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 7, 2026

A prince among graduates
Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba’s public school system is receiving high praise from a Nigerian king who sent his only son to Grade 12 in Transcona.

TRU senate strikes group to better work with board, questions raised around transparency
Castanet
A working group has been struck to get two of Thompson Rivers University's governing bodies more in sync with each other.

When collegiality breeds contempt
University Affairs
Psychological harassment and mental health are growing concerns across universities, and rightly so. Faculty unions see this first-hand as they contend with more complaints and a growing need to support both the members who file complaints and those who face them. Since employers are now legally required to prevent psychosocial risks, understanding the circumstances that either fuel or prevent harmful behaviour has become all the more urgent.

US Higher Education Students Outsourcing Writing to AI at Twice the Rate of UK, Australian Peers
PR Newswire
Turnitin today released its latest Learning Integrity Insights Report revealing a gap in how students use AI for writing and a clear shift toward educators taking ownership of how AI is used in their classrooms and lecture halls.

UNBC and UNBC Faculty Association ratify 2025 collective agreement
UNBC
The University of Northern British Columbia and the University of Northern British Columbia Faculty Association (UNBC-FA) have successfully ratified a new collective agreement based on the Province’s Balanced Measures Mandate, and in accordance with the mandate given to the UNBC-FA by its members. The UNBC-FA represents approximately 375 faculty, including professors, instructors, lecturers, sessional lecturers, librarians and senior lab instructors. 

Universities are relying on AI-detection software to catch cheating. How well do the programs work?
Nature
Last November, Lauren Jager, a chemistry undergraduate student at Idaho State University in Pocatello, was applying to PhD programmes when she noticed that some application portals warned students about using generative artificial-intelligence tools for their personal statements. They informed students that they would use detectors to sniff out applications that contained AI-generated text. The portals weren’t specific about which detectors they were using. But they were clear on one thing: “They said that if they felt that the personal statement had been written with AI, then they would disregard your entire application,” Jager says.

Work permits extended to 2027 for international grads
Winnipeg Free Press
The federal government is offering a reprieve for international graduates who found work and settled in Manitoba, giving the province more time to process a backlog of provincial nominee applications.

Microsoft to cut 4,800 jobs, overhaul Xbox unit
CBC
Microsoft said Monday it would cut 4,800 jobs, or about 2.1 per cent of its global workforce, as part of a restructuring that includes an overhaul of its Xbox gaming business and ‌the divestment of up to five studios. The company is looking to boost returns after years of heavy investment in the division.

Federal union adding millions to strike fund ahead of ‘challenging’ contract talks
Nanaimo News Now
A federal union is planning to add millions of dollars to its strike fund ahead of what it expects to be “challenging” contract talks this fall.

Talks with Ford enter 'critical' week ahead of Friday deadline: automakers' union
CTV News
The union representing Canadian autoworkers says it is in a critical week as it seeks to hammer out a new three-year deal with Ford Motor Co.

Wildland firefighters are firefighters: Union speaks out against misclassificaiton
Rabble
Wildland firefighters are navigating wildfire season without access to the same pension and benefits that other public safety professionals get. The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has been pushing the government to change the National Occupational Classification because it currently excludes wildland firefighters from the firefighter classification.

Public servants protest return-to-office plan outside Prime Minister’s Office
Globe and Mail
Federal public servants marked the first day of a new requirement to work in the office four days a week with a small protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office, criticizing the plan as a waste of taxpayer dollars.

How curbing immigration is hurting the U.S. economy
Globe and Mail
From her offices in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Tex., immigration lawyer Sharadha Kodem has seen President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants eliminate U.S. jobs.

Toxic bananas  - Chiquita’s broken bodies
Public Eye
At dawn, the banana plantation begins to stir even before the sun pierces through the damp mist of Guatemala’s southern coast. On these plantations subcontracted by Chiquita, agricultural workers with gaunt faces thread their way between banana trees, rubber boots sinking into black mud, machetes sharpened and strapped to their belts. They know the day will be long: 10 hours, sometimes 12, for a paltry wage – often below the legal minimum.

