June 10, 2013 |
Bill C-377 is a solution in search of a problem. This bill has little to do with transparency, as the government claims.
Bill C-377
May 16, 2013 |
Our right to strike has been attacked. Free collective bargaining has been disrupted.The next attack will likely be on the Rand formula.
Canadian workers' rights: It's a question of fairness
In late March, I spent a few days with some other retirees at a political action conference in Toronto. We were among close to 1,500 labour activists and leaders from across Canada who spent the weekend talking about the attacks on working families in Canada and what we can do about them. Why, you ask, would retirees be interested in this? Well, when we were young our parents did not have many of the rights and benefits Canadian workers enjoy today. And during our working lives, we fought hard and long with our unions for the wages and benefits workers enjoy today, a fair share of the richness of Canada. Wages and benefits that allowed us to buy a house, take an occasional vacation, put our kids through college and university, and set aside something for retirement.
April 1, 2013 |
On the horizon is a legislative attack on union security, which will seek to introduce regressive U.S.-style anti-labour legislation in Canada for the first time.
When crisis becomes opportunity: Progressive organizing after Bill C-377
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Yesterday morning, I happened upon a Toronto Star article that woke me quicker than my morning coffee. The article featured a Conservative MP and Senator taking turns insulting Attiwapiskat Chief Teresa Spence after her six week hunger strike.
In the world of public low blows, these were among the dirtiest I've seen.
Transparency for unions and other 'little people'
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I had a good old-fashioned knock-em-down drag-em-out debate with Ian Lee from Carleton University on CBC's Power and Politics about Bill C-377.
There were a number of "zingers" from Prof. Lee that are worth considering:
- He said "hundreds of thousands" of Ontarians have their salaries listed on the government's sunshine list (reporting salaries of those who earn over $100,000). Of course it's not "hundreds of thousands," and at any rate unions are not tax-financed organizations.
Harper goes after trade unions with Bill C-377
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The latest victory of business-funded politics was recorded last week when the Harper Conservatives passed Bill C-377 aimed at hobbling the ability of trade unions to participate in public life.
With its legislation (technically an amendment to the Income Tax Act), the Harper government is imposing new financial regulations that will add steep compliance costs and time-consuming administrative requirements to the normal activities of representing trade unionists.
