GODERICH, Ont. - Workers at the Sifto Canadasalt mine in Goderich, Ont., are on strike.The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union said Monday that nearly 400 workers went on strike just after midnight.
Union spokesman Joe Free said bargaining collapsed with Compass Minerals on Sunday.
He said the company had put parts of an earlier offer back on the table late Sunday night that the union could not accept.
TORONTO - A merger of two of Canada's largest private-sector unions is needed to help combat the federal Conservative government's attack on the labour movement, the head of the Canadian Auto Workers union said Monday.
"The attack on workers is heating up," Ken Lewenza told a CAW convention in referring to the proposed merger with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
"Again collective bargaining is being strangled and unions are being targeted. The downward pressure on wages and other forms of compensation is staggering."
OTTAWA – Political, business and union leaders reacted with caution and skepticism Friday to a B.C. newspaper tycoon's proposal to build a $13-billion refinery near Kitimat to process bitumen from Alberta's oilsands.
Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., which is proposing the 550,000-barrel-a-day pipeline to ship diluted bitumen to Kitimat for export to Asian refineries, refused to comment on David Black's proposal to have some or all of that product processed in Canada.
Seventy full-time employees will lose their jobs next year when the Edmonton Journal closes its printing plant and outsources the work to the company that publishes the St. Albert Gazette.
Journal editor-in-chief Lucinda Chodan says the move was not done solely to save costs, but to also take advantage of modern technology at the brand-new plant.
"I guess if you're not employing 70 people, it is a cost saving," she said. "I think the main point, though, is that it's really a decision that's being made because of the possibilities.
The Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) are attempting to join forces to create the country's largest industrial union.
In doing so, the two unions hope to give themselves the muscle necessary to protect their members. The groups recently released their final report on the merger, negotiated over the last year.
TORONTO - It took a global war to galvanize Canada's workers to begin organizing themselves into unions in the 1940s.
Nearly 70 years later, experts say attacks of another sort have left those unions fighting for their very survival.
The continuing rise of multinational corporations, growing public apathy toward the labour movement and unprecedented interference from the federal government have forced leaders in the country's labour movement to consider new strategies in order to stay afloat during turbulent times.
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, one of the two partners in a plan to create a huge new national union, has put Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall onto a list of politicians it wants to muzzle.
In a teleconference this week, just days after CEP national president Dave Coles delivered a broadside at Wall's Saskatchewan Party government, its labour record and its plans for a quick review of provincial labour legislation, CEP national secretary-treasurer Gaetan Menard said the new union will "kick butt"
Growing weariness in Canada's labour movement coupled with the federal government's ''assault on labour rights'' have made it necessary for two of the country's largest private sector unions to merge, the key players said Wednesday.
A proposed merger between the Canadian Auto Workers and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada would create a 310,000-member union dedicated to strengthening the embattled labour movement and waging the largest organizing drive in Canadian history, union leaders said Wednesday.
The new union would allocate 10 per cent of dues revenue or more than $50 million over five years to recruit new members - doubling what the CAW and CEP union currently spend on organizing, according to the final report recommending the merger.
Labour leaders have unwrapped the framework of a new super union that would double organizing muscle and extend its reach into communities across the country to counter a “bare-knuckled assault” by governments and corporations.
The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) revealed Wednesday that their boards have approved proposals that would jack up spending to about $10 million annually or $50 million over five years to organize new members and attract other citizens to social causes.
Organizers proposing a merger of two big Canadian unions say it will create a powerhouse that will revive the beleaguered labour movement.
At a press conference in Toronto Wednesday, the leaders of the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) released a report on a merger to create the nation's largest union with 310,000 members in 20 economic sectors.
CEP president David Coles called it a "new union for new times," recognizing the decline of large industries sector that was once fertile ground for union organizing.
Two of Canada's biggest unions about to take the next step toward a possible merger.
The CAW and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) are set to release a final merger proposal Wednesday. It will be the blueprint that could form the foundation of the largest industrial union ever in Canada.
Officials at both unions were on hand at an event at Ryerson University in Toronto to pitch the idea of joining forces.
"We want to make it so that any worker in Canada who wants to be represented by a union will be," CEP president Dave Coles said.
Two major Canadian unions unveiled a formal plan to create the country's biggest private-sector union on Wednesday, but left open which political party they would support, who would lead the new organization and what it would be called.
The Canadian Auto Workers and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers want to join forces to form a 300,000-strong union that would span growing resource sectors such as Alberta's oil sands as well as central Canada's shrinking manufacturing economy.
In May, the Saskatchewan Party government released a discussion paper inviting feedback on a bunch of proposals to revamp provincial labour law.
The document, A Consultation Paper on the Renewal of Labour Legislation in Saskatchewan, covers 15 separate pieces of provincial labour legislation.
It could, possibly, be used to create a new Saskatchewan Employment Code.
The national president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada says the Saskatchewan Party government is "declaring war on workers and families" with its review of labour legislation.
"We've turned good farm fields into battlegrounds," Dave Coles said during a news event where he released the union's response to the provincial government's consultation process, which ends next week.
Employees at Bell TV's Scarsdale Road facility have been on lockout since July 11, following a contract dispute in which some of the telecommunications company's actions have been ruled illegal by the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.
The CRTC has decided to terminate the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF).
As a result, cable and satellite company LPIF contributions will decrease over time to zero. Some consumers of cable and satellite television services will see an adjustment in their bills, and some local television stations will see a reduction in their revenue streams.
The Canadian Construction Unions Council (CCUC), an organization proposed by two existing unions, would aim to encourage improvements in training and to influence legislation, according to its draft bylaws.
