Foodsters United

Website | Facebook | Twitter

On this week’s show, we’re speaking with Ivan and Narada from the Justice for Foodora Couriers campaign. Couriers with Foodora aim to become the first app-based workforce in Canada to unionize and they’ve just cleared an important legal hurdle in their fight to create a collective bargaining agreement. On February 25th, the Ontario Labour Relations Board or OLRB ruled that Foodora couriers are dependent contractors that resemble employees of the company, not independent contractors. As dependent contractors, Foodora couriers now have the legal right to organize and certify a union. This decision sets an important precedent for other gig economy workers employed by companies like Uber, Doordash, and Grocery Gateway.

Today, we’re Ivan and Narada to discuss what the decision made by the Ontario Labour Relations Board means for their efforts to join a union and for the future of gig workers across the country.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario

Facebook | Twitter | Website

Ontario public school teachers have been without a contract since the end of August and contract talks with the provincial government have essentially stalled, with the last talk being held on December 19th, 2019. Key issues being disputed include class-size increases, mandatory online courses for high-school students, funding for special-education supports, a hiring regulation that gives supply teachers with more seniority an edge in getting hired for long-term teaching positions, and protection of the full-day kindergarten program and staffing.

On February 21st, The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association and the Association of Franco-Ontarian Teachers, held a joint one-day strike where teachers walked off the job together and joined mass rallies across the province and here at Queen’s Park. This is the first time since 1997 that teachers and education workers from Ontario's main education unions were out of their classrooms on the same day.

Today, we’re speaking with Julius, chairperson of the labour committee at the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario or ETFO.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mining Injustice Solidarity Network

Website | Facebook | Twitter

From March 1st to 4th, Toronto will play host to the annual conference of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada- PDAC is a group representing Canada’s mining exploration and extraction industry. The convention is the largest of its kind in the world, attracting thousands of investors and 26,000 attendees from over 130 countries. It is considered the “superbowl” event of extractive industries, featuring award ceremonies, workshops, and keynote addresses by prominent mining moguls and political figures, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Toronto is considered the hub of the global mining industry.

Though it promotes itself as an ethical industry upholding high environmental standards and labour practices, the Canadian mining industry is actually notorious for its ecological and human rights abuses around the world. In 2016, a report from Osgoode Hall’s Justice and Corporate Accountability Project found that between 2000-2015, 709 cases of criminal activity and 44 targeted deaths were related to Canadian mining projects in Latin America.

Mining companies and the Canadian government, including under Prime Minister Trudeau, have so far failed to make any meaningful change to the violence of the extractive industry, and few Canadians are aware of these abuses.

Today, we speak to Kate Klein, an organizer with the group Mining Injustice and Solidarity Network to learn more about the upcoming conference and the imperial violence of the Canadian mining industry.

The Art of Resistance airs Tuesdays on CIUT89.5FM.

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.