After more than a year of bargaining the Nova Scotia Health Care Council of Unions is announcing that it will soon hold Nova Scotia’s first ever province-wide Health Care Bargaining Unit strike vote.
If and when the teachers go on strike I hope other unions will do more than talk about solidarity and hold a couple of rallies,
Former child protection social worker Trish McCourt about high caseloads, lack of training in what can be a dangerous job, burnout, stress and other perils of the job. “Yes, child protection is challenging work. Yes, it can be dangerous, and yes, it often feels thankless. But the real hardships come from the lack of empathy, support and value that is communicated by the employer – the department of Community Services, province of Nova Scotia.”
The new collective agreement for provincial civil servants decided by an Arbitration Board is not the victory the labour movement claims it is, writes Larry Haiven. At the end of the contract workers will be earning less than they are now, how much less will depend on the inflation rate. And that’s not taking into account the freezing (and removal for new employees) of the “long-service award.
The return of a potentially violent young man to the NS Youth Facility in Waterville after he spent a year in solitary confinement in an adult prison has prison workers worried, the Chronicle Herald reported yesterday. But there is much the Herald left out, and much that the government has to answer for.
Seven unions will file to be added to the partial review of Bill 148 by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal initiated by the Nova Scotia government. This was the announcement at this morning’s joint news conference, that also served to push back on the government’s narrative on the legislation.
Larry Haiven on Bill 148:| “Unions and collective bargaining and, yes, strikes, are part of the price we all pay for living in a democracy, convenient or not. Bill 148 takes us back to the dark ages and workers, again, will have to take matters into their own hands.”
Good letter by Danny Cavanagh, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, on the Chamber of Commerce complaining about civil servants’ wages. “What is the Chamber’s position on secret government handouts to hand picked universities? What is the Chamber’s position on the fact the majority of Nova Scotia children live in poverty? The Chamber of Commerce supported tax cuts for business, when big businesses have been sitting on hordes of cash. Tax cuts were a promise as the solution to create jobs. These jobs never came.”
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.
A bit of a timeline around the NSTU and NSGEU negotiations, originally written for the national audience of Rank and File. It all looked so promising for McNeil a year ago. What happened?