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 26, 2026

Bonuses for some — but not all — tradespeople forcing some to consider leaving sector, welders say
CBC
Trades workers in a Newfoundland and Labrador government depot say policy is paying some of their colleagues tens of thousands more dollars while leaving others with nothing for the same amount of work — and it's driving new and veteran hires alike to look elsewhere.

Lockout at Titan Tool and Die is finally over — and ends with severances
CBC
A long-standing lockout at Titan Tool and Die has ended with the workers — some of whom have worked there for 40 years — getting severances, says the union representing them.

1 in 10 emergency physicians leaving Canadian ERs, national survey suggests
CBC
Dr. Kaitlin Stockton has watched far too many patients suffer in overflowing emergency departments.

Quebec paramedics reach in-principle agreement with government
CityNews
Paramedics and the Quebec government have reached an agreement-in-principle after more than three years without a collective bargaining agreement.

B.C. Nurses’ Union to end strike, accept mediators’ recommendations
Oak Bay News
The B.C. Nurses’ Union has agreed to end job action and accept a mediated settlement with the Health Employers’ Association of B.C.

Unionized workers at NextStar Energy vote 98% in favour of strike action to back contract demands
CTV News
Unionized workers at NextStar Energy support strike action if needed to back contract demands.

Paramedics reach a tentative agreement with the Quebec government
CTV News
Quebec and a union representing 3,500 paramedics have reached a tentative labour agreement after more than three years without a collective agreement.

WestJet Flight Attendants Are Ready To Make History
The Maple
Nearly a year after Air Canada flight attendants forced unpaid work in the airline industry onto the national agenda, the issue is once again at the centre of a brewing labour dispute.

Burnout among emergency room doctors high, one in 10 left the specialty, study finds
Globe and Mail
Burnout among Canadian emergency room doctors is high, with almost half of respondents in a recent survey reporting they had reduced their work hours, while 10 per cent had left the specialty, a newly published study says.

Anti-Data Center Movement Is on Collision Course With Labor Unions
Newsweek
Calls for a data center moratorium have surged across the country amid concerns about their impact on local communities and the environment—but labor unions are embracing their construction.

Around 7,000 Haitian workers to be removed from Indiana’s workforce on Monday
Indiana Public Media
Weedberline Cetoute owns a flower shop in Indianapolis and studied business at Ivy Tech Community College, but her father is the main breadwinner for the family.

Students continue to criticize handling of MITT’s closure
Winnipeg Free Press
Students at a Manitoba trade college say their education has been hampered as a result of its impending closure and they blame government for a poor transition.

Manitoba teacher's certification revoked after sexual messages sent to U.S. police officer posing as teen girl
CBC
A western Manitoba educator has been stripped of his teaching certificate after Minnesota police said he sent sexually explicit messages to a social media account he believed belonged to a 15-year-old girl, but Mounties say there's not enough evidence to charge him.

Universities should stop treating AI as a cheating problem
Globe and Mail
My two children are undergraduates, one at McGill, one at the University of Toronto. They have made opposite bets on AI. One refuses to touch it, convinced that real learning only happens without the machine. The other, who uses it daily and carries a quiet mix of shame and worry, wonders: Am I still learning anything at all? Neither has received meaningful guidance from their university. They are improvising their education alone.

Protect Teacher Education: Listen to Experts, Stop Political Interference through Bill 101
Action Network
Ontario's government is rushing major changes to teacher education programs through the Putting Student Achievement First Act, 2026, (or Bill 101) without meaningful consultation, adequate planning, or respect for the expertise of Ontario's educators.

Higher Ed Can’t Be Neutral in an Age of Brutality. It Must Choose Democracy.
truthout
Across the United States, and increasingly in other democracies under siege, higher education faces a coordinated assault unlike anything witnessed in generations. State governments are prohibiting the teaching of histories that confront slavery, colonialism, Indigenous dispossession, structural racism, and widening inequality. Books are disappearing from classrooms and libraries. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are being dismantled. Faculty are encountering political intimidation, ideological surveillance, and threats to their employment. Students who have protested Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza have been suspended, arrested, disciplined, and treated less as citizens exercising democratic rights than as enemies of public order. Universities themselves are facing threats of financial retaliation if they refuse to conform to the demands of increasingly authoritarian governments.

