Twenty shelter case workers at the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre didn’t know why they were being asked to gather Monday morning at the shelter on North Park Street. “We got an email from one of the big wigs at the Friendship Centre,” says Brent Cosgrove, who has been a case worker since the shelter first […]
Unions
Posted inNews + Opinion
Avalon Sexual Assault centre is underfunded, overwhelmed and stalled on best steps forward
There’s not much the board and staff at Avalon Sexual Assault Centre agree on these days. Tension has built since last fall, and came to a public head this spring, with a union certification vote and closure of the organization’s wait list—a list that had survivors of sexualized violence waiting up to two years for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Lisa Cameron tells us how to get ahead of our bad bosses
With low-wage and precarious work on the rise, many workers in Halifax are struggling to maintain decent employment while sustaining themselves and their families. For those without adequate wages and legal protection, addressing workplace inequality can be exhausting, risky and costly with little reward. During university, I monkey-barred from job to job and, while each […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
NSCAD faculty strike ends, classes resume
N SCAD’s 95 faculty and librarians ended their strike on Tuesday after just over a week on the picket line. This came as a great relief of the university’s MFA students who staged a sit-in demanding the administration agree to negotiating an to end the strike. The strike meant that faculty supervisors of three MFA […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council calls on feds to keep shipbuilding work in Halifax
Those jobs were always meant to be in Halifax, says HRM’s chief administrative officer, Jacques Dubé. “Always were.” Regional Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to voice its opposition to a proposal for splitting up naval maintenance work between shipyards here and in Quebec—calling on the federal government to keep shipbuilding jobs in Halifax. Councillor Stephen Adams put […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
More coffee more problems at Smiling Goat
Over the last couple of years, Kit Singh has quietly become a major operator in the local coffee scene. He bought two Smiling Goat stores then opened two more, and added another pair of cafes to his six-outlet chain by buying and rebranding Halifax’s Just Us! locations. After corporate giants like Tim Hortons, Starbucks and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Coburg Coffee’s move to unionize
Aunion vote at Coburg Coffee has tipped into uncertainty. Two pro-union baristas who cast ballots Monday afternoon say they’re confident the count went their way, however, of the 15 votes cast, they’re sure of only six that favour joining the Service Employees International Union. Laura Spaetzel cast her ballot on top of a laundry machine […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Capital Health unions earn their naps
“Where’s the nap room?” is the running joke over at Capital Health, as employees scurry around the hallways and peer through doors and windows in the faux-search for the celebrated, but elusive, “private rooms for napping.” The nap rooms were cited by Toronto publisher Mediacorp and Maclean’s magazine as reason why the Capital District Health […]