Tausi Insider

An employee at Neal Brothers picks products at their warehouse and office in Richmond Hill, Ont., on Nov. 17, 2022. The company says it has offered employees paid sick leave for years. Christopher Katsarov/Tausi Insider Most provinces have not made permanent changes to sick-leave laws during the pandemic, despite a sharp rise in respiratory illnesses and pressure from Ottawa for provincial governments to match a new federal sick-day law that comes into effect next month. For more than two years, labour and health care groups have urged governments to set minimum numbers of paid sick days, so workers don’t have to choose between staying home – and losing wages – or going in to work sick. But few governments have listened. “During the pandemic, it became very clear to everyone who was not an essential worker how bad things were for essential workers,” said Deena Ladd, executive director of Workers’ Action Centre, a non-profit group that advocates for low-wage, undocumented and migrant...

A labour expert said the tense bargaining between Loblaw and its distribution workers in Calgary is emblematic of the wider labour movement in 2022 amid the effects of the pandemic and rising inflation. The Teamsters Local Union 987 of Alberta said almost all of the 534 unionized workers at a Calgary distribution centre for Loblaw were served layoff notices effective this week amid ongoing contract negotiations. The union said workers have rejected two offers from the employer and are asking for better quality-of-life and wage increases. Simon Black, an associate professor of labour studies at Brock University, said while wage increases are important to workers at a time of high inflation, there’s also an increased focus on working conditions in negotiations, such as scheduling, time off and breaks. He said the recent strikes by education workers in Ontario are an example of this, where workers were asking for guaranteed staffing levels. “They’re not bargaining strictly around wages,...

Former Amazon.com Inc. AMZN-Q workers and labour organizers visited some of the e-commerce giant’s Quebec locations Friday as part of a global movement urging the company to stop “squeezing” workers, communities and the planet. Mostafa Henaway, a former Amazon worker and labour activist with the Immigrant Workers Center, said he and others would approach workers at the YUL2 and DXT6 facilities in Lachine to remind them of their rights and encourage their employer to do better. “We’re out here today with other Amazon associates around the world to say enough is enough,” said Henaway, who worked at the DTX4 delivery centre in Laval, Que. “At what cost is fast and free shipping?” The visit timed to Black Friday – one of the Seattle-based firm’s busiest periods – is meant to push the company to pay fair wages, taxes and better account for its affect on the environment. It’s part of the Make Amazon Pay movement, which will see Amazon workers and labour rights groups in at least 30 countri...

Gantry cranes, shipping containers and freight railway trains at the Union Pacific Los Angeles Intermodal Facility rail yard, on Sept. 15. BING GUAN/Reuters Congress is moving swiftly to prevent a looming U.S. rail workers strike, reluctantly intervening in a labour dispute to stop what would surely be a devastating blow to the nation’s economy if the transportation of fuel, food and other critical goods were disrupted. The House was expected to act first on Wednesday after President Joe Biden asked Congress to step in. The bill lawmakers are considering would impose a compromise labour agreement brokered by his administration that was ultimately voted down by four of the 12 unions representing more than 100,000 employees at large freight rail carriers. The unions have threatened to strike if an agreement can’t be reached before a Dec. 9 deadline. Lawmakers from both parties expressed reservations, but the intervention was particularly difficult for some Democratic lawmakers who have...

Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan speaks during a news conference in Ottawa, on Oct. 19. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press Employees in federally regulated private-sector workplaces are now eligible for 10 days of paid sick leave. As of Dec. 31, workers who have been continuously employed for at least 30 days will have access to three paid sick days. Workers will then get a fourth sick day as of Feb. 1, and will accumulate one additional day at the start of every month up to a maximum of 10 days per year. On the campaign trail in 2021, the Liberals pledged to introduce 10 days of paid sick leave for federally regulated workers. In a news release, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan says the paid leave means “more workers won’t have to choose between getting well and getting paid.” The Canadian Labour Congress applauded the new policy in a statement, urging provinces that do not offer paid sick leave to follow suit. https://www.tausiinsider.com/new-paid-sick-leave-rules-coming-into-effect-f...

