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.

March 31, 2025

U of W talk of possible financial crisis alarms faculty
Winnipeg Free Press
Early discussions at the University of Winnipeg about “financial exigency” — a crisis that, if declared, could lead to tenured academic layoffs — are causing further unease on the cash-strapped campus.

School division building climate action plan
Winnipeg Free Press
The Seven Oaks School Division is doing a comprehensive audit of its carbon footprint to create a plan to help staff and students do their part under the 2016 Paris Agreement and signal-boost eco-friendly projects.

Southern Manitoba school division failed to protect former student from sexual assault, lawsuit alleges
CBC
A former student is suing a school division in southern Manitoba alleging it failed to protect him from being preyed upon and repeatedly sexually assaulted by a staff member in the early '00s.

Manitoba may court U.S. scientists struggling with funding cuts, loss of academic freedom
CBC
Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba is considering ways to roll out the welcome mat to U.S. academics who find themselves unable to conduct research due to funding cuts and a political climate hostile to science south of the border.

Vancouver Island University president resigns under pressure from students and faculty
CBC
The president of Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo is stepping down after weeks of students and faculty demanding her resignation.

Western University researchers worry about gutting of American grant programs
CBC
Western University researchers whose work is funded in part by American federal grants are worried about the impact Trump administration cuts will have on their research and on academia in general.

U of L teaching starting wage below other universities
Alberta Worker
Earlier this week, the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association posted an update on their website regarding negotiations on a new collective agreement.

Vancouver Island University announces president's resignation
Nanaimo News Bulletin
A search will begin for a new person to lead Vancouver Island University.

University of Minnesota says ICE detained graduate student
NBC News
A graduate student at the University of Minnesota was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Thursday at an off-campus residence, the school said in a statement.

Columbia University's interim president steps down
NBC
Columbia University said Friday its interim president, Katrina A. Armstrong, is stepping aside, a week after the university struck a deal with the Trump administration to negotiate its federal funding.

DeWine signs bill to end ‘DEI’ and ‘indoctrination’ on campus, ban faculty strikes
Cleveland.com
Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday signed into law a Republican-backed overhaul of Ohio’s higher education system over the objection of Democrats, university professors and student protesters.

Trump signs executive order ending collective bargaining rights for many federal workers
CNN
President Donald Trump took his most consequential action against federal employee unions yet late Thursday, signing an executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining for government employees whose work include national security aspects.

Alarm as Florida Republicans move to fill deported workers’ jobs with children: ‘It’s insane, right?’
The Guardian
Beneath the smugness of Ron DeSantis, at Florida leading the nation in immigration enforcement lies something of a conundrum: how to fill the essential jobs of the scores of immigrant workers targeted for deportation.

Organizers accuse Trump of trying to silence federal workers with union order
The Guardian
Union leaders have accused Donald Trump of union-busting in a “blatant” attempt to silence them after the president stepped up his attacks on government unions on Thursday, signing an executive order that attempts to eliminate collective bargaining for hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

March 28, 2025

Trump restricts federal research funding, a lifeblood for colleges
CTV News
After decades of partnership with the U.S. government, colleges are facing new doubts about the future of their federal funding.

PSAC 901’s strike is about grad students—but what about students and faculty?
Queen's University Journal
For three weeks and counting, the strike by more than 2,000 Graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs), Research Assistants (RAs), and Fellows has left undergrads who rely on their guidance feeling alone.

McMaster University researchers create guidelines to help COVID-19 longhaulers
CBC
Researchers at McMaster University say they've created Canada's first-ever comprehensive guidelines for diagnosing, managing, preventing, and treating post COVID-19 condition (PCC), more commonly known as long COVID.

COMMENTARY: Is it time to re-examine autonomy for universities?
Saltwire.com
Apparently the sky is falling inside academic circles where a lot of tenured faculty are interpreting Nova Scotia’s Bill 12 as a threat to “institutional autonomy,” which may someday come to their doorstep.

University of Michigan will end its DEI program, citing Trump executive order that ‘began to reshape higher education’
CNN
The University of Michigan will immediately end its diversity, equity and inclusion program after months of discussion about potential rollbacks to the initiatives, which galvanized hundreds of students, staff and faculty to protest last year.

Toronto council ratifies new contract with union representing 27,000 city workers
CBC
Toronto council has voted to ratify a new four-year contract with the union representing 27,000 of the city's workers.

More Than 300,000 Alberta Workers Form a United Front
The Tyee
Calling it a historic moment in Alberta labour history, the Alberta Federation of Labour and 26 unions representing more than 300,000 workers on Wednesday announced a “Solidarity Pact” to combat anticipated attacks on workers’ pay and rights.

The workers’ agenda for the federal election
Rabble
Labour organizations are calling on workers to widely mobilize for the upcoming federal election, citing it as one of the most important elections in Canada’s recent history. Amidst an escalating trade war triggered by the US, thousands of jobs remain at risk. The issues facing workers stretch beyond tariffs, though, with many families suffering due to a health human resource crisis, stagnating wages and the rising cost of living.

Toronto hydro worker fatally injured while working on electrical vault, officials say
Globe and Mail
Officials say a hydro worker in Toronto is dead after he was injured while working on an electrical vault along the city’s harbourfront.

Bill to limit the right to strike: Quebec unions ask for meeting with Legault
CTV News
Quebec’s three largest trade unions are calling for a meeting with Premier François Legault regarding the bill limiting the right to strike.

Trump signs executive order to end collective bargaining at agencies involved with national security
AP
President Donald Trump moved Thursday to end collective bargaining with federal labor unions in agencies with national security missions across the federal government, citing authority granted him under a 1978 law.

