Labour and education in the news

Below are recent news stories on labour and education related issues. Click the headline to be taken to the article. Some may require a subscription. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for article text.

December 5, 2025

Manitobans Invited to Participate in Budget 2026 Survey, Consultations
Government of Manitoba
The Manitoba government is inviting all Manitobans to participate in a short online survey and share their priorities for next year’s budget, Finance Minister Adrien Sala announced today.

Penny for your (budget) thoughts: finance minister
Winnipeg Free Press
Finance Minister Adrien Sala is asking Manitobans to participate in an online survey to share their thoughts on next year’s provincial budget.

Manitoba Government Improves Asbestos Safety Requirements to Protect Workers
Government of Manitoba
The Manitoba government is introducing stronger rules to protect workers from asbestos, a known cancer-causing material and the leading cause of occupational death in the province, Labour and Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino announced today.

Manitoba updates asbestos regulations, including workers' certification, employer registration
CBC
Manitoba is updating its regulations governing the handling of asbestos to protect workers from dangerous exposure to the material, the leading cause of work-place related deaths in the province, the government says.

Canada added 54,000 jobs in November, unemployment rate drops to 6.5%: StatCan
Winnipeg Free Press
The labour market surprised economists again in November with a third straight month of job gains.

Which cities are struggling most? November unemployment rates
Winnipeg Sun
Here’s a glance at November’s unemployment rates by Canadian city. The national unemployment rate was 6.5 % in November. Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities. It cautions, however, that the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples.

Canada’s unemployment rate falls to 6.5%, driven by rise in part-time work
Globe and Mail
Canada’s unemployment rate once again defied expectations and fell to a 16-month low in November as a solid gain in part-time jobs boosted the number of people employed for the third time in a row, data showed on Friday.

Quebec losing $1.5B a year as anglophones face high unemployment, lower wages: report
Global News
A new labour-market report is warning that Quebec’s English-speaking population continues to face entrenched economic disadvantages, and that these disparities are costing the province far more than previously understood.

As AI reshapes hiring, starting pay stagnates at Canada’s consulting firms
Globe and Mail
Canada’s top consultancy firms are freezing starting salaries, some for a third year in a row, as artificial intelligence continues to reshape how firms hire and deploy junior talent.

More than 27,000 public servants were paid at least $150,000 last year, document says, as government plans cuts
Globe and Mail
More than 27,000 federal public servants were paid at least $150,000 in the last fiscal year, a document tabled in Parliament shows.

Tim Hortons pressed Ottawa to ease limits on temporary foreign workers: report
Canadian HR Reporter
Tim Hortons and its parent company have lobbied the federal government for more than a year to loosen restrictions on the use of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in its restaurants, according to a report.

Former UBC employee and exam monitoring software company settle lawsuit
Globe and Mail
A former University of British Columbia employee who spoke out against the use of exam monitoring software during the pandemic says he feels he has won his life back after settling a five-year legal battle with an education technology company.

Saskatchewan’s new $1.6-billion child-care deal with Ottawa includes funding increase
Globe and Mail
Saskatchewan’s new child-care deal is to see Ottawa spend $1.6-billion over five years to support $10-a-day care, a move early learning educators say brings stability to the sector.

Board of Governors passes impartiality policy
The Charlatan
Carleton University’s Board of Governors voted to approve the controversial Institutional Impartiality Policy in a meeting Tuesday — prompting student protesters to lob snowballs at the meeting room’s covered windows.

As Universities Fold to Trump, This Union Is Still Fighting for International Students
The Nation
During its current contract bargaining process, the United AUto Workers Local 4811—the union that University of California academic student employees are eligible to join—has made protecting immigrants a top organizing priority. It's no wonder: as the Trump administration seeks to terminate student and work visas, international students represent around 40 percent of people in graduate programs across the UC system.

