Latest news with #Bruske
CBC
07-04-2025
- Automotive
- CBC
'Shawn Fain is wrong': Canadian Labour Congress blasts UAW leader on tariffs
Social Sharing The head of Canada's largest labor organization on Monday was blunt in her assessment of a powerful union leader south of the border over his support of U.S. President Donald Trump's auto tariffs. Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain is "100 per cent" wrong in his support of Trump's 25 per cent levies on auto imports. "Shawn Fain is wrong," Bruske said at a news conference in Windsor on Monday morning. "He's absolutely wrong." Bruske's comments illustrate the sharp divide on tariffs between union leaders in Canada and the U.S., who share decades of history and have more commonly worked in solidarity. They also come as Fain continues to defend his decision to back Trump's trade war, arguing that tariffs will force manufacturing companies to move jobs to the U.S. But industry experts and Canadian union leaders have repeatedly warned that tariffs on Canada and Mexico could destabilize – and even destroy – the North American auto sector, which is built upon a deeply integrated supply chain. "We already know that five different U.S. plants have layoffs today because of the imposition of tariffs and because of how integrated our economy is," Bruske said, the busy Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit in the background. "So whatever [Fain]'s trying to achieve in terms of getting more manufacturing back to the U.S., this is already impacting UAW members on the southern side of the border as well," she said. Stellantis, which builds the Pacifica minivans in Windsor, announced last week that it would pause production at the plant for two weeks as a result of Trump's tariffs, which took effect Thursday. The company has also paused production at one of its factories in Mexico. Those closures have led to temporary layoffs at five plants in Michigan and Indiana. Bruske and other union leaders said they were in Windsor on Monday to show solidarity with autoworkers and demand more support for those facing layoffs. The CLC wants to see Canada's employment insurance system expanded and public procurement to support unionized workplaces, among other things. Bruske also called on financial institutions to protect workers from losing their homes or cars. "When workers face layoffs, we are calling on banks and lenders to step up and support workers," Bruske said. "And that means at this critical time, no foreclosures, no repossessions, not now, not while workers in this country are under attack." Her comments about Fain came after she stepped in to answer a reporter's question for a Canadian UAW member who attended the press conference. Bill Pollock, president of UAW Local 251, represents workers in a range of industries across southwestern Ontario, including automotive suppliers. He was asked how he reconciled his solidarity with local workers with Fain's support of the tariffs. "It's not for me to reconcile," he said. "But I do know that the tariffs enacted are — let me rephrase that. They're not after our jobs, they're after fair trade agreements, not after our jobs." Earlier in the event, Pollock, a "proud member" of the UAW since 1970, said he wanted to "try to set the record straight" on the union's position regarding tariffs. "The UAW's not against the workers in Canada. The UAW is in support of the workers in Canada," Pollock said. "What we're calling for is a fair trade framework that protects and uplifts working class workers across North America." The UAW did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, in an interview with NPR published Monday morning, Fain appeared to limit his support of tariffs to those on the automotive industry. The UAW leader called Trump's announcement last week of a wide range of reciprocal tariffs "reckless." Trump's previously announced auto tariffs immediately applied a 25 per cent levy on fully assembled vehicle imports. Next month, the same tariff will apply to imported parts. The administration has said companies importing under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) will be able to lower their tariffs by certifying the U.S. content in their products, but the process to do so remains unclear.
CBC
25-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Upcoming election most important in 'decades' for struggling workers, labour campaign says
"Rent? Utilities? Gas? Not on this paycheque," read a sign at a Canadian Labour Congress press conference Monday, launching the organization's new platform advocating for the working class. Slogans like that one illustrate what president Bea Bruske calls an "economic crisis," and the the Labour Congress wants federal election candidates to take note. "All elections are important, we know this," Bruske said in a speech Monday morning at the Delta Hotel in St. John's. "But this one, I think, is the most significant we've had in many decades. "This election comes at a pivotal time for Canadian workers, and the choices that we make at the ballot box this year is going to decide the fate of our economy," Bruske continued. Bruske said Canadian unions want the next prime minister to have a plan to support workers, and the Labour Congress has a specific wish list: A "worker-first" response to tariff threats. Tackling cost of living. Strengthening public health care. Addressing the housing crisis by building one million affordable homes. Supporting workers and their families. Workers' issues at the fore As tariff threats continue to haunt the Canadian economy, workers are taking the hit, according to Bruske. "You need workers to keep our economy growing and strong. However, [the candidates] all have different policies in terms of how they would implement various different changes, and not all of them actually benefit workers," Bruske told reporters. Some of the changes Bruske said workers would like to see include using money from counter-tariffs to offset the impact on workers in affected industries, and making sure Canadians can put food on the table and pay the rent by creating sustainable jobs. Craig Dyer, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in St. John's, witnessed firsthand the struggle. In November, over 50,000 Canada Post workers walked off the job in a strike, but were ordered back to work in December. "We are at a pinnacle as we speak right now, locally, regionally, and nationally and globally," Dyer said in a speech. "We need strong leadership in Ottawa that are going to make decisions to help the working class, the unionized workers, that will benefit everybody." Dyer said now is the time for voters to challenge candidates on the issues that most affect workers' rights. Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour president Jessica McCormick said about 20,000 jobs in Newfoundland and Labrador may be affected by Trump's tariffs. With that in mind, she said federal candidates are very aware of growing concerns. "Workers' issues are really at the forefront of the party agenda," McCormick said at the event. "I'm really looking at what are the track records of those parties when it comes to the key issues." While Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre make promises to cut income taxes for the average worker, McCormick said she is more interested in plans for affordable housing and reducing cost of living. "When I talk to our members … it's about trying to make end meet," she said.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'The fire is still lit': How COVID-19 and its aftermath sparked a new era for labour
