Since 2011, I’ve worked in more than 20 precarious workplaces in hospitality, manufacturing and logistics – and I have only seen a union once.
Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) stand at a picket line outside Place du Portage in Gatineau, Que., on April 28, 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Will an increase in wages make federal government workers happier and more efficient while dealing with the public on taxation, public safety and a multitude of other daily and often frustrating issues?
That cheap statement piece comes at a price: the industry has a ‘murderous disregard for human life.’
(Clockwise: AP/Mahmud Hossain; AP/Ismail Ferdous; Unsplash/Markus Spiske; Unsplash/Clem Onojeghuo)
We look back to the 2013 Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed 1,124 people and discuss how much — or how little — has changed for garment-worker conditions today.
Striking public sector workers in London, 1979.
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From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, more unionised workforces from Europe to Aotearoa New Zealand fought hard to keep wages abreast with inflation. But it’s unlikely that could happen now.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to the crowd gathered at a meet-and-greet in Stoney Creek, Ont., in March 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alex Lupul
The goal of the labour movement is to advance the interests of workers everywhere. Nativist narratives about defending Canada could explain Pierre Poilievre’s popularity among some union members.
Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in series four of You.
Courtesy of Netflix
Bob Hawke spent 24 years married to his second wife, Blanche d'Alpuget, whose canny 1981 biography helped make him ALP leader – and one of our most beloved PMs. Chris Wallace tells their story.
Striking miners face off against police in 1984.
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The strikes (minimum service levels) bill making its way through parliament potentially means employers can block named workers from taking industrial action.
Worker unrest has been surging around the world.
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With real wages in many countries having been stagnant for years, the inflation surge has brought unions back to life.
Workers such as these Starbucks employees in St. Anthony, Minn., increasingly went on strike in 2022.
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Workers have filed the most union petitions since 2015 and the number of strikes have surged, but whether this turns into a sustained increase in membership rates is still unclear.
It’s more necessary than ever before to re-examine the fundamentals of our economic order.
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Unions are calling on the government to negotiate on pay, here’s how it could mediate discussions between employers and unions.
The Ontario Assembly on Workplace Democracy examined how everyday people experience work and what they want done to make work better and their voices heard.
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Improving the ability for worker’s voices and perspectives to be heard in the workplace could have wide ranging benefits for employers and broader society at large.
When University of Manitoba Faculty Association went on strike and hit the picket lines in 2016, the association raised issues about having a greater say over ever-increasing workloads, appropriate use of metrics in evaluation and job security.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods
Education strikes by university and public school workers are political fights about diminished respect for education as a public good and workers’ rights in an economy that perpetuates inequality.
Is a food courier who owns one scooter a worker?
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There are ways in which platform workers can resist the rise in job insecurity and poor working conditions brought on by digital labour platforms.
CUPE members and supporters join a demonstration outside the office of Parm Gill, Member of Provincial Parliament for the riding of Milton, Ont., on Nov. 4, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn
Frustration about unsettled bargaining that predates the pandemic could get channelled into pronounced resistance from educational workers during the coming months.