December 4, 2025

Manitoba Government's Universal School Food Program Fed Nearly Half of Students Across the Province
Province of Manitoba
The Manitoba government is celebrating a major milestone in school food programming, with new data showing an average of 93,431 students accessing food through the Manitoba Universal School Nutrition Program daily, Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt announced today.

Hackers posted extensive data involving Pembina Trails students, staff on dark web: probe
Winnipeg Free Press
Personal details of current and former students at 12 schools, employees’ bank account numbers and images of cheques were put on the dark web following the hack against a Winnipeg school division.

Pembina Trails releases more information about cyberattack after probe concludes
CBC
A school division in south Winnipeg says it's wrapped up an investigation into a cyberattack last year that led to nearly 1 million files, and the personal data of students, staff and families, being leaked to the dark web.

Attracting high-level researchers: Quebec creates 10 new university chairs
Province of Quebec
Minister of Higher Education Martine Biron, in collaboration with Quebec's Chief Scientist, Rémi Quirion, announces the creation of 10 new research chairs to attract high-caliber, Francophone or Francophile researchers, based in the United States and working in strategic areas for Quebec. These areas include digital and artificial intelligence, aeronautics, energy transition, critical minerals and life sciences.

AI reviewers are here — we are not ready
Nature
Preprint sites have long served as the agile speedboat to the lumbering tanker of conventional academic publishing, and that agility allows for bold experimentation. The latest experiment of openRxiv, the non-profit organization in New York City that runs the bioRxiv and medRxiv repositories, is perhaps its most provocative yet.

Chicago Teachers Union, CPS Reach $1.5B Deal Without Strike
Chicago Morning Star
The Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools have reached a $1.5 billion, four-year contract that will shape classrooms across the city, marking the first time in more than a decade that the two sides have secured an agreement without a strike. Teachers and administrators found common ground before any disruption to instruction, an unusual outcome for a district long defined by labor unrest.

When Harvard Cuts from the Bottom to Protect the Top
The Harvard Crimson
Harvard has a long history of devaluing the most vital and vulnerable.

High anxiety at weed shops: survey reveals safety concerns on the job
Winnipeg Free Press
A Winnipeg cannabis shop supervisor says there was a gunpoint robbery in her shop earlier this year — one example of the growing threats of violence that have a Manitoba union urging the province to tighten industry legislation.

Nurses union president hints more health centres may be ‘grey-listed’
Winnipeg Free Press
The head of the nurses union says additional health care centres in Manitoba could be subject to grey-listing, a designation chosen by nurses to discourage colleagues from working at the facility owing to unresolved safety issues.

Manitoba reeve concerned about laboratory technologist retention in rural areas despite new funds for training
CBC
The reeve of a Manitoba municipality fears the province could still fall short in hiring and retaining laboratory and X-ray technologists needed in rural areas despite an increase in the number of training seats available.

Quebec says it will cut the equivalent of 5,000 civil service positions by March 2027
Winnipeg Free Press
The Quebec government is planning to eliminate the equivalent of 5,000 full-time positions in the civil service by March 2027.

Feds sending early retirement info to roughly 70,000 public servants
CTV News
The federal government is in the process of sending letters with information on its planned early retirement program to almost 70,000 employees as it works to reduce the size of the public service.

More than half of Ontario doctors eyeing retirement in the next five years, survey shows
Globe and Mail
More than half of Ontario doctors are planning to retire or considering that option in the next five years, according to a new survey that underscores the challenges for the health system as baby boomer physicians approach the end of their working lives.

Sexual-assault allegations against doctor spur review of cross-province licensing system
Globe and Mail
Canada’s first interprovincial physician licensing program is under review by regulators after a doctor who had lost his licence in Quebec was able to continue practising in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where he now stands accused of sexually assaulting six patients.

Ontario Labour Minister defends skills fund as union leader calls attacks ‘ridiculous’
Globe and Mail
Ontario’s Labour Minister told a business audience that he takes full responsibility for a controversial skills-training fund, after a prominent construction union leader whose organization received tens of millions from the program called attacks on the government ridiculous.

