Region

Every day we get up and expect to go to work and come home to our families and loved ones. Indeed, coming home safe and sound is both a routine and a right that all workers have. Sadly, we know that things aren’t always so simple.

The latest numbers show that 905 people in Canada died in the workplace in 2016, twenty-six of whom were aged between 15 and 24 years old. That’s on top of hundreds of thousands of workplace injuries, occupational illnesses, and incidents that aren’t even reported.

Over 120 workers at Stericycle, a medical waste management company, ended their week-long strike on this month. Workers won extra personal days, a new pension plan and big raises over the course of a three-year contract. Plants in Brampton, Ottawa and Scarborough had been affected by the strike.

Barring a surprise agreement, workers at school bus company Autobus Lucien Bissonnette will go on strike at 6 a.m. this morning. Last-ditch bargaining sessions and management offers to the 50 employees at the company were not enough to break the deadlock at the negotiations table.

The Minister of Labour, on the advice of federal mediators, has agreed to Canadian Pacific’s request to order a vote on a final offer to renew their collective agreements with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and the IBEW System Council No. 11. Both unions strongly recommend that their members reject the company offers.

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) is confused at the sight of Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) publicly playing the “victim card” in current contract negotiations. The TCRC is reacting to the company’s claim that unions are attempting to take the company hostage.

Given lack of progress at the bargaining table, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference formally served 72 hours’ notice of intent to strike to Canadian Pacific Railway (CP).

In a press release replete with fabrication and innuendo, Canadian Pacific (CP) last night claimed it was trying to negotiate in good faith with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC). The reality is that the company is attempting to manufacture a crisis to force government intervention and avoid bargaining with the Teamsters.

The Teamsters’ rail conferences in the U.S. and Canada today joined with unionized Mexican freight rail workers in calling for the inclusion of language in a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that would ensure that all industry workers on the continent are treated fairly and equitably.

Members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) at Canadian Pacific (CP) have voted by a margin of 94.2% to authorize strike action. Some 3000 conductors and locomotive engineers could go on strike as early as 0:01 am on April 21, 2018.