The decision by front line workers at the Out of the Cold Community Association to unionize is mostly about making sure that the current positive working conditions continue, and maybe to offer a bit of an example to care sector workers elsewhere who aren’t as fortunate.
Workers are worried about going back to schools that don’t offer sufficient protection against the COVID-19 virus, union leaders told reporters at a press conference this morning.
Current and former employees of Organic Earth Market on Quinpool Road in Halifax joined a picket line this morning to protest management’s efforts to stop the store workers from unionizing. According to the workers on the picket line these union busting efforts run the gamut from worker intimidation to the recent firing of two employees supportive of the unionization drive.
“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.
Free webinar”: How do we protect precarious workers. Presenter Darius Mirshahi.
We talk with Jackie Swaine of the SEIU and Danny Cavanagh, president of the NSFL, who together are calling for legislation with teeth to protect workers against wage theft and contract flipping.
In this article originally published in RankandFile.ca on April 4 Jason Edwards explains what legislated measures would protect workers like the Founders Square cleaners against contract flipping and resulting job loss and loss of union representation. This morning I met with NSFL president Danny Cavanagh and SEIU Local 2 president Jackie Swaine who are lobbying the government to enact similar legislation, we will have a story on that later.
Another rally at Founders Square this morning. Armour Group may have assumed those noisy happenings would stop by now, but supporters of the fired Black workers aren’t going away. For this reporting job I was joined by my son Simon, an excellent photographer.
News release: Join us as #WeRise to end poverty, precariousness, and prejudice in the janitorial industry. Let’s show that Halifax is united for workers rights and for an end to racial discrimination in all its forms.
News release by SEIU Local 2: The Smiling Goat Baristas are still owed thousands of dollars. The owner, Kit Singh, is ignoring phone calls and emails from his current and former employees. Many former workers don’t know where to turn or how to hold Kit accountable.