After Trump’s order, West Point curbed faculty speech. One professor said no.
Washington Post
The longest-serving law professor at West Point rose to declare the school’s new rules unconstitutional. Within moments, a uniformed colonel stood to challenge him.

White House Science Report Calls For Reducing University Research Funding
Forbes
After criticizing the current state of science in the United States, a new White House report, released this week, calls for reduced funding for the nation’s research universities and argues that the government should re-allocate much of that money to the “individual scientist” instead of “legacy institutions.”

July 24, 2026

Bank of Canada ordered for second time not to use replacement workers during strike
CTV News
The Bank of Canada has been ordered for the second time this month to stop using the services of contract workers while its security officers are on strike.

Saskatchewan health-care workers’ union to vote on potential strike this fall
Global News
Saskatchewan’s union for thousands of health-care workers will vote on potential job action in September after years of bargaining with its provincial employer.

Striking Metro workers accused of ‘violently’ barging into Montreal call centre
The Gazette
About 100 Metro workers in the fourth month of a continuing strike are alleged to have barged into a Montreal call centre July 8, where court documents claim they pushed a security guard, vandalized computers and spilled a bucket of mop water on the floor.

While employers search for talent, Canada overlooks half a million workers
RDNewsNow
Canada has a labour shortage and a labour surplus at the same time. Canada’s labour force shortages are no longer a temporary challenge. Across the country, help wanted signs are everywhere.

Carney pledges to defend Canadian workers as premiers unite against new U.S. tariffs
HRD
Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged to defend Canadian workers from US tariffs on July 23, 2026. A fresh 10 percent US levy on Canadian goods is now putting immediate pressure on HR leaders to reassess workforce plans and retraining strategies.

The postal bargaining round unlike any other
Canadian Dimension
Recently, members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) voted overwhelmingly to ratify new collective agreements covering both urban and rural employees at Canada Post. The agreements brought to a close nearly two years of negotiations marked by unprecedented developments, strategic reversals, government intervention, and internal divisions within the union.

Union says relationship with Air Canada has “deteriorated,” urges new CEO to “rebuild trust”
PAX
The union representing more than 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge is calling on the airline's incoming chief executive officer to rebuild a strained relationship with frontline employees, saying the current labour environment has become increasingly confrontational.

Let’s protect workers from heat stroke. It’s time to back new regulations in BC and across the country
Rabble
Heatstroke can kill you, and it is an ugly, painful death. The symptoms can include: High body temperature; A core body temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius); change in mental state, with confusion, agitation, slurred speech, irritability, delirium, seizures and coma. Other signs include change in sweating pattern, nausea and vomiting, flushed skin, rapid breathing and racing heart.

‘Forced labour’ rationale for Trump tariffs met with bewilderment
The Guardian
Donald Trump has once again inspired anger and confusion in US allies and trading partners as he imposed a wave of tariffs on more than 80 countries, replacing an expiring global duty introduced earlier this year.

Claire Valdez Plans to Take the Labor Movement to Washington
Jacobin
After fifteen years cleaning rooms at the Fairfield by Marriott in Times Square, Ramona Garcia told the crowd, she earned just $22 an hour. Every week, she paid about $100 for health insurance. She had no pension. After finishing her shift at the hotel, she cleaned private homes to make ends meet.

Anti-Union Meeting Bans Evade Challenges Except in California
Bloomberg Law
California’s restrictions on mandatory anti-union meetings at work are proving more vulnerable to legal challenges than other states’ laws, which are escaping court scrutiny thanks to fuzzy or limited enforcement schemes.

Rochester Nurses Stood with Their Nonunion Co-Workers—and Stopped Millions in Health Care Cuts
Labor Notes
What should union workers do when their nonunion co-workers come under attack?

Anthropic case approved
Society of Authors
US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved the Anthropic deal on 20 July in San Francisco. The settlement first proposed last September resolves a two-year-long class action filed by US based writers Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson in August 2024.

University courses covering Israel-Palestine should be audited, Julian Leeser tells royal commission
The Guardian
The shadow education minister, Julian Leeser, has called for universities to undertake an audit of any classes that teach about the Jewish community, Israel or Palestine.

