OTTAWA – Canada’s unions welcome today’s announcement lifting U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. “The cancellation of steel and aluminum tariffs is good news for workers,” said CLC President Hassan Yussuff. “Canada’s unions welcome this decision to restore stability and predictability to our economy and to workers’ lives. For almost a year, these tariffs have had a damaging impact…

On May 9, 2019, Canada’s Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor announced a new deferral policy for blood donations from men who have sex with men, effectively reducing the deferral time from one year to three months. This International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT), Canada’s unions are calling for an end to discriminatory policies which perpetuate homophobic and transphobic…

By Hassan Yussuff, as published in the Winnipeg Free Press and in the Toronto Star. The year 1919 was fraught with discontent. Workers in Canada were struggling to make ends meet and inflation had risen by 65% over a six-year span. Men who had just returned from a horrific war in Europe could not find employment; factories were shutting down…

Canada’s unions are marking World Press Freedom Day by calling on governments around the world and here at home to do more to protect the rights of journalists to practice their profession without fear of reprisals, violence or even death. “Far too many journalists continue to risk their lives in upholding a basic cornerstone of all democratic societies: press freedom,”…

April 28 is the National Day of Mourning, a day to commemorate those who have died or been injured as a result of their job. This year, Canada’s unions are calling on employers and governments to do more to protect workers. “One workplace death is already too many. Workers deserve to arrive home safely at the end of their workday.…

April 24 marks the 6th anniversary of the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse that killed 1,134 garment workers in Bangladesh. Canada’s unions remain concerned about working conditions in factories where Canadian retailers source their products. “Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment exporter. Roughly 4 million people work in the country’s four thousand plus factories. Nearly 80 percent of these workers…

Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated clearly how we have eleven years to stabilize the planet at a 1.5-degree limit of warming, or face terrible physical and social impacts from climate change. We are already feeling some of those effects, with extreme heat waves and flooding, forest fire seasons that are the worst on record, and…

April 9, 2019 marks Equal Pay Day in Ontario, the date recognized as the amount of time it takes for women’s wages to catch up to men’s wages in 2018. Nationally, Equal Pay Day is an opportunity to educate communities across Canada on the realities of the gender wage gap and its negative economic impacts on women, especially women with…

Canada’s unions are disappointed that the long-awaited appointment of a Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) has not been accompanied by the promised power to investigate abuses and redress the harm caused by Canadian companies operating abroad. In January 2018, the federal government publicly committed to creating an independent ombudsperson’s office with the power to order those under investigation to…

The 2019 federal budget was released on Tuesday, March 19 and despite being the last budget before this fall’s federal election, sets out only a modest fiscal plan rather than a bold vision for the future. The CLC, which represents over 3 million Canadian workers, issued an immediate response to the budget but is now releasing a more detailed budget…