Danny Cavanagh: Blaming the workers and the minimal government benefits they receive is unfair. It is also unfair to portray workers as lazy and unproductive. It is fair to say that today’s workforce wants better than low-wage part-time jobs without benefits. They will no longer tolerate being called part-time while working full-time hours. They want paid sick leave and other workplace benefits.
Danny Cavanagh: Employers can keep whining about the CRB all they want. Workers deserve to be looked after by taxpayers just as employers received wage subsidies, rent programs, interest-free loans and the many other programs they received courtesy of us taxpayers.
Danny Cavanagh: “To the political hopefuls who promise jobs, jobs, jobs, if the past is any indicator, they get in power and then cut jobs, cut good-paying jobs, jobs with benefits. So much for the promises.”
Danny Cavanagh on the need for decent pay. “People don’t often think about the cogs in the wheel as long as it is turning. Never much thought to the countless people behind the scenes in hospitals, nursing homes, long term care facilities – those providing home support. Every day they quietly worked along even though by doing so they put themselves in danger of getting Covid-19. We often think about the nurses, doctors and specialists, but not a lot about the cleaners, cooks, food service workers, the people keeping the buildings working, the paperwork flowing and all those behind the scenes keeping the wheels moving.”
“I took every shift I could get, up to 70-hours per week, to make ends meet. With wages that low, this is what you have to do.” Lisa Cameron reports on Justin Trudeau’s 2019 promise of a federal minimum wage of at least $15 and hour, starting in 2020, and rising with inflation. We are in the final days of 2020, and yet Trudeau has taken no steps to honour this commitment.
Out with the old, and in with the new. John McCracken on the dramatic changes in several Nova Scotia municipalities after the elections.
Press release: Last night, Halifax Regional Council passed a motion that will make a real difference in the lives of some low-wage workers in the Halifax Regional Municipality. The CCPA-NS applauds the Council and urges it to stay the course.
Christine Saulnier looks at the llving wage report that Halifax Council will consider on Tuesday. “Why should HRM ask its contractors to pay a living wage and not do so itself? City Council could adopt a resolution committing to pay all direct and indirect city workers a living wage,” she writes.
A new report calculates living wages for Halifax, Bridgewater, Antigonish, CBRM and Saint John, NB. To live a dignified life you need a living wage, enough money to live in a safe and decent home, eat healthy food, buy clothes when you need them, and pay for childcare and transportation.
The Canada Student Service Grant pays students less than minimum wage and strips them of basic employment protections. Doing this may well be illegal, writes Lisa Cameron, and it’most certainly sends the wrong message about student labour.