TROPICANA STRIKE: LET’S GET A DEAL BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Fifty of our sisters and brothers from Tropicana Community Services have been striking in the cold for over five weeks to get a first collective agreement. Tropicana workers are deeply committed to serving their Scarborough community, but haven’t see a wage increase in many years.

Workers are asking for a simple 1% wage hike each year for three years. SEIU Local 2 have offered to enroll them in their benefits trust – with no additional cost to the employer. So why are management holding out and forcing workers to strike? They are trying to break the union, pure and simple.

"This behaviour is a grave disregard of Tropicana's obligations to the Black community” Coalition for Black Trade Unionists.

Now the Federal government has given them millions of dollars to steward for services in the Black community. If they aren’t fit to care for their own staff – how are they going to do right by the whole community?

LET'S SHOW OUR SOLIDARITY.
LET'S ENSURE TROPICANA WORKERS GET A FAIR DEAL FOR CHRISTMAS.

See our letter to MPs and Board Members

Watch our video: Solidarity with Tropicana Workers

Sign the petition: Fair Treatment for Tropicana Community Service’s Employees

LEC IS HIRING: TWO POSITIONS OPEN

The Labour Education Centre is hiring the following full-time positions:

• Information and Referral Counsellor
• Vocational Instructor

LEC is committed to helping workers, potential workers and all members of our community access decent work and to moving communities towards social, economic and environmental justice. Their mandate is to deliver training and education programs that transform the lives of workers, potential workers and members of historically disadvantaged groups by increasing their employability and their ability to participate as engaged citizens in their communities

The deadline to apply for both is this Thursday, December 10^th at noon

YOURS TO PROTECT: ONTARIO’S ENVIRONMENT IN OUR HANDS

The news of David Crombie’s resignation from the Ontario Greenbelt Council sends alarm bells ringing about the Doug Ford’s Bill 229 that rewards land speculators by gutting the role of Conservation Authorities in Ontario.  The former mayor of Toronto, Crombie was joined by six other Council members who resigned.

In his open letter, Crombie said the Bill:

“cuts out the heart of integrated watershed planning and management; severely cripples the Conservation Authorities in the pursuit of their historic stewardship of environmental issues, and now with the grossly expanded use of Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZO) … essential public discussion and debate will be stifled or shut down. This is not policy and institutional reform. This is high-level bombing and needs to be resisted.”

Conservation Authorities play a crucial role in preventing flooding, but these changes will let developers dump, build and excavate largely unchecked in wetland areas, risking impaired water quality, property damage, and environmental degradation, and endangering public safety due to increase flooding.

2020: OUR VICTORIES, OUR STRUGGLES

2020 started off like just any other year... until covid-19 hit like a tsunami and swept across the globe... breaking apart communities, exposing injustice and accelerating change.

2020 also showed our resilience. Our commitment to justice. Our humanity.

Thank you to everyone in our labour and justice communities for your solidarity, support and action this year. We are humbled and inspired by all our sisters and brothers.

Check out our video retrospective of labour’s struggles in 2020 - produced by Allie Elwell & Nadine MacKinnon!