The federal Tories don’t like labour disputes

The Harper government’s response to postal workers trying to defend employment conditions (including their pension plan) demonstrates how the federal Tories want to handle all labour disputes. Geoffrey Stevens describes this well in a column in The Record, and points out that the way Harper’s caucus dealt with the stalemate in the Canada Post negotiations [...]

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Inflation rate fails to obey wage freeze guidelines

The average rate of inflation for Canada as a whole during 2010 was 1.8 per cent. But by December Ontario’s rate reached 3.3 per cent. On 30 June, The Record reported that the Canadian rate had gone to 3.7 per cent in May of this year. (See article here) And yet employers and the Ontario [...]

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Austerity for whom?

If Charles Dickens were alive today, he’d probably be aghast that Ebenezer Scrooge has become a role model to finance ministers around the world. In a recent opinion column that appeared in The Record and elsewhere, Tom Walkom looks at the austerity plan being imposed on Greece by European banks (through their proxy, the EU) [...]

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WLUFA and University Reach Tentative Agreement

From the WLUFA website: On behalf of Judy Bates, WLUFA President, WLUFA announces that a tentative Agreement between the Part-time Bargaining Unit and the University was reached shortly after 3:00 a.m. this morning, June 16, 2011. Since most of WLUFA’s Part-time Bargaining Unit are off campus during the summer the ratification meeting and vote will [...]

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WLUFA Negotiations Update

Please click on the links below to access WLUFA newsletters about their negotiations with the university for the Contract Academic Staff. Conciliation fails to achieve CAS contract agreement WLUFA requests mediation/arbitration http://www.wlufa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/CAS-2010-2011-newsletter-issue-8.pdf What is Mediation/Arbitration? http://www.wlufa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/CAS-2010-2011-newsletter-issue-9.pdf WLUSA/OSSTF  members recently voted at our annual AGM to formally offer our support to WLUFA members in their ongoing [...]

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Labour Updates

We have a few labour updates to pass along to our members. WLUFA is currently negotiating the contract for Contract Academic Staff.  The following is a quote from Sheila McKee-Protopapas, chief negotiator from the latest WLUFA Newsletter The Negotiating Team has been at the table since September and has reached a point in the negotiating [...]

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A Member’s Letter to The Cord

In the February 2nd issue of The Cord, WLU’s student newspaper, an article referring to the deficit in Food Services quoted AVP: Student Services, Dan Dawson, as saying “the collective agreement…was definitely not in the university’s best interests” and generally seemed to blame labour costs and unionized workers for the deficit. What follows here is [...]

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Wage-freeze Plan Stumbles

*This article was written earlier in the fall but contains good information. Look for an update soon.* Steve Izma The Ontario government’s drive to save money by freezing wages of public sector employees stumbled badly during August when all union reps abandoned the first stage of discussion with government officials and employers. Finance Minister Dwight [...]

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WLUSA/OSSTF District 35 COUSA REPORT

Sandra Castellanos, Fran Parry, and Keith Goulet attended the COUSA 2010 Fall Conference on October 29/30. Workshops were done on Communicating with your Members through Social Media, and on the government’s Public Sector Wage Restraint Legislation. Please read the report below and visit cousa.posterous.com for more details. Sandra Castellanos The COUSA conference, scheduled to be held [...]

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What Have the Unions Ever Done for Us?

Here’s an entertaining look at some of the benefits of the union movement  (warning: some language right at the end of the video)

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