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Canadian Labour Institute
PAY UP!
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“TELL ME HOW THIS IS DIFFERENT FROM SLAVERY?” It’s a question interns often ask—but always anonymously. That fact alone makes the case against unpaid internships self-evident.
Legions of young Canadians are desperate to find work. The competition is cut throat. They will do almost anything to prove their worth. That too often includes working for free—like slaves.
TEMP CONTEMPT
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Joven Ednalaguim, forced to work for $3.73 an hour
THE BOSS CHEATED THEM, BUT THEY WERE HAPPY HE DID. Therefore, Hector Mantolino should not go to jail.
That was the pitch Mantonlino’s lawyer made to a court in Halifax January 25. It was an argument beneath contempt. But not really surprising in the trial of a man who had nothing but contempt for the workers be preyed on.
KILLER SHIFTS
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RN Karen Noseworthy: “We’ve got to take the time to say ‘Good job.’”
NOBODY WANTS NURSES TO GET TOO EXHAUSTED TO CARE. Yet our provincial governments keep making that a real possibility. Nowhere more so than in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The government there refuses to spend money to hire the nurses the province needs. It makes the nurses they do have work overtime, instead. More and more for 24-hour shifts. This is bad economics and a health risk for patients and nurses alike.
N0 WAGE WEDGE
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SAME WORK. SAME PAY. NO BRAINER. NOT YET. That’s why the 900 workers at the Saskatchewan Co-op operations in Saskatoon walked off the job on November 1 and were still there when this was written on January 23—84 days later.
Saskatoon Co-op management wants to pay new hires less. The 900 workers in UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) Local 1400 think that’s grossly unfair and unacceptable in any contract they could accept.
STRIKING BACK
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THE RIGHT TO STRIKE IS NOT OPEN TO INTERPRETATION. That’s the principle at the heart of a case the BC Ferry & Marine Workers Union (BCFMWU) has taken to the BC Supreme Court.
SOLIDARITY BY THE SLICE
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David Heady and Julie Lytle, air traffic controllers in Portland, Maine, were two of the many American controllers treated to pizza by Canadian air traffic controllers
YA GOTTA LOVE WORKING FOLKS. They can always see through all the baloney and bullshit to do something good. That’s why Canadian air traffic controllers sent hundreds of pizzas to American air traffic controllers on January 11.
UNIONS MATTER #11
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YOUNG WORKERS HAVE DISCOVERED AN OLD TRUTH: We are stronger than we know when we stand together.
Baristas are discovering that. They are starting to “wake up and smell the coffee.” They are not alone.
Young workers are unionizing everywhere, from coffee shops to legal clinics.
AMAZON CRACKS
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Workers rally outside the Amazon operation in Minnesota December 14
SOMALI WORKERS IN MINNESOTA HAVE CRACKED THE AMAZON WALL. They have gotten Amazon to negotiate with them. It’s something no other workers have ever been able to do.
But the Somali-American workers want more than words. They held a rally outside the Amazon operation in Shakopee, Minnesota on December 14 to reinforce that point.
BULLSHIT JOBS
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ALL JOBS ARE BULLSHIT JOBS. It’s in the nature of the beast we call capitalism to make them that way. Deep in our reptilian brains we all know this. A graduate degree in economics is not required. A Tim Horton’s degree will do.