Quebec’s Attack on Labour, Explained
Press Progress
On Saturday, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Montreal’s Place du Canada to protest the Quebec government’s recent legislation targeting unions and the right to strike.

WestJet flight attendants seek to address alleged unpaid work in new agreement
CBC
WestJet flight attendants are seeking a new deal that includes compensation for alleged unpaid work, after their union and Air Canada sparred over similar demands.

Why Gen Z Men Are the Most Pro-Union Generation in History: Unions Build Stable Finances
American Progress
Unions are popular across ages and demographic groups in America, but Gen Z men stand out for their high levels of support. According to Center for American Progress analysis of polling data from 2024, Gen Z men have the highest approval for unions among any generation or gender group—higher support for unions than older generations of men and women had at their age. The same was true in 2020, meaning high support for unions among young men has remained stable even as millions of young men have entered the labor force.

December 3, 2025

Manitoba Government Adds Training Seats for Laboratory and X-Ray Technologists to Address Critical Rural Diagnostic Gaps
Province of Manitoba
The Manitoba government is doubling the number of Manitoba students who can train as combined laboratory and X-ray technologists (CLXTs) through Saskatchewan Polytechnic beginning in January 2026, securing five additional seats to help address diagnostic staffing shortages across rural and northern communities, Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara and Advanced Education and Training Minister Renée Cable announced today.

Five training spots added for lab, X-Ray techs
Winnipeg Free Press
The province is doubling the number of Manitoba students who can train as combined laboratory and X-ray technologists.

Former MLAs seek to depolarize Manitoba’s politics
Winnipeg Free Press
A group of former Manitoba MLAs is hoping to restore civility and decrease partisanship in politics.

Austerity, anxiety and the making of a securitized Winnipeg
Canadian Dimension
Canadian cities are increasingly managing social problems and perceived threats in public spaces through securitization, including the use of exclusionary zoning, hostile design, and the expansion of policing. Winnipeg City Hall’s recently announced plans to install airport-style security screening is an example of this, and one which did not emerge in isolation. Blocks away in the downtown, the Millennium Library—once a symbol of open and accessible civic life—has already undergone a highly public battle over safety, securitization, and access. Its recent history offers a critical lens for understanding how City Hall arrived at similar measures.

Bell Canada ordered to pay remote employees who declined COVID vaccine
Globe and Mail
BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada bce-T must repay the wages of some remote-only employees who were put on unpaid leave during the COVID-19 pandemic, an arbitrator ruled, noting that the telecom’s vaccination mandate was reasonable and progressive.

Hundreds of workers vote to leave CLAC
Alberta Worker
Earlier this week, Local 955 of the International Union of Operating Engineers announced that they managed to convince hundreds of workers to switch from CLAC to the IUOE.

Air Transat pilots vote in favour of strike action
CityNews
Pilots with Air Transat pilots voted in favour of going on strike.

Starbucks to pay NYC workers $35m after alleged labour law violations
BBC
Starbucks has agreed pay more than $35m (£26m) to thousands of workers in New York City, to settle the city's claims that the company denied them stable schedules and arbitrarily slashed their hours.

As AI wipes jobs, Google CEO Sundar Pichai says it’s up to everyday people to adapt accordingly: ‘We will have to work through societal disruption’
MSN
Tech leaders are split on whether AI will bring about a jobs Armageddon or a utopia of zero work and universal high income. Now, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is adding to the debate. And in his eyes, everyone’s job could be impacted by the new tech—even his own. People will just have to adapt accordingly.

Manitoba parents want school staff trained to help students with diabetes
CBC
A Manitoba mother wants the province to train school staff so they can help diabetic students get their insulin treatments, a responsibility she says currently rests with parents who have to miss work or, in her case, quit to help with their children's treatment.

