Bruske: Canada’s unions urge the federal government to work with the premiers to protect our communities by giving every worker access to paid sick leave OTTAWA – On the eve of federal, provincial and territorial labour minister meetings, chaired by Minister Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s unions are urging Canada’s leaders to protect our communities from COVID-19 and other future viruses by…
Canada’s unions calling for worker-centred pandemic recovery
October 6, 2021
Canada’s unions are marking the World Day for Decent Work on October 7, by calling on the federal government to focus on workers in their pandemic recovery plans and replace lost jobs with better ones “The pandemic has highlighted the existing inequity and precarity in Canada’s job market and shone a light on the pervasiveness of work defined by low…
Bruske: Uber’s flex work proposal would continue to fail to protect gig workers
August 30, 2021
Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, released the following statement about Uber’s “Flexible Work” proposal: “Nobody goes to work asking for more insecurity and vulnerability, but that’s what Uber is offering their workers. These workers are being asked by a giant multinational to give away their rights as employees, and that’s wrong. “This raises the question of whose…
Canadian workers to political leaders: it’s high time for paid sick leave
August 20, 2021
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) President Bea Bruske welcomes the Liberal party’s election commitment to introduce 10 paid days of sick leave for workers falling under federal jurisdiction. Canada’s unions have been calling for paid sick leave from the earliest days of the pandemic. “Access to paid sick days reduces the spread of COVID and helps workers who keep our economy…
Job numbers show pandemic’s hardest hit continue to struggle most
July 9, 2021
Canada’s unions are raising the alarm that hundreds of thousands of workers are facing cutbacks to pandemic supports, while the job market remains far from recovery. “Our biggest concern is those workers who are at risk of dropping out of the labour market altogether. “Many workers are just giving up because they can’t find work, or because a lack of…
We need smart public policy to address vaccine hesitancy
April 20, 2021
When the first COVID-19 vaccines were injected into the arms of Canadians last December, there was a widespread sense of optimism as people could see the beginning of the end of this pandemic. Now, with more contagious and deadly variants surging in most regions of the country, this third wave threatens to be the most-deadly phase of the pandemic that…
Top five labour demands ahead of upcoming federal budget
April 16, 2021
OTTAWA – Canada’s unions are calling on the federal government to focus on the country’s social safety net in its budget to be released Monday, prioritizing five key demands. “The devastating effects of the pandemic were made worse by years of austerity by successive governments,” said Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). “As a result of cuts, the…
Latest job numbers encouraging but a lot rides on federal job investments
April 9, 2021
OTTAWA – Canada’s unions are calling on the federal government to create more than one million jobs in the upcoming budget, pointing to today’s job numbers as further evidence of the need for expanded investments. Statistics Canada released its latest Labour Force Survey today. It shows that more than 1.5 million unemployed and under-employed workers continue to struggle to find work,…
Canada’s unions mark World Day for Decent Work with a call for a robust economic recovery plan
October 7, 2020
COVID-19 has exposed flaws in social protections in Canada and around the world. The effects of this pandemic on health, employment, income, gender and racial equity are all the more catastrophic because of pre-existing gaps in our social safety net. Before the pandemic, ever-increasing globalization meant many workers were employed in precarious, low-wage work with few, if any, benefits. Now…
On Labour Day, the nation’s unions launch a plan to disaster-proof Canada
September 4, 2020
Ottawa – To mark Labour Day, Canada’s unions are calling on all levels of government to focus on investments and community supports to help restart our economies and protect Canadians. Forward Together: A Canadian Plan is a new campaign centred on ensuring that Canada is ready to disaster-proof our nation so that no one is left behind when crisis hits.…