Hard lessons from Europe’s austerity agenda

By Lynne Fernandez First published in the Winnipeg Free Press February 19, 2019 It’s been obvious since his election that Premier Pallister is committed to austerity. His government is cutting public services and staff, reducing funding to municipalities …

State of the Manitoba Economy: Assessing the Real Challenges

By Lynne Fernandez First published in the Winnipeg Free Press December 18, 2018 As reported in the Free Press,  Brian Pallister is “fixing the province’s finances”, with what he calls small, gradual funding cuts. Two questions arise from …

The $100 Million Question

First published in the Winnipeg Free Press Friday July 14, 2017 By Lynne Fernandez and Ian Hudson In March of 2017, the Premier claimed that for every one per cent the province lowered (or didn’t raise) wages for …

Work Life Blog: What’s at Stake at Canada Post?

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is currently engaged in collective bargaining with Canada Post. Unlike in previous rounds, the contracts of both the Urban bargaining unit (covering about 42,000 workers) and the unit of some 8,000 …

Bill 7: Unfavourable for Manitoban Workers

By Mark Hudson On June 15 the new Manitoba government introduced Bill 7, The Labour Relations Amendment Act, which aims to eliminate the so-called “card-check” system of union certification currently used in Manitoba. Bill 7 would mandate secret-ballot …

Work Life: “We asked for workers; we got people instead”

By Lynne Fernandez The above quote, by one of Swiss author Max Frisch’s characters, succinctly captures the inherent conflict between employers and workers. Employers want results; they want productivity, machine-perfect timing and energy for the lowest wage possible. …

Terminally ill professor pleads for asbestos ban

University of Manitoba professor Patricia Martens has one more mission as an epidemiologist as she confronts her final days with a terminal disease. She wants the government to stop aiding and abetting the lethal trade in asbestos. Martens …

Manitoba’s Proactive Enforcement of Temporary Foreign Worker’s Rights is a model for Canada

By Julie Guard Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) has become a hot potato for the federal government, which is frantically attempting to quell widespread outrage sparked by revelations of Canadians fired to be replaced by cheaper, more …

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, …

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. …