Days after attack on student, former Winnipeg police chief calls for more officers in schools
CBC
A few days after a registered sex offender was charged with assaulting a Winnipeg elementary school student, the city's former chief of police is adding his voice to those singing the praises of officers being stationed in schools.

Should universities have opinions? (podcast)
CBC Radio
Our guest today has taken a long look at an out-of-fashion principle in higher learning – institutional neutrality. Basically it’s the importance of letting students and faculty say what they want, and not have the administration put its thumb on the scale. In that he sees a whole world of problems facing post-secondary education today, from public and political support to an ongoing court case.

Ontario puts sixth school board under supervision after complaints from angry parents
Globe and Mail
The Ontario government has taken over another school board, bringing the total number of boards placed under supervision this year to six.

U of L contract negotiations may be headed to mediation
Alberta Worker
Last week, the bargaining team for the University of Lethbridge board of governors emailed members of the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association with an update regarding contract negotiations.

King's College savings could run out by 2027 as it works to stabilize finances and protect identity
The Chronicle Herald
The University of King’s College is in a tight spot financially, as declining enrollment, introduction of the international students cap and a lag in provincial funding stack together to cause strain.

Federal funding cuts are only one problem facing America’s colleges and universities
The Conversation
Higher education is under stress. The highest-profile threat has been the Trump administration’s efforts to cut funding to several universities, including Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern.

How Universities Can Better Address Online Harassment
Bridge Research Consortium
Online harassment of researchers and faculty members is increasingly common, and can seriously impact the psychological health and productivity of those who experience it. To address these personal and professional impacts, Canadian universities should provide robust and effective support to targeted individuals.

Teaching staff on strike over 'virtual teacher'
BBC
Teaching staff have gone on strike at a Lancashire school over a decision which sees some students taught by a "virtual teacher" based in Devon.

December 2, 2025

School security measures scrutinized after student attacked
Winnipeg Free Press
Some Manitoba schools could soon get new security measures, including controlled entrances if not already equipped, after a Winnipeg student was grabbed by a registered sex offender last week.

Nervous parents greeted by locked door, guards at site of school assault
Winnipeg Free Press
A parent of children who attend Darwin School wants to know why stronger safety measures weren’t in place prior to a man being arrested for assaulting a young student inside the building.

Manitoba Government Invests $500,000 to Support Safe Schools, Controlled Access Plans
Province of Manitoba
The Manitoba government is taking immediate action to enhance safety in all schools by providing $500,000 in new funding to support training and by requiring schools to review controlled access policies, Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt announced today.

Opinion: Education is never the place to cut corners
The Gazette
Since our election as commissions of the English Montreal School board a little more than one year ago, we have learned that advocating for English-language education in Quebec demands persistence, unity, collaboration and profound responsibility to the communities we serve.

Inside the dismantling of the Education Department | The Excerpt (podcast and transcript)
USA Today
President Donald Trump's quest to dismantle the Department of Education went into high gear late last month, with six interagency agreements that redistributed longstanding functional areas of the department. Well, Congress finally caved in and let Trump abolish the ED. Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025. Here to help me dig into all of the changes at the Education Department, now joined by USA Today Congress reporter, Zach Schermele. Thanks so much for coming back, Zach.

Federal union hears ‘persistent rumours’ of new office mandate for public servants
CTV News
A federal union is calling on the president of the Treasury Board to confirm whether the federal government is considering a new return-to-office directive requiring public servants to be in the office more days a week.

Algoma Steel to lay off more than 1,000 workers
Globe and Mail
Algoma Steel Group Inc. is laying off more than a third of its work force as it accelerates a transition to new equipment in response to U.S. tariffs.

BC Resets Labour Landscape for 5,000 Long-Term Care Workers
The Tyee
A Hospital Employees’ Union official said Monday that an agreement with the British Columbia government to bring some 5,000 workers at 100 care homes back into the sector’s main bargaining unit is a win for the union and seniors.

