Labour and education in the news
Below are recent news stories on labour and education related issues. Click the headline to be taken to the article. Some may require a subscription. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for article text.
July 25, 2024
CUPE inks tentative deal for 18,000 health workers
Winnipeg Free Press
The union for 18,000 support workers have reached a tentative contract deal with four health authorities.
New B.C. regulations spark debate over future of gig workers
Business Intelligence for B.C.
B.C. gig workers and consumers face an uncertain future due to new regulations.
Bernie Sanders report exposes Amazon’s ‘outrageous injury levels’ during Prime Day season
UNI Global Union
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders released an interim report last week condemning “outrageous injury levels” at Amazon during the Prime Day season. This report is part of a broader investigation into the e-commerce giant’s workplace safety practices and corporate conduct.
Negotiations between NJ Transit, engineers' union stalled. Why President Biden had to intervene
CBS News
President Joe Biden intervened Wednesday after NJ Transit's negotiations with the union representing engineers stalled.
Blue States Line Up To Ban Anti-Union ‘Captive Audience’ Meetings
HuffPost
A growing number of states are moving to bar employers from holding mandatory anti-union meetings at work, a move labor advocates hope will give employees more confidence to vote “union yes.”
Court Ruling In SpaceX Case Could Fundamentally Alter Private-Sector Unions
Mackinac Center
A new ruling by the Federal District Court in Texas could have national implications on how private-sector labor unions are regulated.
America’s Public Sector Employees Are Happy at Work, But Majority Aren’t Confident They Are on Track for the Retirement They Envision
BusinessWire
America’s public sector workers report feeling satisfied with what they do for a living, with 80% saying they are happy in their chosen professions, according to a new study from Corebridge Financial surveying healthcare, education, government and non-profit employees. While 42% say they hope to celebrate the end of their careers with a long retirement of 20 or more years, just 41% feel they are on track to achieve the retirement they envision and nearly a quarter (24%) are unsure if they are saving enough.
Major Unions Are Calling for an End to Israeli Military Aid
Jacobin
A coalition of unions representing nearly half of all union members in the United States sent a letter this week urging President Joe Biden to halt all US military aid to Israel. The letter, sent ahead of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US today, urges Biden to stop arming Israel “as part of the work to secure an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the war in Gaza.”
Understanding America’s Labor Shortage: The Most Impacted Industries
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major disruption in America’s labor force—something many have referred to as "The Great Resignation." In 2022, more than 50 million workers quit their jobs, following the 47.8 million who did so in 2021. In 2023, this trend gradually subsided, with 30.5 million workers resigning as of August.
G4S 'has broken minimum wage and modern slavery laws'
GMB Union
Outsourcing firm G4S has broken minimum wage and modern slavery laws over the way it has treated Job Centre security guards.
Olympic breakfast off the menu? Staff at IOC’s luxury Paris hotel go on strike
The Guardian
The IOC was embarrassed on Thursday morning when workers from the luxury hotel occupied by its delegation at Paris 2024 went on strike, claiming they have not received a pay rise for seven years.
Nine newspaper journalists to strike during Olympics over pay if management doesn’t ‘resolve the issues’
The Guardian
Journalists at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age will walk off the job for five days later this week if their demands, including for a higher pay rise, aren’t met.
EU sues Germany, Italy for alleged discrimination against mobile workers
Reuters
The European Commission said on Thursday it had decided to refer Germany and Italy to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over practices it said discriminated against mobile workers.
Union rages over 'leaked' ambulance staff scam claims
The Northern Daily Leader
Ambulance Victoria leaders have been accused of leaking allegations of a $3.5 million embezzling scam involving six members of its corporate workforce for political reasons.
July 24, 2024
Community partners awarded over $12M in funding to tackle gender-based violence in Manitoba
CBC
A micro-credential program tailored to train the next front-line shelter support workers received a boost in funding to continue offering tuition-free education — one of many community initiatives aiming to help those impacted by gender-based violence in Manitoba.
NDP should hold fast on teachers’ discipline
Winnipeg Free Press
It appears the union representing teachers in Manitoba will stop at nothing to try to shield its members from accountability when found guilty of misconduct.
MUN Students’ Union calls on university to create supports for Bangladeshi students
ntv
MUN Students’ Union is showing their support to student protesters in Bangladesh, while calling on the university to create tangible supports for MUN Bangladeshi students at this time.
