When journalists recently asked whether the Nova Scotia government is willing to institute paid sick days in Nova Scotia, premier Stephen McNeil flat out refused. There’s a federal program that takes care of it, he said. That’s not quite how it works, NDP labour critic Kendra Coombes tells the Nova Scotia Advocate.
Danny Cavanagh: “Taxpayers need to benefit in the good times if a capitalist society expects to have the government keep them operational in bad times. Taxpayers need to become shareholders, and we need to ensure that dividends to shareholders are limited, and the CEOs have a more realistic pay cheque.”
PSA: On Tuesday, November 17th, a fire engulfed the family home of a Nova Scotia migrant worker and his family in Jamaica. Please contribute to help them get back on their feet.
Press release: Nova Scotia Federation of Labour President Danny Cavanagh is calling on the McNeil Liberals to amend Nova Scotia’s Labour Standards Code to include at least ten paid sick days.
PSA: Sick workplaces make sick workers. Another excellent Equity Watch webinar.
This Remembrance Day Judy Haiven visits a Local Tim Hortons. It’s a follow up on an earlier visit, a couple of years ago and elsewhere in the province, where she had to set the manager straight about the law and labour standards.
Remembrance Day is a punitive holiday day because many Nova Scotians must forego pay. That week your pay cheque will be 20% lighter than it was for a 5-day week. Judy Haiven explains.
Danny Cavanagh: “In Canada, we have weathered the pandemic by sticking together and supporting each other. Economic recovery cannot mean listening to the same old voices that led us to an economy with a widening income and gender gap, heightening rates of poverty and homelessness, increasing violence and inequality, and poorly underfunded and inadequate public and community services. We need investments in new ways of doing things.”
Shavan is a father of three from Jamaica who’s been coming to Nova Scotia as a migrant farm worker for eight years. This past year, his bunkhouse was overrun with large rats. He says, “I know that’s not part of Canada’s standards.” Even during the heatwave over the summer, Shavan and other migrant workers were working 10-hour days in the blistering sun for minimum wage.
As we brace for the second wave of COVID-19, Stacey Gomez, Asaf Rashid, Jessica Tellez and Wanda Thomas call for uregnt action to end systemic racism faced by migrant workers.
There will be no strike or lockout at Dalhousie this Fall semester. Earlier this afternoon the Board agreed to a proposal by the Dalhousie Faculty Association (DFA) to refer the outstanding bargaining issues to a conciliation board who could recommend possible resolutions