Photo: flickr/United Steelworkers

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Get ready folks, it’s the last rabble.ca labour round up of the season, and coincidentally, many of the stories that have been covered through the year at rabble.ca (and rarely anywhere else in the media) are back in the news. So if you were wondering just what happened with… well read on, there are new developments.

Labour struggles are ongoing and ever-more important. Stick with rabble.ca for the news that mainstream media doesn’t cover. You can help ensure that rabble.ca’s labour coverage continues. You know how to do it. Just click the donate button above and all this can be yours in the future.

Here’s the labour news:

  •  On Sunday between 5,000 – 10,000 people took to Toronto’s streets to march for jobs, justice, and the climate. Labour was out in force.
  • Strike averted! A whopping 12,000 Loblaws workers from over 60 Loblaw’s stores across Ontario voted to ratify a tentative agreement with their employer. The new 6-year contract will provide members of UFCW Local 1000a with increased job security and prescription drug cards for most part-time and full-time employees.
  • Almost 200 Air Canada flights leaving from Pearson International Airport were cancelled last Friday after more than half the workers assigned to fuel aircrafts called in sick as part of a job action. The workers, members of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 2413, were protesting Air Canada’s decision to switch from Consolidated Aviation Fueling Services to another non-unionized sub-contracted. Over 300 refuellers are expected to lose their jobs due to the switch.
  • In a disappointing and binding decision, Arbitrator William Kaplan has ruled that Teaching Assistants at the University of Toronto, members of CUPE Local 3902, must accept the terms of the University’s most recent proposal, which the membership had voted to reject earlier this spring. 
  • Talks broke down between CUPE Local 101 and the City of London this week after the city proposed to use temporary workers to fill weekend shifts. The 750 inside workers have been on strike for almost 50 days. There are a number of support campaigns for these workers, which you can participate in here.
  • Despite sloppy drafting errors that remain uncorrected, the anti-union Bill C-525  is now law. The Bill makes it harder for unions to achieve certification in an organizing drive. Read about it on rabble.ca here.
  • Now in it’s eighth week, the Halifax Water strike continues. CUPE Local 1431 says that it recently submitted a plan to Halifax Water actuaries that will save $1.8 million more than management’s current proposal.
  • The bitter and very long labour dispute at Crown Holdings Inc. may finally be coming to a close! The United Steelworkers and Crown Holdings have reached a tentative agreement that may signal an end to the 22-month strike at Crown’s beer can manufacturing plant in Toronto.
  • As the Ontario Ministry of Labour continues its Changing Workplace Review, migrant farm workers say that their voices need to be heard too.

That’s all for the labour roundup. Have a solidarity-filled summer.

Ella Bedard is rabble.ca’s labour intern and an associate editor at GUTS Canadian Feminist Magazine. She has written about labour issues for Dominion.ca and the Halifax Media Co-op and is the co-producer of the radio documentary The Amelie: Canadian Refugee Policy and the Story of the 1987 Boat People.

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

Ella Bedard

Ella Bedard

Ella is a historian-come-journalist with fickle tastes and strong progressive principles. She has written about labour issues for Dominion.ca and the Halifax Media Co-op and is the co-producer of the...