Hamline University reaches settlement with instructor who showed images of Prophet Muhammad in class
StarTribune
Hamline University reached a settlement this week with a former art history instructor whose contract wasn't renewed after she showed centuries-old artworks in class that depicted the Prophet Muhammad.
US Teachers Pushed Their Union to Divest From Israel. What Happened?
truthout
As the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention kicked off in Houston, Texas, this week, the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza was top of mind for many in attendance.
Chinese university sacks professor after social media accusation of sexual harassment
The Guardian
A top Chinese university has fired a professor, a day after a graduate student accused him of sexual harassment on social media in a rare public allegation and posted recordings as evidence, drawing widespread support.
1 year later, scrutinized recruitment agency fails to bring to Manitoba any of the 150 doctors it promised
CBC
One year after the Manitoba government hired a staffing agency to bring 150 doctors to work in the province, not a single physician has arrived.
Work-Safety Charges Laid in Refinery Blast; RCMP Still Investigating
VOCM
Charges have now been laid in connection with a fatal explosion at the Come By Chance refinery almost two years ago.
Walt Disney, unions reach tentative pact, avoiding work stoppage at Disneyland
Yahoo
Unions representing 14,000 Disneyland employees said on Wednesday they had reached a tentative labor agreement with Walt Disney, averting a work stoppage at the theme park.
US judge will not block Biden administration ban on worker 'noncompete' agreements
Reuters
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by a tree-trimming company to block a U.S. Federal Trade Commission rule from taking effect that would ban agreements commonly signed by workers not to join their employers' rivals or launch competing businesses.
The role of resilience as a key player in mitigating job burnout's impact on workplace safety
nature
It is probable that resilience can play a significant role in mitigating the impact of job burnout on workplace safety outcomes. Identification of these relations and paths can be useful for reducing burnout effects and reinforcing safety behavior factors. This study seeks to explore the relationship between job burnout and unsafe behavior, with a specific focus on the mediating role of resilience. This cross-sectional study, conducted in 2023, involved 200 workers in the spinning and weaving industries in central Iran. The study used printed questionnaires distributed to study participants during their rest periods to collect data for further analysis. The questionnaires included demographic information, the Maslach burnout inventory, the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, and a set of safety behavior questionnaires. Subsequently, the study analyzed various dimensions of job burnout with respect to unsafety behavior by constructing a theoretical model using AMOS software. The results indicate that three burnout dimensions indirectly influence safety compliance through resilience (P < 0.001). Specifically, depersonalization and personal accomplishment directly and indirectly affect safety participation through resilience and safety compliance (P < 0.001). Resilience had the highest direct and total effect coefficients on safety compliance (0.692 and 0.692), while emotional exhaustion exhibited the highest indirect coefficients (− 0.505). Regarding safety participation, the highest direct coefficient was associated with personal accomplishment (0.406), and the greatest indirect and total coefficients with depersonalization (− 0.370 and − 0.588). By recognizing the differential impacts of various burnout dimensions, tailored interventions can be developed to address specific facets of burnout, thus optimizing safety initiatives. Moreover, the pivotal role of resilience unveils a promising avenue for mitigating the adverse effects of burnout on unsafe behaviors.
Amazon is moving heaven and earth to beat back unions – but it’s losing ground fast
The Guardian
It was 6am and raining hard when I arrived at the picket line outside Amazon’s Coventry warehouse. Despite the weather, hundreds of workers were gathering on either side of the road in an industrial estate on the city’s outskirts. When I chatted to them, they told hopeful stories of how a pay rise and union recognition could improve their lives. Now, one year and 37 days of strike action later, their campaign for union recognition has suffered a serious setback. Last week, they found out that they have lost an election that would have seen the union GMB recognised by Amazon for collective bargaining for the first time in the UK.
Unions who think Republicans are warming to labor rights are getting played
The Guardian
When Teamsters president Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican national convention on opening night, it seemed to hint that the Republican party – long a lapdog for corporate interests – was turning an important page and would stop being so hostile toward labor unions.
July 23, 2024
Eager nurses dive into public-health system’s inviting travel float pool
Winnipeg Free Press
The provincial government has hired 175 nurses for its travel nurse float pool targeted at reducing the public system’s costly reliance on staffing from private agencies.