When COVID-19 hit, millions of Canadians were either told to work remotely or temporarily laid off as governments ordered lockdowns to protect public health. Not Arlick Leslie. While others were setting up a home office or applying for income assistance, he continued to work at a Walmart warehouse in Mississauga, Ont. The non-compliance clerk was one of many workers deemed 'essential,' heralded by politicians for their service at a time when even shopping for groceries felt like a risk. "We had to be out there ... facing the elements," said Leslie. Many workers, including Leslie, didn't feel like their treatment matched the important role they were playing. Losing an hourly "hero pay" bump after just a couple of months added to a growing pile of frustrations over wages and scheduling for Leslie and his co-workers. As time went on, Leslie and his co-workers saw unionized workers at places like Ontario's liquor wholesaler fighting — and winning gains — at the bargaining table, earning back some of what they felt they had lost since 2020. 'We've seen the (unionized) workers speaking up for what they think they deserve,' Leslie said. "So we're like, 'you know what? Why not give this a shot?'" Workers at the warehouse unionized through Unifor last September, and are now negotiating the terms of their first collective agreement. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent runaway inflation that eroded workers' purchasing power, spurred what experts call a rise in union militancy, where workers drew harder-than-ever lines with employers on issues like wages and working conditions. The result: many workers won significant wage gains and some unionized at notoriously hard-to-organize companies, buoyed by elevated levels of public support. 'We've seen it with postal workers, we've seen it with dock workers, we've seen it with retail workers, we've seen it with production workers,' said Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress. 'It's a pretty universal phenomenon that workers are recognizing their worth and are willing to push for more, and they're willing to walk the picket line to get more.' Health, safety and hero status The so-called hero pay was emblematic of workers in areas like transportation, health care, long-term care and retail becoming 'the ones that we relied upon the most,' said Bruske. But in some sectors, the hero pay was short-lived. For example, Canada's three major grocers removed their hourly bonuses in June 2020 (Empire reinstated some bonuses for workers in locked-down areas that December). "While we appreciated them in the short term, it was almost performative," said Bruske. In the early months of the pandemic, amid constantly shifting public health measures and supply chain disruptions, many unionized employers looked to defer bargaining, said Lesley Prince, director of organizing at United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, especially in sectors massively affected by closures like hospitality. "There was so much uncertainty that most companies just wanted to sort of maintain the status quo, because they didn't know when things were going to reopen and start operating on a full-time basis again," said Prince. As the months wore on, companies were dealing with supply chain disruptions stemming from COVID-19 as well as geopolitical tensions and extreme weather, said Pascal Chan, vice-president of strategic policy and supply chains for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce: "There have been no shortage of disruptions." Justin Gniposky, who was a national representative in Unifor's organizing department when the pandemic hit, believes some companies took advantage of the circumstances and sought concessionary deals. Uncertainty and mass unemployment muted workers' resistance in 2020 and 2021, said Stephanie Ross, an associate professor at McMaster University's labour studies school. But unions had more leverage as inflation spiked, labour tightened and profits stabilized in some sectors 'I think that the pandemic brought to the forefront a new set of issues for the labour movement to confront in workplaces and in public policy, and I think that it also ... created the conditions that brought forth a wave of militancy that we haven't seen in several decades,' said Ross. 'You can't eat hero status." In response to concerns raised by the unionizing workers at Walmart, spokesperson Stephanie Fusco emphasized pay premiums and bonuses the company enacted in 2020, as well as more recent wage increases. (Unionized workers didn't get the latest round of raises; the company says their wages will be decided through negotiations. Unifor has alleged the raise is an anti-union tactic, which Walmart denies.) "We take health and safety concerns seriously and work to promptly address them," Fusco said in a statement. Bargaining for deals Unions tried to channel workers' frustration into negotiations, said Gniposky, now Unifor's director of organizing. In 2022 and 2023 Unifor led a series of 'aggressive' bargaining rounds, Gniposky said, such as with the Detroit Three automakers. Workers at Stellantis, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors got double-digit wage gains and improvements to various benefits after a short-lived strike. The deals followed pandemic-related supply-chain disruptions amid major pushes to invest in the electric vehicle transition. Metro grocery workers in the Toronto area made headlines during a month-long strike in 2023, eventually reaching a deal that essentially brought back their lost pandemic pay. Public-sector workers also took to the streets, including tens of thousands of federal government employees in 2023. 