March 27, 2025

U of M beefs up security after incidents made headlines
Winnipeg Free Press
The University of Manitoba is implementing several security upgrades in response to two serious incidents at its Fort Garry campus last year.

Liberal bill proposes mandatory monitoring for learning disabilities
Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba MLAs are slated to debate whether elementary school teachers should be mandated to use a standardized tool to screen children for learning disabilities on a regular basis.

Feds Cancel Funding Of University Studies Of Covid-19, Other Pandemics
Forbes
As another indication of how rapidly the Trump administration is redefining federal policy concerning biomedical science, Science and Nature have both recently reported that the federal government is canceling its funding of studies exploring vaccines and treatments for Covid-19 as well as other drugs that could be used to combat future pandemics.

ICE detains doctoral student at University of Alabama
USA Today
U.S. federal immigration agents detained a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, the university said in a statement to media on Wednesday.

Turkish student at Tufts University detained, video shows masked people handcuffing her
AP
A Turkish national and doctoral student at Tufts University has been detained by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents without explanation, her lawyer said Wednesday

Province hopes to pluck nurses from the U.S.
Winnipeg Free Press
The Manitoba government is trying to lure American nurses hoping to escape the political turmoil in the U.S.

New poll suggests Canadians’ fear of losing their jobs to a trade war is fading
Winnipeg Free Press
A new poll suggests that Canadians are feeling less anxious about losing their jobs as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to pursue his trade war with Canada and much of the world.

Quebec underpaid women in health care for years. They’re still waiting for equity payments
CTV News
Natasha Clery left the MUHC last December after 23 years of working at the Montreal hospital – but months later, she says she’s still waiting on thousands of dollars that she has been owed for a decade.

Unions rally against 3,300 job cuts, 2,000 salary reductions at IRCC
Ottawa Citizen
Angela Joya is unsure if she will still be employed in the coming months. She has two young kids at home and a fresh mortgage that began only three years ago.

Hudson's Bay managers will get up to $3 million in bonuses, but workers get no severance
CBC
The beleaguered Hudson's Bay Co., which plans to close most of its 96 stores by the end of June, will pay up to $3 million total in retention bonuses to 121 managers and executives — but will not pay severance to its more than 9,300 workers, most of whom will soon lose their jobs.

‘Economic war:’ Union vows to fight for jobs amid auto tariff
CTV News
The head of a union that represents more than 20,000 Canadian auto workers says that the country is now in an “economic war” with the United States following the rollout of a 25 per cent tariff on imported vehicles that she says is designed to “steal jobs from our country.”

March 26, 2025

‘We should not be ranking and sorting children’: educator group gives old-school grading an F
Winnipeg Free Press
A new teacher group is promoting the benefits of “ungrading” and how professionals across the province can tweak their classroom evaluations to better serve students.

'Professors are the enemy': Trump's war on higher education.
Radio Canada
In a 2021 speech entitled 'The Universities are the enemy,' Vice President JD Vance laid out a plan for America's universities saying in part "we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country."

Online division and misinformation is undermining the PSAC 901 strike
Queen's University Journal
The PSAC 901 strike isn’t just happening on the picket line—it’s also being fought online, where misinformation and hostility threaten to divide our campus and weaken our ability to fight for fair working conditions.

Peter MacKinnon: York University's faculty hysterics expose desperate need for post-secondary reform
National Post
Observers should pay no heed to the non-confidence motion brought by York University’s faculty association on March 19 against their university president, provost and board chair, for it is only another reminder that Canadian university governance is sorely in need of reform.

University of Sussex fined £585,000 for failing to uphold freedom of speech
The Guardian
England’s university regulator has been accused of “perpetuating the culture wars” after fining the University of Sussex a record £585,000 at the conclusion of an investigation into freedom of speech on campus.

Striking Métis and Michif CFS workers demand wage parity
Winnipeg Free Press
Workers with the Métis and Michif CFS agencies went on strike Tuesday to back their demand for wage parity with their provincial counterparts.

Hydro’s practice of paying union leaders’ salaries questioned
Winnipeg Free Press
MANITOBA Hydro continues to pay the salaries and benefits of union leaders despite its bleak financial picture as well as the ballooning provincial government deficit.

Winnipeg automation company lays off 1/3 of staff as trade war leads to 'spending freeze'
CBC
A Winnipeg-based robotics company says it's laid off about a third of its employees, as orders for its products dry up amid uncertainty stemming from the Canada-U.S. trade war.

Here is what public sector unions want out of the new federal government
CTV News
Unions representing federal employees are speaking about what they want to see in the next government as Canadians prepare to head to the polls next month.

The Left is in danger of losing its voice in Parliament in this election
Rabble
Here’s a fantasy election campaign.

WestJet pilots ask judge to nix approval of temporary foreign workers in the cockpit
CP24
The union representing WestJet pilots has asked a judge to quash federal approval of temporary foreign workers in the cockpit, despite a global flight crew shortage.

Canada steel, aluminum plants lay off workers due to US tariffs
Reuters
Hundreds of Canadian workers, many in the steel and aluminum sectors, have been laid off as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, according to a major union and companies.

Lawyers advise Canadians working in U.S. to avoid travel amid border crackdown
Globe and Mail
U.S. immigration lawyers are warning foreigners working and studying in America – including Canadians – to refrain from international travel, saying that crossing the U.S. border has become significantly more unpredictable since U.S. President Donald Trump took office and that they run the risk of being detained or refused entry.