LCBO strike should have never happened, Doug Ford says, blaming union for last-minute dispute
Globe and Mail
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the strike at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario should never have happened and blamed the public-sector union representing workers for almost thwarting the deal at the last-minute.
Canadian workers unfazed by rising unemployment as more intend to look for a new job
Globe and Mail
Canadians are feeling more confident in their ability to find a new job, despite economic uncertainty, high interest rates and rising unemployment, trends which typically inspire them to hunker down where they are.
Montreal hotel workers walk out after union adopts strike mandate
CBC
Employees at the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Montreal walked off the job over the weekend, demanding better pay, working conditions and training.
Hospital workers demonstrate at Ottawa MPP’s office against government’s expansion of private, for-profit hospital services
CUPE
Hospital workers protested the Ford government’s rapid expansion of health care privatization outside Ontario PC MPP Lisa Macleod’s constituency office in Ottawa this morning. In June, the government announced it will nearly double private delivery of MRIs and CT scans.
‘They freaked out’: How a deal to end the LCBO strike almost fell apart at the last minute
Global News
The night had come and gone and the first lights of early morning were on the way when the LCBO and its striking union came to an agreement they felt they could sign on Friday morning.
Edmonton health workers demonstrate outside Misericordia Hospital; union says contract negotiations have stalled
CityNews
Health-care workers with Covenant Health rallied outside the Misericordia Hospital in west Edmonton Monday afternoon.
New data suggests growing demand for temporary foreign workers in several Canadian industries
CIC News
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) reports that the number of people approved to work as temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in Canada has doubled compared to five years ago.
Doug Ford Is Letting Migrant Workers Die From Extreme Heat
The Maple
Migrant farm workers in Ontario are once again calling on the provincial government to enact lifesaving heat protection standards.
Hollywood Labor Stands with Teamsters and Hollywood Basic Crafts and Calls on AMPTP to Bargain in Good Faith
Directors Guild of America
The following is a joint statement from the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), Directors Guild of America (DGA), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), Writers Guild of America East (WGAE), and Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) in support of the Hollywood Basic Crafts—which includes Teamsters Local 399, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 399 (IBT), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 40 (IBEW), Laborers International Union of North America Local 724 (LiUNA!), Operating Plasterers & Cement Masons International Association (OPCMIA) Local 755 and United Association Plumbers Local 78 (UA)—in their ongoing negotiations:
AFL-CIO, major labor unions rush to embrace Harris
The Washington Post
Major labor unions that had been staunch President Biden backers are jumping to declare their support for Vice President Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Mexico’s Lessons for the International Left
Jacobin
On Sunday, June 2, former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum won a resounding victory to become the first woman president in Mexican history. The thirty-two-point drubbing of her conservative opponent, Xóchitl Gálvez — the second landslide in a row for the barely decade-old Morena (National Regeneration Movement) party — was even larger than the one that swept Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to power in 2018. Outstripping final poll averages by some ten to fifteen points, Sheinbaum won from north to south, in urban and rural areas alike, and in every state but one. Crucially, the MORENA coalition also reached the supermajority threshold of two-thirds in the Chamber of Deputies and came close enough in the Senate that it will be able to pass constitutional amendments virtually on its own, without the need to negotiate with the opposition.
New zero-hours rules 'a step in the right direction'
BBC
Young people working in insecure jobs have been promised a "new deal" by the government.
Michigan, CUNY didn’t suitably assess if Israel-Hamas war protests made environment hostile, US says
AP
The University of Michigan and the City University of New York did not adequately investigate complaints about antisemitic or anti-Palestinian harassment linked to campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war and other incidents, according to the results of investigations by the U.S. Education Department announced Monday.
Universities, police spread ‘jaw-dropping’ misinformation about encampments
The Breach
As Katy Anderson drove home from campus that night, she kept checking over her shoulder. Each time she made a turn—six times in total, she remembers counting—two police vans trailing behind her turned as well.
Graduate Students for Academic Freedom v. Graduate Students United at UChicago
Reason
A few years ago, the graduate students at the University of Chicago, where I teach, formed a legally recognized labor union. Last year, that union expanded to include the law school, at least to the extent that law students engage in paid work such as providing research assistance. Law students who want to work as research assistants must either join the union and pay dues, or else pay agency fees to the union even if they do not join. Either way, giving money to the union is a legally required condition of working as a research assistant.
