In this series, we are exploring key challenges facing working people – from the fights unions are leading today, to global trends affecting workers, to what the future holds for the labour movement. Each session will feature CLC experts and leaders sharing insights and analysis on the issues that matter most to workers.

Webinar #3: Who’s cashing in on the housing crisis

In this webinar, the CLC’s own Lisa Freeman, Senior Researcher, will be speaking with two housing experts and advocates about the financialization of housing – how corporate landlords are changing the housing market, affecting tenants, and what it means for working people.

Lisa will be joined by Ricardo Tranjan and Bruno Dobrusin. Ricardo Tranjan is the Ontario Research Director and Senior Researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Bruno Dobrusin is one of the co-chairs of the Toronto Tenant Union.

Tuesday, June 23, 2026
1:00 PM ET

This webinar will be delivered in English, with simultaneous interpretation in French.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CN8AdbYuTLO8bdZZLssGNQ

We hosted our second webinar in this series in March, where we discussed Housing more generally. If you missed it, you can find the recording here with English captions, and here with French subtitles.

The post The next webinar in our series: Who’s cashing in on the housing crisis appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

In this series, we are exploring key challenges facing working people – from the fights unions are leading today, to global trends affecting workers, to what the future holds for the labour movement. Each session will feature CLC experts and leaders sharing insights and analysis on the issues that matter most to workers.

Webinar #2: Addressing the Housing Crisis

In this webinar, we’ll be joined by Lisa Freeman, Senior Researcher with the CLC’s Social and Economic Policy Department and our in-house expert housing, and Michèle Biss, Executive Director of the National Right to Housing Network. Together, we’ll be chatting about:

• The housing crisis and how the federal government is addressing it.
• A closer look at Build Canada Homes and the National Housing Strategy.

Tuesday, March 31, 2026
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

This webinar will be delivered in English, with simultaneous interpretation in French.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1FVmpV0ZTZeCZZ7WDoUHzg

We hosted our first webinar in this series in January, where we discussed Retirement Security. If you missed it, you can find the recording here with English captions, and here with French subtitles.

The post The next webinar in our series: Addressing the Housing Crisis appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

This series will explore key challenges facing working people – from the fights unions are leading today, to global trends affecting workers, to what the future holds for the labour movement. Each session will feature CLC experts and leaders sharing insights and analysis on the issues that matter most to workers.

The first webinar in the series will focus on the ongoing retirement security crisis.

The Issues and You: The Retirement Security Crisis Today
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Participants will hear from Chris Roberts, National Director of the CLC’s Social and Economic Policy Department, and the CLC’s in-house expert on pensions and retirement security. The webinar will examine why retirement insecurity remains a major issue for workers, even a decade after the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) enhancement, and what it means for workers today.

This webinar will be delivered in English, with simultaneous interpretation in French.

The post Canadian Labour Congress Launches New Webinar Series: The Issues and You appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

OTTAWA – Canada’s unions are calling on the federal government to focus on the country’s economic recovery and social safety net in its budget to be released Thursday, prioritizing ten key demands.

“The reality is, not everyone is sharing in the economic recovery,” said Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). “Many families are still facing enormous insecurity and a precarious job market. It is critical that the government use Budget 2022 to launch our country on a path to economic recovery and a stronger social safety net to ensure no one is left behind,” said Bruske. 

The CLC’s top priorities for Budget 2022 include:

