, and corruption have no pla…
Continue readingNorthern Insight: There’s fish in the lake
Two unions are in court to overturn Temporary Foreign Worker Program permits that allow 200 Chinese coal miners to work in northern BC. The labour organizations claim the permits were based on improper and invalid Labour Market Opinions. LMOs are suppo…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Giving In
At what point can Canadians no longer claim to be a democratic people? We widely recognize when other countries were running sham elections, but our closeness to our own has coloured perception of crimes here. Some don’t mind so much because the resulting government is the one they think they wanted, and others aren’t even […]
The Ranting Canadian: A claymation version of Ed Broadbent makes a clear and logical…
A claymation version of Ed Broadbent makes a clear and logical 3.5-minute presentation on income inequality and politics in Canada.
Continue readingcmkl: Bill C-377: and here I was thinking the Tories hated red tape
Imagine a law that said every corporation that got a tax subsidy, a grant, a low interest loan or some other fiscal incentive had to publicly disclose every expenditure of $5000 or more to their competitors, the media etc etc. I’m thinking probab…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: To my friends at SFU – a message about the strikes
To my APSA, TSSU, and SFUFA friends at SFU: Today, CUPE 3338 is picketing Burnaby Mountain. They’re doing so because they’ve been trying to bargain with SFU for two years, with not much success. They’re picketing because they feel they deserve a fair collective agreement, and they see no other
Continue readingAutonomy For All: Labour Organizing As Warfare
Matt Stoller tweeted a link to this excellent piece on recent changes to the US labour organizing strategic landscape. In one of the most remarkably under-reported stories I’ve ever seen, Walmart workers across 12 cities in 9 states staged a series of wild-cat strikes in early October and unlike almost
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: CAW Major Auto Bargaining 2012: Lessons Learned
I am now finally emerging from the mental fog induced by the 24-7 triennial marathon otherwise known as “CAW major auto bargaining.” To close the circle, here are my thoughts in retrospect on the bargaining: how the union prepared for it, the issues at stake, the contents of the final
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Teachers Unions – Good For Students and For Education
I’ve been around the mulberry bush a couple of times about teachers and unions. It’s nice when someone puts a piece together that concisely answers the usual bally-hoo about how bad unions are and how things would be fixed if there was just more free market, because more competition
Continue readingAlberta Diary: MP Russ Hiebert’s anti-union campaign: is Bill C-377 another Tory ‘own-goal’?
Unidentified Conservative Party Member of Parliament contemplates B.C. Tory MP Russ Hiebert’s “own goal.” Strangely, actual Harper Government MPs may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Mr. Hiebert. What are Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s boon companions in the courts, fern-encrusted law offices, plush executive suites of provincial medical associations and
Continue readingcmkl: CUPW settles with Canada Post outside of arbitration
The Toronto Star is reporting that CUPW has tossed aside all the business about Tory hack arbitrators and reached a settlement with Canada Post. Face to face. I’m not surprised. They’ve done it before, but it’s heartening to see that it can still happen. If the government would just butt
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: WTF, UBC? – University says it’s easier to cross picket lines with friends
Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Teaching Support Staff Union, COPE 378, and other unions are escalating job action at universities across British Columbia because of bargaining impasses and refusals on the parts of universities to budge on any items. Today, six unions engaged in job action
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