'There was a moment from late 2022 onward, where unions had more relative power to make those gains, to go on strike, and more public support than we had seen for many, many years for those kinds of disruptions,' said Ross, the McMaster labour specialist. But workers still faced pushback from their employers and, in some cases, governments. Last year the federal government intervened in several high-profile private-sector labour disputes. Business groups say major labour disruptions, like the month-long strike by Canada Post last year, as well as recent stoppages at ports and railways, cost the economy billions of dollars, disrupt the flow of important commodities and jeopardize the livelihoods of small business owners. In some cases, industry called on the government to step in. Recent high-profile work stoppages have not only hurt employers and the economy but also Canada's reputation as a trading partner, said Chan, with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. "These are getting a lot of attention internationally," he said. Some on the industry side, like the Canadian Federation of Independent Business' Dan Kelly, believe the government has tipped the scales too far toward unionized workers in recent years through legislative changes. This, plus a tight labour market coming out of the pandemic, empowered workers — including non-unionized employees — to ask for "higher than normal" pay increases, Kelly said. Breakthroughs in organizing One group of workers in particular made headlines across North America for unionizing: employees at large chains, including multinational companies such as Starbucks, Walmart and Amazon. Unifor began organizing at B.C. Amazon warehouses in 2023, and has filed to unionize one of them. The union is currently embroiled in a complaint against Amazon, alleging it tried to dilute and tamp down union support, which the retailer denies. UFCW, meanwhile, saw success at chains like Indigo and PetSmart. But Ross, with McMaster, said unions have had a hard time truly moving the needle at these corporate giants. The first unionized Amazon warehouse in Canada was in Quebec. After it lost a bid to challenge the certification, Amazon announced earlier this year it would close all of its Quebec warehouses, a decision the Confédération des syndicats nationaux is seeking to overturn. Digital updates In addition to galvanizing workers, the pandemic also spurred long-overdue technological changes that make it easier to unionize, said Gniposky. For example, digital union cards are now widespread, meaning workers can sign cards from anywhere. Votes are also usually electronic, resulting in a higher turnout. Ross said the pressures of the past few years have 'created a different mood in the labour movement than we've seen for a long time.' 'But … the question of whether or not the lessons from this last five years are going to be learned in ways that enhance the power of the labour movement to make economic and political gains for workers is, I think, still an open question,' she said. The next four years of the Donald Trump presidency could prove to be another opportunity, Gniposky said, as challenging times can build solidarity. 'The fire is still lit,' he said. 'This is an opportunity and we've got to take advantage of it.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2025. Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Public service productivity study group not looking at remote work, says member
OTTAWA — The working group tasked with measuring productivity within Canada's federal public service has not looked at remote work, one of its members says. Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress and one of the group's seven members, said remote work "is not part of anything that we've discussed at this moment" and she doesn't know if the topic will be part of the study. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which is behind the study, would not share details about whether the group will look at remote work, despite it becoming a hot topic among public servants after many were required to return to the office at least three days a week in September. Treasury Board spokesperson Martin Potvin said the group "will explore a wide range of issues and opportunities" based on members' areas of expertise. Maria Gintova, an assistant professor at McMaster University's department of political science, said the group should be taking remote work into account. "I think it's an integral component of any kind of productivity study or any kind of future human resource planning," said Gintova, who has researched the Ontario provincial and the federal public service. "It's happening, like it or not, and the lack of strategic consideration here will … come back and bite." Gintova said she was not necessarily surprised the working group wasn't looking at remote work. She highlighted a recent study in the International Public Management Journal that found only eight out of 56 departments in Canada's federal and provincial governments conducted "thorough analyses of employee productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, or equity with telework prior to implementing their post-pandemic telework policies." The study group has held two meetings so far, with several more planned throughout the winter. A final report with advice and recommendations is expected to be delivered to the president of the Treasury Board by the end of March. Former Treasury Board president Anita Anand launched the government-led task force last year. She said the group would look at issues including the uses of technology, the size of the public service, the relationship between the public sector and the private sector and overall declining productivity. The Government of Canada website for the initiative said the study will examine how productivity is measured in other countries and look at how those tactics could be applied in Canada, while exploring areas where the public service can increase its productivity and finding ways to improve service delivery to Canadians. The working group's members include former bureaucrats, academics and researchers. Bruske, who noted the project was launched in response to concerns that productivity was lagging, said she can't share much information about the group's work. She said it's looking at how to quantify productivity and the work has not yet reached a solutions-finding stage. "We haven't carved out any one particular thing," Bruske said, adding the group is looking at the entire public service, including Crown corporations. "My role there is to make sure that workers' voices aren't being lost when we're trying to find ways to improve public sector productivity." Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told Radio-Canada on Tuesday that it doesn't matter if public servants work from home, so long as their work gets done. He also said work is not getting done within the federal government, though he did not offer details about public servants' productivity. Poilievre called for public servants to be given clear assignments and be monitored to ensure they're completing their tasks. He also said he would cut the size of the federal public service, arguing that Canada has far too many bureaucrats. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 26, 2025. Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press
