Employment & labour

The long term costs of legislating workers back to work

Feb 25, 2012
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As the provincial government spends the weekend drafting back-to-work legislation that will impose a contract on BC teachers, I found this opinion piece I wrote back in the year 2000, when the previous BC government legislated CUPE school support workers back to work. Still feels remarkably timely. So, just thought I’d re-post that old piece… View Article

“Mass staff replacements” in seniors’ care: impacts and solutions

Feb 16, 2012
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Deep in the second volume of the BC Ombudsperson’s recently-released second report on seniors’ care, is an interesting and important discussion about large-scale staff replacements and other substantial changes at residential care facilities. Under the current legislative framework governing most care facilities for seniors, a facility operator must notify its regional medical health officer four months… View Article

Growing support for cities to adopt living wage

Nov 16, 2011
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New developments since my recent post calling on municipalities to lead the way on adopting living wage policies: First, over just over 100 candidates have responded to the Open Letter issued by the Living Wage for Families campaign, covering almost every Lower Mainland municipality. Almost all have expressed support for this proposal or at least… View Article

Living Wage Policy: Why Municipal Governments should lead the way

Oct 25, 2011
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By Michael McCarthy Flynn and Seth Klein The Living Wage for Families Campaign, along with 54 organizations representing over 300,000 British Columbians, recently issued an Open Letter calling on all municipal election candidates to help low-income families in their cities by passing a Living Wage policy if they are elected (available here). Many families are… View Article

A ‘Jobs for Jobs’ Strategy

Sep 23, 2011
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It is ironic that within weeks of its much publicized report and stated concern about the upward pressures on BC Hydro rates, the government announces a job strategy that will drive up electricity rates more than anything else — more even than the self-sufficiency policy government has belatedly recognized must go. The plan for new… View Article

Are international students the key to jobs in BC

Sep 21, 2011
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The second day of the roll out of the Premier’s jobs agenda was marked by a single announcement made at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. The focus of this piece of the jobs puzzle was ramping up international education and regional skills training. The idea of leveraging education, especially post-secondary education, to boost the economy… View Article

On Labour Day, think about unions as an equalizing force

Aug 31, 2011
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By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed levels of production. Those who today attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them. Martin Luther King speaking in 1961 On Labour Day 2011 unions in North America are facing historic challenges…. View Article