I recently wrote about the “pension crisis” and what was needed to improve income protection for Canadian seniors. While several provinces have been working on new pension rules, it was federal Finance Minister Flaherty who made the first move, with his announcement on October 26 of proposed changes to federal pension legislation. While there were some positive elements in Flaherty’s announcement, it was far short of what we need. His
If you look at the newspapers this week, you could be forgiven for thinking that there have been sudden dramatic changes in Canadian pension plans. It seems like everyone is writing articles about the pension crisis – disappearing pension plans, bankruptcies, workers losing plans, retirees afraid of starving. Unfortunately, lot of what is being written is confusing and in some cases, confused, so I’ll try to briefly sort out what
“Excellent story about SMS in Canada”Recently, I came across a very interesting but lengthy story about Safety Management System (SMS) in Canada titled “Fly At Your Own Risk: Why is Transport Canada moving toward self-regulation for the country’s airlines?” Once in a while you come across a story that just can’t be ignored and captures the issue in its entirety from someone else’s perspective. This story featured in The Walrus
See our video, Mended Hearts: The real story of Canadian healthcare
In the wake of the global economic meltdown and its stunning display of the failures of corporate-dominated markets, there has been a lot of talk (but little action) about re-regulation in the financial sector. In the aviation sector, however, the deregulation express seems actually to be accelerating, with moves in Canada and elsewhere to get rid of the last vestiges of airline regulation. Starting in the early days of commercial
With all the talk about the likelihood of the Conservative Government being defeated and bringing on a federal election, some of the pundits are saying that it would be a waste of time – an election without issues. While this may be an accurate reflection of the similarity of Liberal and Conservative policies, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t crucial issues that need to be dealt with – whether or
The United Nations General Assembly voted Monday to create a new, more powerful agency for women, in a move supporters hailed as a breakthrough for women’s equality and rights. An Assembly resolution called for the amalgamation of four existing United Nations offices dealing with women’s affairs into a single body to be headed by an under secretary general. The unanimous vote followed three years of negotiations.
Dear Sisters: Dear Brothers: As you may have read in both French and English newspapers from Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke, analysts at the Montreal Economic Institute claim, on democratic grounds, that compulsory votes must be held on certification applications (requests to unionize) to confirm the intention of the concerned workers. Who is in agreement with this claim? Well, the Employers’ Council (whose former president now heads the Montreal Economic
This past weekend, the Latin American trade Unionists Coalition (LATUC) was formed at their inaugural conference held at the venerable Steelworkers Hall on Cecil Street in Toronto, Ontario. The Coalition was supported by many unions, especially those with members from the Latin American communities. Among the sponsors of the Conference were the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada, United Steelworkers (USW) the Canadian Union of Public Employeers (CUPE) National,
Carlos Da Costa New York, NY – There is an increase worldwide in the middle class and it’s expected to increase by 1.8 billion more by 2020 according to aviation financial analysts. Megacities will increase from 19 to 27 by 2025 and consumer buying power will multiply with them. But while the middle class is shrinking in North America; it’s growing in China, India, and Latin America. According to IAMAW
