You Deserve Better Wages and Benefits
Right wingers want to pay no tax. It’s hard to bleat about that in public without sounding like the greedy, selfish people they are. Instead, they say that public sector…
unions
Why libraries – and library users – need their librarians and other library workers to be union members
Maureen O’Reilly, president of the Toronto Public Library Workers Union, speaking in Toronto last weekend. Below: Renowned author Margaret Atwood on an Alberta union picket line, circa 2000, Doug Ford…
Work, Dignity and Living Wages?
A strong union. Corporations that understand the social contract. Corporations that know a tad smaller profit here contributes to more dignity throughout society. Corporations that recognize the value of unions.…
Political Eh-conomy Radio: Focus on China
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/podcast-141102-china.mp3 The focus of today’s podcast is China: its development over the past several years, the situation of workers and unions as well as future directions. To get some perspective…
A Bridge Too Close?
Gabriola Island Bridge project prompts new opposition from residents Bridge-Free Salish Sea group plans to mount a petition campaign to gauge concerns over proposed bridge CBC News Posted: Oct 29,…
WestJet flight attendants have a union? Soon I hope they’ll have a real one
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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% 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…
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…
Hey, BC: Want More Jobs? Dump the LNG and Pipelines!
Well, I found yet another 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…
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*…
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.…
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;…
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…
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
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…
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…