It is argued that eligibility for OAS/GIS discourages older Canadians from remaining in the workforce, and that we need to keep them working to avoid labour shortages and a sharp rise in the so-called dependency ratio. But the fact of the matter is that 65 is not the trigger for retirement that it used to [...]

GTAA Pickering Airport Headquarters. On Jan. 19, 2012 Transport Action Ontario wrote the federal Transport Minister Hon. Denis Lebel about the planned Pickering Airport. The watchdog group says an improved passenger rail system serving Ottawa-Montreal-Toronto is a more practical way to meet future travel demand. The text of the letter follows: Dear Minister: Along with the many opponents of the Pickering plan, Transport Action Ontario has a number of serious...

Andre Tune, Jeannie Blaney (Local Rep), Gavin McGarrigle (National Rep), Dave Ingram, Don Haug (Chief Steward). CAW Local 114 members who work at Viking Air in British Columbia have voted 95 per cent in favour of a new contract with the aircraft maker.The CAW represents 270 workers at Viking Air, which builds the latest model of Twin Otter airplanes. The new agreement includes a $1000 payment for  2010 to 2011, a 2 percent wage increase retroactive to November 2011, a wage increase of...

For Immediate Release, Grey-Bruce Labour Council, Feb 4, 2012, Electro-Motive Plant Closure Two weeks ago the community, labour, the occupy movement and citizens from all walks of life stood in London in support of workers; not just the workers at Electro-Motive, but the Canadian worker. Yes, the focus was the CAW Members on the picket line, but the workers on the line that day represented every single worker in Canada being wilfully targeted by corporate and government organs and...

Media Advisory for CAW National Comprehensive and US Basic Distribution CAW Outraged at Closure Announcement at Electro-Motive in London February 3, 2012 (London) CAW President Ken Lewenza is expressing his anger and frustration at what is he calling the “callous move” by Caterpillar to suddenly close its London Electro-Motive Diesel plant, announced this morning. Sadly, the closure doesn’t come as a total surprise to the union. “Caterpillar had no intention of keeping this plant open,”...

http://cawlocal114.tripod.com/chny2012.pdf

 If you're on Twitter, look for the English LabourStart Canada feed.  Regular stories drawn from the Canada page on LabourStart, the global labour movement's news and campaigns website.   All the news that matters to Canadian trade unionists, all in 140 character tweets. Look for us as @LabourStartCanE Coming soon, our French language feed.

An overly-tired flight controller lost track of two Porter Airline planes. 30-year PPP for Waterloo transit, Bigger trucks Congress push, Island Corridor Foundation needs to open up, Via Rail bargain, Gaspésie, Cliff Mackay and more news in today's Transport Action Hotline. Tired flight controller cause for 2010 Porter Airlines near-miss "Two Porter Airlines planes came within “300 feet” of each other near Toronto after an overly-tired flight controller lost track of...

Outside workers in Toronto represented by CUPE local 416 are in contract negotiations with the city to try and reach a deal before the end of the weekend. The City continues to ask for concessions and last night tabled a final offer to the union that guts our collective agreement, to the detriment of both workers and the services they provide

It was not a happy new year for Canadian job seekers. Statistics Canada reported today that unemployment rose for a fourth consecutive month in January. Overall employment remained flat as Canada’s population and labour force grew at a normal pace, leaving more workers without jobs. The good news in today’s report is that 39,200 more [...]

Hello world

No. Of course not. Even if the government waves around scary large increases in nominal dollar terms. As has been widely reported, the most recent OAS actuarial report shows that total program expenditures will rise from $38.8 billion in 2011 to $107.9 billion in 2030. However, the dollar figure reflects, not just an increase in [...]

Canada’s job market continued to weaken in January as employment rose by a meagre 2,300 jobs, much less than the growth in the number of workers in the labour force. As a result, the national unemployment rate rose from 7.5% to 7.6%. The unemployment rate has been steadily climbing from 7.1% last September, since which [...]

Caterpillar has announced that it will soon close its Electro-Motive plant in London Ontario, where locked out employees have been off the job since January 1 of this year.

Here's your chance to meet the next Leader of the NDP and Prime Minister of Canada! Meet and Greet with Peggy Nash in Coquitlam February 1st, click here. Town Hall with Peggy Nash in Vancouver, Don't miss this one 7 pm - 9pm February 2nd! Meet and Greet with Peggy Nash in Surrey February 3rd.

Representatives of CUPE, the Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB), and Cuso International delivered over 800 postcards to the Embassy of Myanmar today, as well as a letter from CUPE National President Paul Moist.

There are some interesting dynamics going on with the NDP leadership race that we can track with numbers, see way below. And while numbers tell some stories, they don’t necessarily track intangible criteria of leadership qualities like these, which I would perhaps suggest in this order: intelligence progressive vision: social, political, economic, ecological justice policy [...]

CUPE’s online Inflation Calculator has been updated with annual averages for 2011. This easy-to-use tool provides a calculation of annual inflation using the Consumer Price Index for all provinces and major cities in Canada.

Now that the government is planning for an $8 billion cut,  the potential job losses could drive job losses to between 99,000 and 108,000 full time positions across Canada.  At this much higher level, the federal government could be single-handedly responsible for pushing national unemployment from its current 7.5% to 8.0%.  About half of those [...]

The Political Action Committee of Local 333 and Local 114's Jeannie Blaney cooked and served several hundred burgers February 1st to hungry students of all ages today in support of The Day of Action for the Federation of Students at Camosun College Victoria as part of the National Day of Action to reduce student debt.