“When will the various places the poor depend on, not only for meals but also for getting out and socializing, reopen?”
Kendall Worth on all the super important things poor people relied on that disappeared when COVID-19 started,
Richard Starr: “The theme of recent COVID-19 updates in Nova Scotia has been “opening up.” Opening up the economy and opening up society have been on the agenda. But opening up democracy – not so much. Indeed, the past week provided more evidence, if more is needed, of Premier McNeil’s disdain for the views of others.”
Premier Stephen McNeil wants workers looking for paid sick leave to join a union and engage in the collective bargaining process. He made the call at yesterday’s COVID-19 press conference.
The coronavirus crisis is an absolute disaster for women in so many ways—work, income, personal safety, housing, family life. Judy Haiven takes a closer look.
We talk with an early childhood educator who is concerned about going back to work maybe as soon as early June. “Right now there’s a lot of talk going into the plan to reopen about PPEs, there’s a lot of talk about ratios. And those are good things that we need to talk about, but I don’t see enough talk about sick time, or wages. And those are two things that we know were part of the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes,” she says.
NS Federation of Labour pres Danny Cavanagh: The province needs to ensure that all workers have access to paid sick leave, paid emergency days, and be paid a fair and decent wage. If workers contract the virus, they need a guarantee that they will automatically be entitled to workers’ compensation
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Barbara Elizabeth Stewart chronicles life in Halifax during the first 66 days of the pandemic. “At first it was a novelty. There was a whiff of World War II on the home front, the sacrifice and solidarity: front line soldiers in protective gear trudging off to do the most essential and dangerous work, while civilians stayed home and did a lot with little.”
Richard Starr looks at premier Stephen McNeil’s governing style and sees a pattern: “McNeil needs a new raison d’être, and with remarkable dexterity he has found one with COVID-19, moving smartly from the manufactured fiscal crisis to the real crisis presented by the pandemic.”
Press release: Some part-time workers who were laid off from their jobs are seeing a bigger paycheque than before the COVID-19 Pandemic. If you are an employer who had casual part-time workers, you need to ask yourself why your employees would rather be on CERB? Then ask yourself, as a small business owner, why should the big corporation be allowed to get tax dollars when many of them pay fewer taxes in Canada then you do? The system must change and workers deserve higher wages and full-time work with benefits.
“It’s always on our mind. Before I was redeployed somebody had tested positive at the call centre, and you think about it while at work. Then when you come home you worry about what you may have brought home.” Janitors do essential and dangerous work, but wages are very low and too often it’s all about doing more with fewer workers.