right to work

Right to work in Canada?

| December 7, 2012

Yesterday the Michigan legislature passed “right-to-work” legislation that would ban unions from collecting dues from all those covered by union contracts via paycheck deductions. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has said he intends to sign the bill into law. Michigan will now join 23 other states in America that have similar anti-union laws. The psychological blow of Michigan, a union stronghold, passing right-to-work will have on the U.S. labour movement can’t be overstated.

Right-to-Work: The (Ayn?) Rand Formula

Erika Shaker

| October 17, 2012

There's reluctance among Canadian proponents to call for it by name. But Right-to-Work (longer, harder, without representation or recourse, for less money and fewer sick days or pee breaks) seems to be the flavour du jour amongst… ahem… politicians of a certain age.

(By which I mean the Age of Dickens. Pip-pip, cheerio, y'all.)

The 'new' Saskatchewan: Oklahoma North?

Simon Enoch

| September 17, 2012

Of the litany of proposed changes contained in the Saskatchewan government's Consultation Paper on the Renewal of Labour Legislation in Saskatchewan, the most pernicious is the suggestion that employees be allowed to opt out of paying union dues, yet still receive the full benefits of union membership. This idea is dangerously reminiscent of U.S. right-to-work (RTW) laws that already pervade the American south and have recently been proposed in northern states like Wisconsin and Indiana.

Baskin-Robbins and the Walmartization of ice cream

Armine Yalnizyan

| July 20, 2012

It's been an unusually hot summer, and soaring temperatures have boosted sales of that quintessential summer food, ice cream. But Baskin-Robbins has decided to shut its production facility in Peterborough, Ont., and lay off 80 workers because of . . . wait for it . . . increased demand!

From the department of "wait, what?" here's the scoop behind this brain-freeze-inducing decision.

Columnists

Back-to-the-future trend in U.S. labour law comes to Canada

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Caught in a punishing recession that just won't end, many Americans must think they've been transported back to the 1930s. Meanwhile, U.S. labour laws are heading even further back in time. Emboldened Republicans in several states are trying to dismantle the last remaining features of New Deal labour law (as codified in the 1935 Wagner Act).

Tags:

labour unions workers rights anti-union New Deal collective bargaining rights labour laws right to work