No excuse for attacks on journalists

Good reporters ask hard questions. They challenge what you say, and you better have the facts to back you up.

The fact is, tough reporters make me better at my job, and that serves the public. I know I need to be on top of things to get my message across. By challenging me and other subjects in their stories, journalists play an invaluable service and their work is at the heart of a functioning democracy.

Not all seem to agree, however.

Why Mill Jobs Matter

By Lana Payne, Atlantic Regional Director, an abridged version appeared in the Pictou Advocate, Aug. 1, 2018.

 

Save Comprehensive Sex Education

By Naureen Rizvi, Ontario Regional Director

Premier Ford’s scrapping of comprehensive sex education leaves children at risk, but together we can stop him and do the right thing for kids.  

Before school starts in September and students are denied information about their own bodies and lives that could keep them safer and healthier we need to make our support for the 2015 curriculum known.

Trading away the potential for stronger labour rights

With all the talk of demanding (as our government should) labour rights under NAFTA that are progressive and enforceable, it begs the question: what happened to demanding those rights when negotiating the new Trans-Pacific trade deal?

Canada capitulated in a rush to sign any trade deal.

It was a missed opportunity to create a new precedent for trade agreements. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but workers were sold out, proving that these trade deals have never been about raising the standards for workers, but creating profit for corporations.

Trump’s border policy damages our shared humanity

Over the past couple of weeks, Donald Trump has truly shown us the depth of his cruelty, at least I hope he has.

Trump’s administration has been separating children – including babies and toddlers – from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border on the flimsy excuse that the parents have committed a crime by trying to escape the violence at home and provide a better and safer life for their families.

We need to listen, and act, as political times change

The challenge ahead for the labour movement and progressive voters is great.

Doug Ford’s election as premier of Ontario marked a significant change in the politics of the province, and the country. Ford stands for policies that are opposed by the labour movement and by progressive voters across the Canada.

Here is no downplaying the challenge of trying to pursue progressive policies while the Ford Conservatives are in power.

We have been here before, however. We know how to do this.

Union-busting employer rewarded for bad behaviour

By Lana Payne, Unifor Atlantic Regional Director

For more than 470 days, workers at the DJ Composites aerospace facility in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, members of Unifor local 597, have been locked out by their American-based employer.

These workers earn modest wages, by any standard and certainly by aerospace industry standards.

Ottawa Must Stop Internet Pirates From Killing Canadian Jobs

Originally published on Huffington Post January 31, 2018

Canada's $8.5-billion cultural industry is poised to shrink if someone doesn't plug the leak allowing foreign digital pirates to steal content.

If foreign pirates were capturing Canadian fishing trawlers and stealing their catch everyday, you can bet the government would step in.

If train robbers were draining western grain cars, Canada would set up a police task force to stop such wide-scale commercial theft.

Solidarity Forever

By Lana Payne, Atlantic Regional Director

Solidarity is what we build!

Most who know me, know of my profound respect for central labour organizations, as a force to build solidarity among unions, and bring about change for working people. This is especially true of federations of labour and labour councils across the country, where grassroots campaigning and mobilizing happens.

As a past president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour (NLFL), I also know how challenging this is.

Lock-out in Gander must end

As published in The Telegram, December 23, 2017

By Ignatius Oram
Unifor Member, Unit Chair of Local 597

I am one of 32 workers who were locked out a few days before Christmas last year by my American employer, D-J Composites, which operates an aerospace manufacturing plant in Gander, Newfoundland.