North Korea targets university students in media crackdown
Daily NK
North Korea’s state youth organization has ordered a special crackdown on banned foreign media. It has named university students as the “primary target,” a source in South Hwanghae province told Daily NK recently.

July 23, 2026

Librarian to run in North Kildonan ward
Winnipeg Free Press
Labour leader Orvie Dingwall is throwing her hat in the ring to unseat Coun. Jeff Browaty in North Kildonan.

Canada overlooks scores of workers
Winnipeg Free Press
Canada has a labour shortage and a labour surplus at the same time. Canada’s labour force shortages are no longer a temporary challenge. Across the country, “help wanted” signs are everywhere.

Low wages are pushing Saskatchewan’s health care system to its breaking point: health care workers will hold a strike vote in September
CUPE
Saskatchewan’s frontline health care workers will hold a strike vote in September. Members of CUPE 5430, who work in hospitals, long-term care homes, community health facilities, laboratories, and other medical services across the province, continue to provide exceptional care despite increasing workloads, chronic short staffing, and years without meaningful wage improvements.

Carney government cut nearly half the jobs at nerve centre for managing wildfires: union
Ottawa Citizen
Before discussing wildfire smoke with U.S. President Donald Trump at the World Cup final on Sunday, July 19, Prime Minister Mark Carney posted photos on social media from a visit to the federal Government Operations Centre (GOC).

CWA Canada Slams Microsoft Over Three-Minute Bethesda Layoff Call
Game Luster
CWA Canada has publicly condemned Microsoft over the handling of layoffs at Bethesda Game Studios Montreal, telling Game Developer that around a dozen union members were terminated via a three-minute video call on July 8, 2026, prevented from asking questions, and instructed to remain at home for the following eight weeks while continuing to receive pay.

More than 200,000 people face a pay cut under the Government’s new leave law, bill to become defining election issue
PSA
Progressing employment law will cut the annual pay of more than 200,000 people during a cost-of-living crisis, according to fresh analysis by the PSA.

Air Canada ratifies contract with technical, maintenance workers’ union
Globe and Mail
Air Canada says workers in its technical operations, maintenance and operational support group have ratified their new contract.

Indigenous workers discriminated against in applications for restaurant jobs, McMaster study finds
Globe and Mail
Indigenous workers have the worst employment outcomes when applying for jobs in the food services industry compared to white workers and other racialized workers, according to a new study from researchers at McMaster University.

More than 9,000 federal public servants apply for early retirement
CTV News
More than 9,000 federal public servants have applied for an early retirement package, with only three days left for employees to submit an application to leave the federal government early without penalty on their pension.

Applications for federal public service jobs drop by almost 30 per cent
CityNews
The number of people applying for a job in the federal government plummeted last year as Ottawa works to slash the size of the public service.

How hot is too hot to work? Report calls for heat protections for B.C. workers
Global News
As another stretch of hot weather grips the Okanagan, a new report is asking a simple question: How hot is too hot to work?

Amazon signs “first” company-wide national union agreements in Italy
Retail Insight Network
Amazon has entered its “first-ever” national collective agreements applicable across an entire country’s operations, covering all 57 Italian sites.

Mountain View teacher stripped of licence over explicit messages
Winnipeg Free Press
A Roblin teacher has been stripped of his professional licence after an undercover police investigation found he sent explicit messages to a social media user he believed to be a 15-year-old girl.

University of Ottawa daycare closure 'massive disruption' for families
Ottawa Citizen
The University of Ottawa is without an on-campus daycare for the first time in decades after the Bernadette Child Care Centre closed this spring, leaving dozens of families searching for new childcare arrangements.

AMNAS and COFAM Condemn McGill’s Challenge to Nursing Union Certification
COFAM
The Association of McGill Nursing Academic Staff (AMNAS) and the Confederation of Faculty Associations of McGill (COFAM) denounce the McGill administration’s latest affront to labour rights: its contestation of AMNAS’ certification by the Tribunal administratif du travail.

Ministers rule out insolvency regime for struggling universities
Research Professional News (UK)
Ministers have rejected calls to establish a “special regime” for bailing out universities facing insolvency, saying that political intervention should not be the “default response” in such scenarios.

