Since the summer, the Ontario Liberals have been engaged in a campaign to limit bargaining rights and implement concessions across the public sector. They started with teachers and school support staff in the province by introducing Bill 115. The Liberals were planning on expanding this attack to some 400,000 public sector employees before the legislature was prorogued. Ostensibly, this campaign was undertaken to balance the $15-billion budget deficit, but in reality this has been nothing but a crass ploy to curb the power of organized labour.

Unemployed workers face tightened EI rules

Unemployed Canadians are facing stricter rules for accessing and keeping employment insurance benefits after the Harper government's new rules for EI took effect on January 6th.

The new rules say that claimants must be prepared to accept jobs that pay less and are outside their previous occupation. "Frequent" EI claimants are required to accept any job within a one-hour commute, even if it pays up to 30 percent less than their previous job.

Conservative government rams through anti-union Bill C-377