On Feb. 14, 2022, a student-led group, Students Against Kenney, led a walkout and subsequent rally at the Alberta Legislature.  Over 150 students, teachers, MLAs, and workers joined to protest the UCP’s irresponsible and scientifically unsupported decision to lift mask mandates in schools which took effect on Feb. 14. Not only did Jason Kenney throw […]

Chinook Centre Starbucks workers in Calgary filed to unionize with the United Steelworkers this week—joining a wave of union drives at locations across North America. On Jan. 19, the USW District 3 announced 17 baristas in the mall’s food court applied for a union vote to the Alberta Labour Relations Board.  If successful, the Chinook […]

Update: After the publication of this article, members of CUEFA informed us that increases to salary were in fact won in negotiations at the 11th hour, and were included in the tentative agreement. Therefore, no bargaining issues will go to binding arbitration. This is welcome news, for reasons highlighted below. Given the prevalence of methods […]

On Jan. 4 in the midst of a brutal Alberta cold snap, the Concordia University of Edmonton faculty walked off the job in a strike. This is the first time in Alberta’s history that a university faculty has gone on strike. Concordia’s faculty association (CUEFA) includes 82 professors, lab instructors, librarians, and placement coordinators. Members […]

An estimated 1,200 Canada Goose workers at three production facilities in Winnipeg voted overwhelmingly on Dec. 1 to unionize with the Workers United Canada Council (WUCC). The WUCC reported that 86 per cent of the workers—most of whom are immigrant women—voted in favour, touting the successful union drive as the “largest private sector victory for […]

On Nov. 2, the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA), which represents 1,2000 instructors, professors, and librarians, walked off the job to demand higher pay. The union has said that low pay has made it difficult to hire and retain new faculty, leading to “brain drain.” As a matter of fact, University of Manitoba (U […]

Last weekend’s UCP annual general meeting in Calgary looked more and more like a dress rehearsal for the downfall of Jason Kenney. Even after mobilizing party staffers to stack the meeting with his supporters and paying their registration fees through a dubious scheme involving political action committees (PACs), the party apparatchiks could not muster the […]

High River Cargill workers voted 97 per cent to strike against benefit cuts and workplace hazards—after the company’s negligence led directly to some of Canada’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks. On Nov. 4, an estimated 1,400 United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 members at Cargill’s High River beef plant voted overwhelmingly to strike.  The union issued […]

In July of 2019, the Saskatchewan Party announced its plans to end two social assistance programs which many low-income residents have relied on to secure housing and basic necessities. The two programs would be replaced with a simplified program known as the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program which came into effect in August of 2021. […]

Last month, thousands of Superstore cashiers, cleaners and stockers sick and tired of barely surviving on minimum wage and being disrespected gave a resounding 97 per cent strike vote. This could have been the spark for a movement to get justice for all essential workers. Instead, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401 […]