Photo: Flickr/library and Archives Canada

The Federal and Ontario budgets announced this week were packed with austerity. The false promises of balanced budgets were used to justify service cuts and privatization across the board. Add that to the similarly lean budget released by the Nova Scotia Liberals last week and we’ve got a whole lot of mess coming our way.

What’s that saying? April austerity brings what in May? Here’s what happened this week in labour:

 

 

 

  • It’s hard to know where to start with the Federal Budget, but luckily Unifor Economist Jim Stanford has highlighted the five most outrageous things about the budget to make our outrage more manageable.
  • It’s election time in Alberta and the long-reigning conservatives are trying to use public sector wages to distract from more serious revenue problems. Tory leader Jim Prentice announced last week that the government would be imposing a wage and hiring freezes across the public sector.
  • April 20th was Equal Pay day in Ontario! Did you know that even though women now account for roughly half the labour force, the gender pay gap in Ontario is 31.5% — one of the biggest reported gaps in the world.
  • On Monday, high school teachers in Ontario’s Durham District School Board walked off the job. Seven addition school boards, including Peel, Sudbury, Halton, Waterloo, Ottawa and Thunder Bay, may also go on strike in upcoming weeks.  Under the new two-tiered bargaining structure, big ticket items, such as wages, are negotiated centrally between the provincial government and the union, while local matters are negotiated at the district school board level.
  • As part of a $10.85-billion bailout by the Ontario and Canadian governments, General Motors made a commitment to maintain certain production levels in Canada. In 2016, GM will be freed from that commitment. If GM’s Oshawa plants close, Unifor estimates that Ontario will lose up to 33,000 jobs and the Canadian economy will shrink by more than $5 billion a year.
  • Over 1,200 Winnipeg transit workers voted to reject a contract deal proposed by the city. Effective Monday, April 27, transit workers have been asked to refuse any voluntary overtime requests to increase bargaining pressure.
  • B.C.’s COPE local, has won its grievance against B.C. Hydro. The arbitration found that the crown corporation’s increasing reliance on outside contractors was being used to eliminate union positions.
  • The Northwest Territories Association of Communities was forced to move its annual general meeting to the K’atl’odeeche First Nation reserve due to the ongoing strike by municipal workers in Hay River. Municipal workers, who have been on strike since February 9, are optimistic that negotiations, resumed last week, will yield a fair deal.
  • Budget cuts and an aging workforce are adding pressure to a mounting crisis in Nova Scotia health care. With 185 vacant positions in acute and long-term nursing, overtime is being used as a band aid solution to a growing problem. 
  • And on the other side of the pond (I’ve always wanted to say that!), the 76 staff at Windsor Castle – one of the Queen’s residences – have gone on strike for the first time in 900 years. They currently make less than minimum wage.

 

Ella Bedard is rabble.ca’s labour intern and an associate editor at GUTS Canadian Feminist Magazine. She has written about labour issues for Dominion.ca and the Halifax Media Co-op and is the co-producer of the radio documentary The Amelie: Canadian Refugee Policy and the Story of the 1987 Boat People.

 

Ella Bedard

Ella Bedard

Ella is a historian-come-journalist with fickle tastes and strong progressive principles. She has written about labour issues for Dominion.ca and the Halifax Media Co-op and is the co-producer of the...