This announcement from the federal government came after significant pressure from the NDP:

• The BCNDP has implemented such a program and the newly elected Manitoba NDP is taking steps in that direction
• A month ago, the federal NDP was pushing for a national school lunch program in the next budget and had private talks with the Liberals about it
• 10 days ago, the federal NDP passed a motion to call on the gov to fund this program
• Advocacy groups put significant pressure on the government, too

I am happy to see this step towards ending child hunger and its great that the NDP is getting some nice little victories in the minority government.

Details: https://usw.ca/ajax-starbucks-workers-vote-yes-for-union-united-steelworkers/

Do you work at Starbucks? Learn more about the union drive across Canada at https://www.betterworknow.ca/starbucks

Full-time and senior part-time workers will receive an unprecedented pay increase of $2.00 per hour within months. With all workers, full and part-time, receiving an immediate, upfront wage hike of $1.50/hour.

The new deal contains an overall wage improvement of $4.50 per hour for full-time and senior part-time workers and $3.20 for non-senior part-time workers, over the duration of the contract. New hourly rates will reach $25.05/hour for full-time clerks and significantly higher wages for part-time clerks —improvements that some frontline grocery workers describe as “life-changing.”

Back-of-the envelope math puts this at over a 20% raise over the lifetime of the agreement, outpacing inflation.

This is a very good deal, huge for the sector and hopefully precedent-setting. Congratulations to Unifor members at Metro. Strikes are hard.

Some credit as well should go to the union leadership, who immediately backed the workers when they rejected their first agreement and instead opted to strike

As I've discussed earlier in on Reddit, Unifor has recently elected new leadership who want to take the union in a more militant direction:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ndp/comments/wl54ld/lana_payne_a_former_journalist_who_built_her/

It is extremely rare that a major labour leader like Fred would weigh in on a tentative agreement made by another union. It is even more rare that he appears to be advocating for rejection. Tentative agreements are rarely rejected by union members in Canada, although there has been a slight uptick recently.

Context: The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) has reached an agreement with the Ontario government to use binding interest arbitration, avoiding the potential for a strike. Interest arbitration is typically used for essential workers, such as firefighters or nurses, that can't legally strike. It is strange that a union with the right to strike, like high school teachers, are proposing this. While arbitration has been seen as a promising alternative, due to recent positive arbitration outcomes for nurses in Ontario, many in the labour movement are wary. Critics argue that relying on arbitration can weaken the union, deprive members of their voting power, and potentially lead to more bargaining impasses. It can also make unions dependent on the success of other unions in setting good wage standards. Additionally, choosing arbitration might inadvertently undermine the bargaining position of other unions. The choice by OSSTF is especially puzzling to some given the current favorable conditions for unions to achieve significant gains at the bargaining table.

Article with lots of information: https://theconversation.com/for-ontario-teachers-arbitration-is-no-substitute-for-the-right-to-strike-212432

Source tweet: https://twitter.com/FredHahnCUPE/status/1696731147365913071

Context: Unifor 'appalled' following Ontario Education Minister's comments on child pronouns

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/08/29/stephen-lecce-ontario-child-pronouns-schools-canada-unifor/