Steep rise in military attacks on higher education globally
University World News
The latest Education under Attack report published by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) notes a steep rise in military and political violence against education in general and higher education in particular during 2022 and 2023 as conflict around the world increased.
Academic freedom just as crucial as a free press or independent judiciary, says Special Rapporteur
United Nations
In every region of the world, people exercising their academic freedom face repression, whether through direct and violent or more subtle methods, an independent expert warned today.
July 22, 2024
Province Advises Employer Prosecuted for Workplace Incident
Government of Manitoba
Manitoba Labour and Immigration is reminding employers to develop and implement safe work procedures for work that is done at the workplace after an employer was prosecuted under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.
MGEU Releases Report on Staffing Crisis in Health Care
MGEU
Today the MGEU released a new report that takes an in-depth look into the staffing crisis in rural health care and urges aggressive action be taken to attract and retain workers and fix the province’s health care system.
Rural health staffing in crisis: union
Winnipeg Free Press
The union that represents more than 6,600 health-care workers in rural Manitoba who are without a contract has demanded better wages and a phasing out of private-agency employees to help address chronic staff shortages.
$175K settlement comes 9 years after woman filed sexism complaint against Winnipeg manufacturer
CBC
After nine years of waiting for a decision in a human rights complaint, a Winnipeg woman has been offered $175,000 in compensation, minus some deductions, by her former employer after she complained about a sexist atmosphere in the workplace.
LCBO strike to end with stores set to reopen Tuesday
CBC
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and the union representing 10,000 of its workers reached a tentative agreement Saturday that could bring an end to the two-week strike that's closed hundreds of LCBO retail stores across the province.
Doug Ford pledges $260M for employers and unions to train workers
Toronto Star
Saddled with a shortage of skilled labour, Premier Doug Ford is earmarking as much as $260 million for employers and unions to train workers.
Gen AI is Coming for Remote Workers First
Harvard Business Review
Three reasons why this period of automation is different from past ones.There’s a tidy story out there when it comes to automation: If anyone felt its bite, it was workers in manufacturing and trade jobs first. The advent of the mechanized loom pushed weavers who worked for themselves into factories. After Ford trotted out the assembly line, skilled mechanics and engineers had to learn to go through rote motions. Eventually, support staff in offices experienced a similar fate. When networked PCs arrived, clerical and administrative workers saw their jobs shift from interacting with people to filling out software forms and checking boxes. All too many of them paid less. All too many build fewer skills. All too many treated with less variety, human connection, and dignity.
Classroom conflict raises concerns
Winnipeg Free Press
Issues related to teacher misconduct in Manitoba are playing out on two fronts — in the courtroom in a high-profile sex abuse case and behind the scenes at the legislature where the union is pushing for a revamp of a new law that calls for greater transparency.
Teachers in 37 divisions reach first provincewide contract
Winnipeg Free Press
Educators in 37 school divisions across Manitoba have reached a tentative collective agreement that includes pay increases and improved working conditions.
Second B.C. university issues trespass notice to pro-Palestinian protesters
Globe and Mail
The University of Victoria in British Columbia says it has told the pro-Palestinian protesters at an on-campus encampment that they are trespassing, setting the stage for the camp’s removal.
Amid rubble and airstrikes, university students in Gaza resume classes online
CBC
Before the Israel-Hamas war broke out last October, Halaa Hamdan's daily routine was built around her life at Al Aqsa University in Gaza.
The Rise and Fall of Britain’s Universities
Jacobin
In January, a report on the financial sustainability of the UK’s Higher Education sector revealed that 40 percent of the country’s universities were forecasting a deficit for 2023–24. By March, the University and College Union (UCU) branch at Queen Mary University of London had launched a live webpage titled “UK HE shrinking.” As the sector dwindles, the page grows; at the time of writing, it identifies sixty-four universities in the UK that are rolling out redundancies, restructures, reorganizations, and department closures.
Draft Israeli law to limit academic speech labelled ‘McCarthyite’
The Guardian
Israel’s education minister and the country’s national union of students are backing a draft law to limit academic speech in the country, which the heads of leading universities have attacked as “McCarthyite” and fundamentally undemocratic.
