R&F.ca Weekly Update
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- Published on Friday, 28 August 2015 03:15
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A MESSAGE FROM A POSTIE: DEFEND OUR PUBLIC SERVICES, STOP HARPER!
By Toni MacAfee
I am a postal worker and proud of it! As postal workers, the dedication and commitment it takes to get on as a full-time employee is unappreciated and misunderstood. We don’t walk in one day, they say you are hired and you start working!
Many of us spend years and years as temps and part-timers with the hope of getting on as full time. Many of us worked multiple jobs as temps and part-timers as we waited for more hours at the post office. As temps, we often went weeks, months, without any work. Meanwhile many of us gave up other work, other opportunities, just so we could get on as full-time at Canada Post to have the wages, benefits, job security and rights. And to do a job that we love!
Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMCs )spent years as contractors, being treated like shit by Canada Post, but many have stayed on for much longer, even longer than urban members. Whole generations of families fought for a union and fought for their rights because of the love of their jobs.
It’s been us, postal workers who continue to make our public service work. Read more!
UNPACKING THE LIBERAL ATTACK ON THE NDP MINIMUM WAGE
By Michal Rozworski
Of all of the NDP’s campaign promises so far, one of the simplest has gotten the most press: the $15 minimum wage for workers in federally regulated sectors. This campaign plank should be an easy sell for the NDP, yet Conservative and Liberal attacks have managed to undermine it.
Because the minimum wage for most workers is determined by the provinces, the NDP proposal would affect only a small portion of employees. Federally regulated workers are found mostly in telecoms, real estate, finance, transportation and a few smaller sectors.
The Conservatives, of course, have long opposed any significant hikes in the minimum wage that would actually lift up low-wage workers rather than simply keep them afloat. Still waiting for wealth and income to trickle down after decades of rising inequality, the Conservatives rely on dated arguments about job losses that simply aren’t found in the latest economic research. Read more!
A TAX CREDIT FOR TEACHERS IS NO SOLUTION
By Ben Sichel
It was sad this week to see Justin Trudeau’s promise to give teachers a tax credit for purchasing their own classroom supplies. Not because it means teachers buying their own supplies is a new phenomenon, or has necessarily worsened. Teachers have always filled in gaps in K-12 education funding, sometimes to the tune of several hundred dollars a year, especially in the early years of their careers.
Rather, it’s because it legitimizes the notion that teachers should be spending money out of pocket to do our jobs. A fanciful comparison: what if we gave nurses a tax credit if they bought their own medical supplies, or paramedics tax incentives if they paid to get the oil changed on their ambulances? Parties (but especially the Conservatives) are often criticized for their use of “boutique” tax credits. They tend to be targeted toward their own likely voters, and at their most cynical are unrolled right around election time. Read more!
Check out our weekly labour news update every Monday for a summary of the past week's top labour news stories, and our feature labour video every Saturday! @rankandfilca Youtube r53 | r54
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