Cafeteria workers at Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) campuses in Dartmouth and Halifax voted overwhelmingly to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2. Underpaid, overworked and working under unsafe conditions, convincing the workers wasn’t very difficult, says organizer Darius Mirshahi.
It’s early days, but labour activists in Halifax want to establish a Workers Action Centre in Halifax. Such a centre could make a big difference for non-unionized workers in precarious jobs. There’s not a whole lot of money, and the centre will start small, relying on borrowed office space and volunteers. But a modest start may actually work to its advantage.
Overworked, not paid enough and working in unsafe conditions, food workers at Nova Scotia Community College campuses in Dartmouth and Halifax set their minds on joining a union. Earlier this month the 25 or so Chartwells workers voted on joining the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2. The vote hasn’t been counted yet, but workers and the union are confident they won. We talk with two workers and an SEIU organizer.
Yet another national survey comparing provincial poverty rates was released today. Whether it’s child poverty that is being measured, minimum wage, or the release of Statistics Canada census-based income data, somehow for Nova Scotia the news is always grim.
On October 1st Nova Scotia became the province with the lowest minimum wage in Canada. That milestone event caused Christine Saulnier of the Nova Scotia office of the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives (CCPA) to pull out the calculator and draw some shocking conclusions. Read the Coles version here, or better yet, check out Christine’s entire article on the CCPA website.
As part of its release of the 2016 census data Stats Canada publishes a series of thematic maps that shed light on where poor people live. What it shows is you that there are a lot more people living in poverty in rural Nova Scotia than in Halifax.
How come real gains are made in the Fight for 15 elsewhere in Canada, but not in Nova Scotia? Does it have to be that way, and are there lessons to be learned both from earlier false starts here and successes elsewhere in Canada?
First voice welfare activists in Nova Scotia are trying very hard to raise awareness about the incredibly difficult living conditions they have to deal with on a daily basis. At times it seems like nobody is listening. And nobody is helping them. Lately there have been modest signals that Nova Scotia’s labour movement at least is hearing them. There is a long way to go, but it’s something to build upon.
We talked to newly elected Dartmouth North MLA Susan Leblanc about her experiences going door to door in low-income neighborhoods.
We take a look at the provincial parties’ responses to a social justice questionnaire, zooming in on commitments around welfare and people who work for very low wages. And some other observations.