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, on Dec. 1. LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images President Joe Biden signed legislation Friday to block a national U.S. railroad strike that could have devastated the American economy. The U.S. Senate voted 80 to 15 on Thursday to impose a tentative contract deal reached in September on a dozen unions representing 115,000 workers, who could have gone on strike on Dec. 9. But the Senate failed to approve a measure that would have provided paid sick days to railroad workers. “It was tough for me but it was the right thing to do at the moment – save jobs, to protect millions of working families from harm and disruption and to keep supply chains stable around the holidays,” Biden said, adding the deal avoided “an economic catastrophe.” Eight of 12 unions had ratified the deal. But some labour leaders have criticized Biden, a self-described friend of labour, for asking Congress to impose a contract that workers...

Workers who test games at Activision Blizzard Inc.’s unit Blizzard Albany have voted to form a union months after the games developer began negotiating with employees at its Wisconsin unit, the first in the company to unionize. The workers based near Albany, New York, voted 14-0 to join the Communication Workers of America union, the National Labor Relations Board said on Friday. Blizzard Albany has developed installments of popular video game franchises including Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Activision had argued that Blizzard Albany’s entire work force of about 100 employees, including production workers, should have been involved in the union vote and not only game testers. The NLRB rejected those claims earlier this week, saying game testers could form their own bargaining unit because they perform a distinct role and have separate supervision and significantly lower wages than other employees. CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens said in a statement th...

Dozens of migrant workers in Vancouver have allegedly been defrauded of thousands of dollars by an immigration consultant who promised the workers permanent residency through a federal immigration program that the workers say did not exist. The alleged scam is now the subject of a potential class-action suit that is making its way through the B.C. court system. The lawsuit contends that the actions of the alleged perpetrator of the scam were not only financially ruinous for the workers – most of them migrants from Mexico – but resulted in some of them unknowingly working without visas while waiting for their work permits to be processed. This meant that they were losing their opportunity to apply for genuine immigration status in Canada. The Vancouver-based immigration consultant who is being accused by workers of fraud, Liza Lucion, was indefinitely suspended by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) – the regulatory body for immigration consultants – this pas...

Dozens of migrant workers in Vancouver have allegedly been defrauded of thousands of dollars by an immigration consultant who promised the workers permanent residency through a federal immigration program that the workers say did not exist. The alleged scam is now the subject of a potential class-action suit that is making its way through the B.C. court system. The lawsuit contends that the actions of the alleged perpetrator of the scam were not only financially ruinous for the workers – most of them migrants from Mexico – but resulted in some of them unknowingly working without visas while waiting for their work permits to be processed. This meant that they were losing their opportunity to apply for genuine immigration status in Canada. The Vancouver-based immigration consultant who is being accused by workers of fraud, Liza Lucion, was indefinitely suspended by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) – the regulatory body for immigration consultants – this pas...

When Mehbs Remtulla sold his business at the age of 46, the pharmacist-turned-advertising agency head believed he’d sink into a leisurely life of playing golf and travelling the world. “After four months of doing that, I was climbing the walls, because I had no purpose,” says Mr. Remtulla, who is now 69. So he began volunteering as an adviser to health care startups and talking to like-minded people about what older workers do when society expects them to retire. The result of his conversations, launched four years ago, was What’s neXT?, an organization that connects mid-to-late-career workers and retirees with opportunities for flexible work and continued professional development. Through conversations and panel discussions with its 1,200 community members around the world, What’s neXT?! is helping older workers who might otherwise see retirement as a loss of their purpose connect with one another. But the venture could also help solve one of Canada’s biggest economic challenges – ...

Unifor National President Lana Payne addresses a crowd of Ontario Unifor members at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in Toronto on Dec. 2. She implored union locals to push harder and more creatively at the bargaining table. Galit Rodan At a gathering of thousands of Unifor members in early December in Toronto, Lana Payne, president of Canada’s largest private-sector union, was noticeably riled up. Working people, she declared, have been “thrown to the wolves” by a coterie of company executives, corporate barons and central bankers. The latter, she said, are deliberately waging a class war, wielding interest rates as a “sledgehammer” to send the country into recession, because they insist on fighting inflation with stringent monetary policy. As Ms. Payne implored union locals to push harder and more creatively at the bargaining table, her language had a whiff of militancy to it. “The Bank of Canada needs to understand that it is not acceptable to throw people out of work to meet some arbitr...