Make Amazon Pay For Its Abhorrent Labour Practices
The Maple
Thousands of Amazon workers and their supporters across the world took action over the weekend to protest the company’s labour practices, political influence, and poor environmental record.

Public service job cuts are a self-inflicted wound that affects everyone
Rabble
We’re all suitably enraged that thousands of Canadian jobs are being killed by the man who has become our arch-enemy, U.S President Donald Trump.

The Future of AI. The Biggest Decision Yet
The Guardian
Humanity will have to decide by 2030 whether to take the “ultimate risk” of letting artificial intelligence systems train themselves to become more powerful, one of the world’s leading AI scientists has said.

‘We’re not going anywhere’: how unionization ‘whirlwind’ set stage for historic Starbucks strike
The Guardian
Thousands of Starbucks baristas are on strike across the US, warning the world’s largest coffee chain to brace for the “longest and biggest” bout of industrial action in its history.

French unions call for day of strike action as draft budget enters crucial stage
RFI
Three French unions – CGT, FSU and Solidaires – have called for the national, cross-sector strike action as part of ongoing opposition to the draft 2026 Budget, which is currently going through parliament and has to be agreed by the end of the year.

The government’s record is 100,000 more unemployed and four betrayals of workers – but we will not stay silent
PAM
According to PAM’s Council, the government’s experiment with top-down dictates has led to mass unemployment. Employment and Finland’s economy can only recover by restoring workers’ trust and through genuine cooperation. Real courage from the government would be to admit this.

December 1, 2025

RRC Polytech to cut staff after loss of language training funds
Winnipeg Free Press
More than 40 faculty and staff members at Red River College Polytechnic will lose their jobs after the federal government cut support to a language training program for newcomers.

Improved sex offender notifications, school security needed after child grabbed, says parent
CBC
The parent of a student at Winnipeg's Darwin School wants better safety measures there, and improvements on how the public is notified about registered sex offenders, after their child's classmate was grabbed in a washroom.

‘An absolute gut punch’: University cuts ripple through Canadian campuses
CTV News
University professors and students are learning tough lessons about the impact of cuts on their campuses as cash-strapped universities across Canada struggle to find ways to drive down costs. Federal and provincial policy changes have hit English language institutions in Quebec particularly hard.

International students jumped 400 percent at Canadian public colleges in last decade: Statistics Canada
The Hub
The number of international students enrolled at Canadian public colleges skyrocketed 397 percent from 2014 to 2023, according to new data released by Statistics Canada.

Ontario universities struggle with revenue losses amid international student cap
CTV News
Ontario universities are expecting to face revenue losses of more than $2.1 billion amid federal cuts to the number of international students in the province, the Council of Ontario Universities warns.

Mount Royal instructors file for union certification
Alberta Worker
Earlier this week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their last new applications report for November 2025. In it was an application for union certification.

Ontario education minister appoints himself as interim supervisor of school board
SooToday
Ontario's education minister has appointed himself as temporary supervisor as the province takes control of another school board.

Why Americans say college isn’t worth the cost
Politico
Americans are anxious about their economic prospects, but most of them do not see a college degree as the solution.

A behind-the-scenes view of Trump’s war against higher education
The Hill
For a long time, conservatives have complained that many of America’s colleges and universities have abandoned their educational mission and become bastions of left-wing political indoctrination. One of the most frequently cited bits of evidence is that conservative faculty are severely underrepresented in America’s most prestigious colleges.