July 22, 2026

Disciplinary hearing centres on teacher’s 15-second hug with student
Winnipeg Free Press
School security camera footage of a nearly 15-second hug between a teacher and one of her students was repeatedly screened and scrutinized at a historic hearing.

Government of Canada invests more than $289 million to address social and economic challenges
Government of Canada
Today, on behalf of the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, Karim Bardeesy, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry, announced more than $289 million in support for 1,788 social sciences and humanities research projects and partnerships across Canada. The funded projects span a diverse range of topics—including climate change adaptation, economic recovery, social justice and impacts of emerging technologies on society—that will generate new knowledge and enable partnerships to help translate insights into solutions for people and their communities.

Aligning curricula with the workforce: the case against
University Affairs
The first few courses I took in philosophy were a revelation. Without any hint of what awaited me, I was thrown into a foreign universe of isms, each more spectacular than the next. Empiricism, rationalism, dualism, materialism — the list went on and on. I was hungry for ideas and ready to devour every new one that came my way. Most impressive of all were the isms named after people who once lived and breathed — Platonism, Cartesianism, Kantianism — for these spoke directly to my ego and fueled my sense of ambition. Initially, I found it hard to navigate the myriad arguments and opinions. I was persuaded by almost every position taken, until a rival view proposed to displace it. But eventually things settled down, and I found both my convictions and my prejudices.

Students continue to protest closure of Montreal college after province suspends its permit
CBC
Students gathered Sunday in front of a private college in Montreal to protest its closure after its permit was not renewed by the Quebec government.

‘Frustrated and stressed’: Thousands impacted by cyber attack at Calgary university
CTV News
Students and staff at Mount Royal University are concerned and frustrated after a cyber attack targeting the school last month compromised thousands of people’s sensitive information.

Why Canadians are taking ‘skillcations’ – and where to find one that works for you
Globe and Mail
Trading in a sight-seeing itinerary for a class syllabus may not be every Canadian’s idea of a dream vacation, but for Jessica Yao it’s been a welcome change.

US science funding barred for Chinese partnerships
The PIE
The policy was announced on July 8 and will take effect from the start of next fiscal year on 1 October 2027, when all NSF-funded projects with “restricted entities” will be disallowed.

CUPE leader Delbridge dies
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg union leader Gord Delbridge has died.

B.C. nurses intimidated and threatened by employer during labour dispute: union
CTV News
The union representing B.C. nurses says more than 5,200 of its members have reported being intimidated or threatened by their employer for not performing non-nursing duties during job action.

New research delves into occupations of people disproportionately affected by opioid deaths
Globe and Mail
Researchers hope a new report examining the occupations of people who have died of opioid overdoses in Ontario raises awareness about the breadth of the population affected by the drug epidemic.

Jobs filled by temporary foreign workers are the ones Canadian youth don't want
Elliot Lake Today
New research from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) reveals that the jobs most commonly filled by temporary foreign workers (TFWs) are exactly the ones young Canadians are least willing to take.

New poll: Canadians draw a line: protect workers, don't restrict strikes
PR Newswire
As the federal government reviews the Canada Labour Code, new national polling conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights for the Canadian Labour Congress shows Canadians believe workers need a stronger voice at work, are concerned that large corporations have too much power, and reject proposals that would make it harder for workers to exercise their right to strike.

US court says longstanding NLRB rule on post-merger union bargaining is invalid
Reuters
A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday said a decades-old National Labor Relations Board policy requiring companies that acquire other employers to bargain with their workers' unions is unlawful, citing a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck a blow to federal agency powers.

Retail Workers Walk Out: Inside Germany’s Escalating Pay Fight and the Legal Rules That Shape It
Ad Hoc News
More than 5 million retail employees across Germany are caught in a tense standoff between unions and employers, with a one-day warning strike on July 18 underscoring the depth of the conflict. The walkout, organized by the ver.di union, followed collapsed negotiations in Baden-Württemberg. Ver.di is demanding a 7 percent wage increase over 12 months; the German Retail Federation (HDE) has countered with 3.5 percent over 24 months. The dispute affects roughly 5.2 million workers in the sector.