Canada Post back-to-work legislation unjustifed, finds UN labour agency
The UN International Labour Organization has found that the back-to-work legislation the federal government imposed on striking Canadian postal workers in June 2011 was an unjustified violation of the right to strike.
The agency’s review says that “the Government should have limited its intervention to guaranteeing compliance with the negotiated minimum services.”
Government should change laws to protect workers in precarious jobs, says Ontario Law Commission
About 22 per cent of Ontario workers are employed in low-wage, part-time, casual, contract and temporary jobs with no benefits, finds a landmark report released this week by the Law Commission of Ontario.
The report, based on a multi-year study of vulnerable workers and precarious work in the province, includes dozens of recommendations of actions the government can take to improve conditions for vulnerable workers. These include creating a pooled benefits bank for workers without coverage from employers, creating new rules to bring hourly wages of part-time workers up to par with full-timers’, and increasing awareness, investigation, and enforcement of workplace health and safety rules.
Canada’s job losses in March worst since 2009
Canada lost more jobs in March than in any month since 2009, new Statistics Canada data show. 54,500 jobs were lost — mostly full-time, private sector positions — wiping out all of the new job creation added in February. That puts the unemployment rate at 7.2 per cent.
“Economists had forecast an increase in jobs of up to 6,500 during the month and an unemployment rate unchanged at 7 per cent,” reports the Ottawa Citizen.
Fast-food workers strike again in NYC; other mass strikes paralyze ports, schools in countries across globe
Yesterday, hundreds of New York City fast-food workers walked off the job to protest poverty wages and abusive working conditions, echoing a similar walkout last November.
Workers’ strikes also disrupted or shut down ports, banks and schools this week in Hong Kong, Brazil, Cypress, Denmark and Swaziland.
Norway is bracing for a strike at key onshore oil platforms next week, while in the U.K., Parliament and the press are in a tizzy over unions’ plans for a co-ordinated nationwide general strike.
Other headlines of note
The benefits of a $40,000 cashier
Justice at Just Us!: cooperatives, unions and labour rights
Ontario Navistar’s Appeal of Pension Ruling Shameful, CAW says
Momentum grows for domestic workers legislation
Women Unionists of the Arab Spring Battle Two Foes: Sexism and Neoliberalism
Battleground against Neoliberalism: European Trade Unions and the Struggle for Public Services
Mexican Workers Win Ownership of Tire Plant with Three-Year Strike
Making the Best of a Bad Situation at Air Canada
Ontario teacher deal boosts sick day payouts, reduces unpaid days off
Photo by David P. Ball.
Support rabble today!
We’re so glad you stopped by! Thanks for consuming rabble content this year.
rabble.ca is 100% reader and donor funded, so as an avid reader of our content, we hope you will consider gifting rabble with a donation during our summer fundraiser today.
Whether it be a one-time donation or a small monthly contribution, your support is critical to keep rabble writers producing the work you’ve come to rely on as a part of a healthy media diet.
Become a rabble rouser — donate to rabble.ca today.
Nick Seebruch, editor