July 6, 2026

Major payouts to health authority CEOs seem part of a trend, U of M business instructor says
CBC
The former CEO of Manitoba Shared Health earned nearly $1 million last year, while her counterpart at Winnipeg's health authority made more than $725,000, despite the fact they both only worked one month.

Federal workers return to the office 4 days a week. Will it be smooth sailing or 'another hot mess'?
CBC
It’s the first day of the first week federal employees are expected to return to the office for a minimum of four days a week.

Feds to weigh guardrails, alternatives to 'contentious' labour code tool: Hajdu
CBC
The country's jobs minister says the federal government is exploring possible guardrails or alternatives to using what she says is a "contentious" section of the Canada Labour Code that allows Ottawa to intervene in bitter bargaining conflicts.

Quebec government engineers begin indefinite general strike
CityNews
The general and indefinite strike by government engineers began as planned on Monday morning. It follows a strike that had been taking place every Thursday, as well as in the evenings and on weekends.

These brothers who are temporary foreign workers say they’ll never return to Canada after $178,000 wage theft
Toronto Star
Garick and Ramesh Ramsook are still waiting on more than $178,000 in stolen wages and damages owed to them by a Canadian construction company where they were hired as temporary foreign workers — more than two months after the Ontario Labour Relations Board ordered the company to pay.

Metro Vancouver regional parks workers walk off the job, warn strike could be next: union
CTV News
Unionized workers who operate Metro Vancouver Regional Parks escalated job action on Sunday, walking off the job in hopes of working towards a new collective agreement, according to the union.

Uncovering The ‘Billionaire Coup Against Democracy’
The Maple
For more than a decade, the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) Global Rights Index has documented the deterioration of workers’ rights around the world. Each year brings new records for attacks on unions, restrictions on collective bargaining and governments willing to intervene on behalf of employers.

Ottawa opens another round of Labour Code consultations
Canadian HR Reporter
Federally regulated employers will be affected by a new round of consultations that could alter collective bargaining rules, grievance timelines and leave entitlements.

8 years after Janus, unions are still trying to keep workers in the dark
The Hill
Last month, we marked eight years since the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that public employees cannot be forced to pay union dues as a condition of keeping their jobs. Until then, those dues had been mandatory for millions of government workers.

Job seekers giving up: Labor force participation rate falls to lowest in 50 years, outside of Covid era
CNBC
On the surface, a June drop in the unemployment rate helped provide some upside to what was an otherwise downbeat jobs report — but it was for all the wrong reasons.

‘Why take those jobs away?’: the unionized workers decrying Trump’s war on wind
The Guardian
Donald Trump has blamed everything – from “national security” issues, the deaths of birds and whales, and cancer – in his decades-long campaign against windfarms. But as the Trump administration continues to undermine the industry, what worries workers most are their jobs.

Millennial Samsung union leader’s $26 billion bonus victory turns to bitterness
Japan Times
As recently as late May, Choi Seung-ho was hailed as a hero. Rallying workers at Samsung Electronics to demand a greater share of profits, the union leader secured a staggering windfall, particularly for some semiconductor workers who were promised bonuses of roughly $400,000 this year.

It’s time to recognize higher education as a matter of national security for Canada
Globe and Mail
Canada needs to understand its universities and colleges as crucial instruments of national security. Allowing them to decline, during this time of national emergency, would jeopardize us economically, socially, politically and materially.

Digital poverty is holding university students back
The Conversation
When a student can’t submit their essay because the household’s only device is being used by three siblings for school, or because their mobile data ran out mid-lecture, they are experiencing digital poverty.

From Policy To Practice: National Strategies To Scale AI In Education
Forbes
The shift toward AI-based education is evident worldwide as early-stage AI-learning initiatives gain funding and schools experiment with adaptive learning. According to the Digital Education Council Global AI Student Survey 2024, 86% of students globally are already using AI in their studies, with more than half engaging with it weekly.

Cutting language courses puts social mobility at risk, say UK experts
The Guardian
Cutting language courses at universities and schools risks undermining social mobility and vocational skills, former education secretaries and experts in the UK have warned.

July 3, 2026

Payroll reveal: 18 school staff cleared $200K
Winnipeg Free Press
Chief superintendents and a divisional kookum were among 18 public school board employees in Winnipeg who earned more than $200,000 last year.

