When does Temporary become Permanent?

By Lynne Fernandez and Nicole Smith Each year up to 400 mostly Mexican workers come to Manitoba under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) to work on local farms. They perform physically strenuous work on vegetable farms and …

WorkLife: There’s Power in Youth and Unions Working Together

By Gabriel Bako While the labour landscape has changed dramatically in Canada in the last 58 years, the legal framework has not. The labour relations framework that we use today in Canada was implemented in 1944 with PC-1003, …

More Than a Dream

Lynne Fernandez holds the Errol Black Chair in Labour Issues at CCPA MB Many of us have, like John Lennon, imagined a world without war, greed, hunger or possessions. There are those rare individuals who insist that we …

Temporary Foreign Workers: How federal settlement policies overlook some newcomers

By Zoё St-Aubin and Jill Bucklaschuk Manitoba has embarked on aggressive immigration strategies to attract newcomers to settle in a variety of communities in the province with the purpose of meeting local labour force demands. In response to …

International Women’s Day 2014: The continuing struggle for bread and roses

By Lynne Fernandez Download as PDF History teaches us the importance of remembering and celebrating International Women’s Day. In the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911, 146 young women suffered horrific deaths at this New York City garment factory. …

The 2014 Federal Budget: Austerity for the many, prosperity for the few

By Lynne Fernandez Observers were not expecting anything more than a middle-of-the-road federal budget for 2014, but even so the Finance Minister managed to disappoint. Why then did the government choose to release a ho-hum budget when the …

Understanding the Living Wage Concept

Lynne Fernandez, Errol Black Chair in Labour Studies, CCPA MB. “Living Wage Laws don’t help the most vulnerable” by the Fraser Institute’s Lammam and MacIntyre, is based on a misunderstanding that is evident in the title. Living wage …

Canada Jobs Grant does not work for Manitoba

By Molly McCracken Re: “Lets put the jobs-grant idea to work”, Winnipeg Free Press, January 17, 2014 The Canada Jobs Grant will not work for people who face barriers to employment, especially Aboriginal Manitobans. As Shauna Mackinnon wrote …

The Living Wage: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

By Lynne Fernandez Minimum-wage workers are not just teenagers working at fast-food restaurants after school. According to the Manitoba Federation of Labour, 55 per cent of minimum wage earners in Manitoba are adults twenty years and older; 51 …

Program to Subsidize Business at the Expense of the Unemployed

By Kevin Linklater Federal Employment and Social Development Minister, Jason Kenney, met with his provincial counterparts last Friday to discuss the federal government’s proposed overhaul of job training, the Canada Job Grant (CJG) program. The Provinces have opposed …