MayworksHalifax.caThese Halifaxlabour.ca articles, posts and stories are not Official Press Releases or positions of the LABOUR COUNCIL. The opinions expressed here may, or may not, be shared by Labour Council, it’s members or affiliates. We make the distinction to emphasize those positions Council has taken and decided upon democratically. Official positions of Council from this site, collected on one page, will be found here (link to come).
by Kyle Buott: Thursday April 25, 2013
This morning, I will be participating in a consultation with the NDP's ONE Nova Scotia commission on economic development. There are five key recommendations I will be making on behalf of the Halifax-Dartmouth & District Labour Council. 1. Expropriate Nova Scotia Power - Emera holds our economy hostage through private, for-profit ownership of electricity. The NDP should reverse the errors made by the Conservatives when they privatized Nova Scotia Power, and the Liberals error when they allowed the creation of Emera. We should return Nova Scotia Power to democratic, public ownership. Power to the People! Learn more at www.solidarityhalifax.ca/power 2. Eliminate Nova Scotia Business Inc. - NSBI is a major avenue for corporate handouts in Nova Scotia. As recommended by the CCPA Alternative Budget, we should scrap NSBI and re-invest those resources in building co-operatives and democratic economy planning.Let's invest in our local economy, not come-from-away mega-corporations. Learn more in the CCPA-NS Alternative Budget: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/nsapb2013 3. Eliminate Poverty - The cost of poverty in Nova Scotia is huge, both in terms of the human cost and the economic cost. Its estimated that poverty costs or economy about $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion each year. Poverty is . . .
[ Continue reading ]- by Carrie Campbell: Thursday April 11, 2013
The Workers Compensation Board of Nova Scotia has just released their 2012 Annual Report and the statistics are staggering. Last year, 32 Nova Scotians did not make it home from work. Of the 32 fatalities in 2012, ten Nova Scotians died on the job due to an acute traumatic event in the workplace. This represents an increase of four acute fatalities from 2011. 2012 marked the 20th anniversary of the Westray Mining Disaster where 26 miners were killed in an underground methane explosion. The mining company was charged with 52 violations under the Health and Safety Act but after several months the charges were stayed. In April of 1993, two of the managers were charged with manslaughter. Those charges were quickly dropped by the judge. In July, new charges were laid and after a long trial, these charges were also stayed. A court appeal ruled that a new trial should be held. To this day, nobody has ever been held legally accountable for the deaths of 26 miners after prosecutors determined there was not enough evidence to secure convictions. Despite the lessons of Westray, workers continue to be killed and injured on the job . . .
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by Kyle Buott: Wednesday April 10, 2013
Water rates could be going up by 30%. 1 Halifax Water, the publicly owned utility providing water, sewer and wastewater services to most of HRM, has applied to the Utility and Review Board for a major water rate hike. There is a hearing on April 15th. The rate hike will probably go through since the UARB rubberstamps most rate hike applications. (Remember Nova Scotia Power?) After electricity rate hikes, bus fee hikes, government user fee increases and more, workers and their families are now expected to swallow a major hike in water rates too. The cost of utilities and basic services is out of control. So what’s going on? Who is responsible for this rate hike? What can we do about it? Halifax Water says the rate hike is necessary because we need to do $2.6 billion in repairs and improvements to our water, sewer and wastewater systems over the next 30 years. A large part of the cost of these repairs comes from new federal water quality standards that must be met, as well as the cost of replacing outdated infrastructure, like lead pipes. In general, these standards and upgrades are a . . .
[ Continue reading ]- by Kyle Buott: Thursday March 28, 2013
Good Jobs for All By Kyle Buott, President, Halifax-Dartmouth & District Labour Council Politicians always talk about how they want to create good jobs in our economy. Unfortunately they think corporate tax cuts and handouts create good jobs. Here are five ideas that don’t cost the government anything and that all political parties should support this Spring to create Good Jobs For All in Nova Scotia. 1. Equal protection for all workers – Work is changing. It’s increasingly part-time, casual, or temporary in nature. Minimum standards and a basic employment contract should apply to all workers. We need to better regulate temporary agencies and create equal protections and benefits for part-timers, interns, temps, foreign temporary workers, and casual workers. 2. Proactive enforcement of labour standards – Right now labour standards are complaint driven. Employers can essentially do whatever they want as long as workers don’t complain. This isn’t fair. Employers have power over people’s economic situation and the fear of being fired often keeps workers from reporting labour code violations. Also, many workers do not know their rights. By investing in proactive enforcement we can make sure unscrupulous employers can’t exploit workers’ economic insecurity. 3. . . .
[ Continue reading ] - by Kyle Buott: Wednesday September 26, 2012
By Carrie Campbell, Labour Council Vice President of Special Events A dangerous anti-abortion motion is being voted on today by the Members of Parliament. Motion 312 calls for a Parliamentary Committee to examine whether the definition of “human being” should be revised to include fetuses in the Criminal Code. The goal of the motion is to re-classify fetuses as “legal persons” so that a bill can be passed to make abortions illegal. There are so many things wrong with this. Firstly, the only discussion required, over whether a woman should have an abortion or not, should be between her and her doctor. Period. The fact that we are still having this discussion in 2012 is appalling. Passing this motion would place restrictions on all Canadian women. Secondly, just as legalizing abortions was not the beginning of abortions, criminalizing them will not prevent them. It will just force women to seek unsafe, and sometimes fatal, options. It is imperative that they remain as medical procedures, performed in a safe and sterile environment. Lastly, abortions have been legal in Canada since 1969 and the Tory government has previously stated that they would not re-open the abortion . . .
[ Continue reading ] - by Kyle Buott: Friday July 13, 2012
As their profits grow steady – Every criminal’s rich already! This morning, we found out JPMorgan Chase, a massive investment bank in the US, misled the public on the size of their quarterly trading loss. They said $2 billion, its actually closer to $4.4 billion. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/07/13/jpmorgan-trading-loss.html) This is exactly how the problems started in 2008 as the recession was beginning. The big banks lied about their profits, they lied about their assets, and they lied about the so-called securities they were selling to people. By the time we found out they lied, the recession was in full bloom and millions of workers and their families lost their homes, their jobs, their savings, and their retirement funds. Then our governments bailed the banks out to the tune of trillions of dollars around the world. Here in Canada it has been estimated we bailed out our banks to the tune of $114 billion. (http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/big-banks-big-secret) Banks got bailed out, but people didn’t. The recession is not over. While corporate profits have recovered and the 1% grows richer, unemployment is still higher than when the recession began. For example, here in Nova Scotia, unemployment among young workers reached . . .
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