Teacher feels 'violated' after she says student sent AI-made nude images of her for months
CBC
A woman who received dozens of sexually explicit messages over Instagram, including AI-generated nude photos of her and threats of rape, says she was harassed by one of her students for more than two months while working in Winnipeg's River East Transcona School Division.

U of T faculty wins 3% pay boost after ‘sharply adversarial’ negotiations
TorontoToday.ca
Thousands of faculty members at the University of Toronto will receive a 3 per cent raise — effective today — after an arbitrator ruled the pay bump is necessary to retain the school’s “top of market” status among Canadian institutions.

B.C. nurses begin job action, employer agrees to resume negotiations
CBC
B.C. nurses are beginning job action after their Thursday 12 p.m. strike deadline passed without movement on a new contract.

London youth face some of the highest unemployment in Canada, but they aren't giving up
CBC
John Alimasi, 16, has spent the last five months searching for work, handing out resumes for summer jobs at restaurants and shopping malls. But, he has yet to hear back from an employer.

Union calls for action from TTC board (video)
CTV News
Workers who clean TTC facilities are protesting against alleged violations of labour and employment laws.

Extreme heat forces Windsor food trucks to close or cut hours to protect workers
CTV News
Several food trucks in Windsor are delaying their opening times or temporarily closing as extreme heat makes conditions inside and around the mobile kitchens unsafe for employees.

Labour unions have the right to worry for their future
The Gateway
While Prime Minister Mark Carney has gone to great lengths to protect, grow and diversify the Canadian economy, has he taken it too far? From April 17 to May 25, the federal government quietly held consultations regarding proposed changes to the Canadian Labour Code. Unions are raising warning flags about this brief, suspiciously quiet move to change the law. Some of these changes mark important updates to the inevitably outdated law enacted in 1968, but others appear to allow regression of Charter-given rights under the pretext of improving productivity. Canadians need to pay particular attention to these changes to protect their rights and ensure that workers’ rights do not regress.

Air Canada workers split on new agreement
Alberta Worker
Last month, Local 2323 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers published an update regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by Air Canada.

Union workers are funding lavish lifestyles for unqualified big labor bosses
Washington Examiner
For generations, the leaders who represented American workers in unions earned their positions the hard way, whether it be on the job site, in the classroom, or at the bedside. And that’s because the promise of the American labor union was simple: workers standing together who understood the job, the risks, and what it meant to punch a clock or pull a shift. Skilled tradespeople, nurses, teachers, and electrical workers organized because they had skin in the game.

US job growth misses expectations in June; unemployment rate falls to 4.2%
Yahoo
U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in June and data for the prior month was revised lower, but the unemployment rate fell to ‌4.2%, pointing to continued labor market stability.

'I'm worried about my safety': Amazon worker says Suffolk warehouse still reaches 90 degrees despite cooling efforts
13 News
An Amazon employee said conditions inside the company's ORF3 fulfillment center in Suffolk remain dangerously hot, despite new cooling equipment being installed as federal inspectors visited the facility.

Learning, Recharging, Uniting at Labor Notes 2026
Labor Notes
In a time when there’s real cause for fear and despair—and when the Trump administration is pushing hard to divide us—the Labor Notes Conference June 12-14 in Chicago was an oasis of inspiration and solidarity.

German car industry faces union fury ahead of 'hot summer' of protests
Yahoo
Thousands of Mercedes-Benz workers are set to stage protests across Germany on Friday against the carmaker's cost-cutting drive, with the IG Metall engineering union warning of a "hot summer" of industrial action across the automotive sector.

Germany looks to ban calling in sick, would require doctors’ notes immediately
CTV News
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz outlined a package of pension, tax and labor reforms on Thursday, along with measures to cut red tape that he said would boost growth, jobs and competitiveness while maintaining social welfare protections.

Peabody Energy fined after worker trapped inside bulldozer in coal void
ABC News
A Queensland magistrate has criticised a mining company for allowing workers to use a faulty GPS system that resulted in a bulldozer falling through the bottom of a coal stockpile, trapping the driver.