1. 1. Expand funding for Canada’s health care system, with dedicated transfers for investments to address the staffing crisis in the sector, a national dental care program, public and not-for-profit long-term care, and mental health care. A multi-year commitment to implement a national pharmacare program beginning with $3.5 billion in 2022-23 and increasing incrementally in subsequent years to implement a national essential medicines formulary, as the first step towards implementing a full national, universal, single-payer pharmacare system. 
   2. Ambitious direct federal funding for the development of new, non-market, affordable housing (including co-op and non-market rental housing), and serious efforts to combat financial speculation in housing by fairly and progressively taxing house-flipping and vacant properties to capture windfall real estate gains that go to the wealthiest Canadians. 
   3. A commitment to pass and implement a worker-centred Just Transition Act in 2022, and make multi-billion dollar investments over 5 years to support training; and develop renewable energy, home and building retrofits, and low-emissions public transportation.
   4. Make significant investments in health care, education, social services, clean drinking water, housing, and infrastructure for Indigenous communities; take immediate steps to fund and implement the recommendations of the Report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and additional investments to undertake the work of burial searches at the former sites of residential schools.
   5. Investments in the care economy, including a $10 million commitment over three years to establish a Care Economy Commission tasked with planning for the future of Canada’s care economy, and long-term funding for a high quality, affordable, public and not-for-profit child care system, including a commitment to improve compensation for early childhood educators and child care workers, implement a workforce strategy and develop a multi-year capital investment plan to build new and expanded public child care facilities.
   6. Make workplaces fairer for everyone by bringing in 10 paid sick days and anti-scab legislation in the Canada Labour Code into effect in 2022, cracking down on employee misclassification, and a commitment to implement the recommendations of the Report of the Expert Panel on Modern Federal Labour Standards.
   7. A commitment to permanently increasing accessibility of employment insurance benefits and restoring direct federal government contributions in order to improve EI access and benefit adequacy.
   8. Concerted action on fair taxation reform, including a wealth tax, as well as a tax on windfall oil and gas profits, closing regressive tax loopholes, and tax changes on financial institutions that have made strong profits during the pandemic.
   9. Protect and strengthen retirement security with increases to OAS and GIS benefits, and put workers and pensioners at the front of the line in insolvency proceedings. Commit to reforming the Companies’ Creditors Arrangements Act and Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to exempt post-secondary education institutions and other public entities.
      
   10. A commitment to providing unions in Canada with the explicit right to file anti-dumping, countervailing duty and safeguard complaints under Canada’s trade remedy legislation.

To arrange an interview, please contact:
CLC Media Relations
media@clcctc.ca
613-526-7426

The post Top 10 things unions and working people are looking for in Budget 2022 appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

While many us are making sure that we #stayathome, we still need to be aware of the threat of homophobic and transphobic violence that persists online, at home, and for those on the front lines.

“This year, we are taking action online to take a stand, joining people around the world for a #VirtualDayofPink,” said Larry Rousseau, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress. “Solidarity is a key strength of our union movement. The #VirtualDayofPink is an opportunity for leaders in the trade union movement, in business and government, as well as everyday people, to stand together against homophobia and transphobia everywhere and in all of its forms.”

Canada’s unions have a role to play in educating and empowering our members so that all workplaces are welcoming and inclusive for all. In the context of COVID-19, our federal government needs to step up to ensure that 2SLGBTQI people are not left behind during and after this pandemic.

Around the world, 2SLGBTQI communities face disproportionately high levels of harassment and violence.

According to research from EGALE Canada, “Approximately 47 per cent of LGB workers (in Canada) have experienced workplace harassment and/or violence based on their sexual attraction (orientation), while approximately 90 per cent of transgender and gender variant employees report experiencing workplace harassment and/or violence stemming from their gender identity and expression.”

“Everyone has a role to play to better protect the rights of 2SLGBTQI people and ensure that they have the support they need in our workplaces, in our unions and in our communities,” said Rousseau “Our federal government must lead efforts with a dedicated gender-based plus analysis of the pandemic’s impacts, and by ensuring that additional emergency funds are available to support 2SLGBTQI organizations and communities to survive this crisis.”

You can mark the International Day of Pink right by:

1. Tagging your union and snapping a photo of you in pink to share online with the hashtag #VirtualDayofPink.
2. Downloading the CLC’s newest resource: Workers in Transition and learn how to be a Trans ally in your workplace today.
3. Read, share and support the demands of over 100 2SLGBTQI organizations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning more about International Day of Pink and how you can join #VirtualDayofPink here.

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