GM OSHAWA: THE UNTOLD STORY OF CEVA
By Cory Weir, GM Oshawa assembly line worker
With the Big Three automakers at the bargaining table with Unifor, there has been no shortage of public attention given to workers in Oshawa’s GM car assembly plants.
We’ve all seen the economics of what it would mean if GM Oshawa was closed: $5 billion lost from our GDP, and $1 million lost in both federal and provincial taxes. Perhaps the most startling number of all has been the 33,000 jobs hanging in the balance, which are made up by autoworkers, supply plant workers, cleaners, and countless other spinoffs created locally. Read more!
Gilary Massa should be getting back to work at the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) after her year of maternity leave. Instead, she and her supporters in the #istandwithgilary campaign were on campus fighting for her rights and the rights of all mothers and parents to take parental leave without being fired.
Massa worked for the RSU for nearly seven years, as the equity and campaigns organizer, and then as the executive director of communications and outreach. Her position was unionized with CUPE 1281. Read more!
Seldom has a provincial austerity budget been as decisively rejected as happened this spring in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Angry citizens took to the street in record numbers, filled townhalls across the province, wrote letters, called in to radio shows, and in true Newfoundland fashion made fun of a hapless Premier Dwight Ball. The anti-budget coalition was broad and diverse, and the protesters were very determined. Read more!
Well over a hundred City of Halifax outside workers, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 108, gathered in front of City Hall on September 6 to send a message to Mayor Savage and City councillors.
These are the workers who look after HRM’s green spaces and parks, roads, playgrounds and sidewalks, and in the winter do much of the city’s snow clearing.
The workers want the city to get back to the bargaining table, revoke a lock-out notice, and stop eroding their pensions. Read more!
Check out our weekly labour news update every Monday for a summary of the past week's top labour news stories, and our feature labour video every Saturday! @rankandfilca Youtube r53 | r54