Why do care workers deserve better pay? Community Living London workers answer
On Tuesday at the OPSEU Local 166 picket line for Community Living London, workers marched up and down the street, whistling and cheering at cars passing by.
Read MoreWhy do care workers deserve better pay? Community Living London workers answer
PERSPECTIVES: Bill C-22 poses a very serious risk to privacy rights
In an unprecedented move, the Liberal government led by Prime Minister Mark Carney is in the process of passing a controversial bill that’s garnered concern both at home and abroad. Bill C-22, the “Lawful Access Act” is currently in committee consideration and awaiting third reading in Parliament this coming Tuesday. This legislation, in its current form, is looking to provide law enforcement with the power to force service providers, including secure VPNs, to provide users’ personal information and metadata. It also requires said information to be stored for up to a year. Although federal authorities defending the bill have stated…
PERSPECTIVES: Worth fighting for: Community Living London workers ready to strike
Community Living London workers are preparing to walk off the job on Monday, joining thousands of workers across Ontario in a growing labour dispute driven by chronic underfunding, low wages, and worsening working conditions. This action is a part of the “Worth Fighting For” campaign, a coordinated, province-wide community and labour action in Ontario led by frontline workers in the community and social services sectors, including members of OPSEU/SEFPO and CUPE. Workers are demanding retroactive pay to compensate for wage increases being unfairly capped at 1 percent in 2019 by the Ontario government’s Bill 124, which was ruled unconstitutional in…
PERSPECTIVES: Stevenson for Mayor? Thanks, Josh Morgan
In this increasingly polarized political climate that we find ourselves in today, Londoners don’t seem to agree on much. But if there’s one sentiment that’s almost unanimous across all 14 wards, it’s that our city is headed in the wrong direction. The genuine anger and frustration at the state of our city is palpable, much of it justifiable and righteous within itself. But it is commonly misdirected towards our unhoused neighbours, immigrants, or the “other” – whoever that may be at any given moment. No one has better capitalized upon this smouldering rage than current Ward 4 councillor – now…
“Earth’s Greatest Enemy” screening reveals the global cost of militarization—and how we fight back
Two months ago, as the US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran and Lebanon continued to heat up, another thermometer was quietly ticking higher in the background. Largely unnoticed outside the areas it affected, in March the southwest US (and interior of BC) experienced an unprecedented heat wave, with multiple states smashing all-time single-day and -month temperature records. This was no one-day flash in the pan: the unseasonal temperatures lingered for nearly two weeks, causing alpine snowpack volume to melt down almost to nothing at a time when it should have been on its way to a typical mid-April peak. The…
“Mourn for the Dead and Fight for the Living” : International Day of Mourning to remember workers killed, injured, and made ill on the job
On April 28, trade unionists and labour activists came for the Day of Mourning ceremony held in London’s Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) hall. This year’s London ceremony highlighted the recent death of a worker who was killed while working at the Maple Leaf Foods poultry processing plant on Wilton Grove Road on April 9. The investigation into the workplace death is ongoing and further details haven’t been released at this time. “We are all sharing in grief,” said Mike Mattioli, the regional union representative from the Union of Commercial and Food Workers (UFCW), which represents workers at the…