Employer Prosecuted for Workplace Incident - Ital-Stone Design Ltd.
Province of Manitoba
Manitoba Labour and Immigration is reminding employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety, health, and welfare of all their workers at work after an employer was prosecuted under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

Employer Prosecuted for Workplace Incident - Kauenhowen Projects Ltd.
Province of Manitoba
Manitoba Labour and Immigration is reminding employers to ensure machines and tools used in the workplace are equipped with safeguards that prevent workers from coming into contact with the hazardous points of machines, such as areas where material is cut, shaped or bored, after an employer was prosecuted under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

Staff shortage forces province to reduce traffic court, ticket-payment hours in Winnipeg
Winnipeg Free Press
The Manitoba government quietly began closing the Winnipeg provincial offences court office early three days a week in mid-October, in a temporary measure tied to staffing shortages.

Alberta health-care workers ratify new collective agreement
CBC
A deal reached a minute before thousands of Alberta health workers were set to strike last weekend has been approved, their union says.

Tens of thousands flood downtown Montreal as unions rally against Legault’s 'rightward shift’
The Gazette
Major arteries of downtown Montreal on Saturday afternoon were shut down as tens of thousands of people, part of a broad coalition of Quebec labour groups and community organizations, marched against what they called Premier François Legault’s accelerating turn to the political right.

Alberta’s plan to steal the pensions of working people (podcast)
Rabble
The United Conservative Party of Alberta is planning how to withdraw the province from the Canada Pension Plan to fund other projects. An interview with the president of CUPE Alberta, Raj Uppal. The LabourStart report about union events. And Joe Glazer singing “When You’re Too Old To Work.”

Nearly half of immigrants say temporary foreign workers fill the jobs Canadians don’t want: OMNI-Leger poll
CityNews
Diana Donat looks at the construction site where her house once stood, across the street from her restaurant.

CFLPA to weigh 2027 opt-out clause in CFL CBA based on TSN contract
3DownNation
Labour peace in the Canadian Football League will hinge on what happens in 2026.

WNBA and players union agree to extend CBA deadline to Jan. 9
TSN
The WNBA and players union agreed to an extension of the current collective bargaining agreement to Jan. 9 just before their current deadline ran out Sunday night.

Italy’s general strike and protest of November 28–29: A political eruption of the working class against war and austerity
World Socialist Web Site
Italy’s national general strike of November 28, followed by mass protests on November 29 coinciding with the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine, marks the third countrywide strike in as many months.

Jason Resnikoff, US labour historian: “If unions don’t negotiate over the technological changes that are taking place, and if the state doesn’t regulate them, who will?”
Equal Times
Jason Resnikoff, a US academic currently teaching contemporary history at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, specialises in the intersections of labour history and technology. He is the author of Labor’s End: How the Promise of Automation Degraded Work, in which he exposes how automation intensified human labour and eroded workers’ power, recasting technological progress as both inevitable and apolitical.

November 28, 2025

University of Manitoba professors spending too much time playing 'AI detective' (audio)
CBC Up to Speed
Jenna Tichon, vice president of the University of Manitoba faculty association, speaks with guest host Chloe Friesen about the challenges professors are facing when it comes to academic integrity and artificial intelligence.

Ste. Anne student arrested in connection with attack that sent classmate to hospital
CBC
Ste. Anne police arrested a high school student on Wednesday, the day after a violent incident, caught on camera, sent a classmate to hospital.

From Morris to Lac Brochet, new survey shows music education is a lifeline for rural students
The Winnipeg Sun
As funding pressures force schools to choose between essential programs, new national data suggests that cutting music class could come at a real human cost, especially for students in small rural schools.

Adult Basic Education Keeps Youth out of Crime
CCPA
A recent study by Marni Brownell and colleagues at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, titled “Crossover Kids in Manitoba: The Intersection of the Child Protection System, Youth Criminal Justice System and First Nations Identity,” found that First Nations youth removed from their homes and placed in the child welfare system are more likely to end up being involved in the criminal justice system than to graduate high school. This is a deeply troubling finding.

New students’ association formed at University of Regina to replace URSU
CTV News
Following the dissolution of the University of Regina Students’ Union, a new group has stepped forward to represent students.

Ontario weighing changes to formula that funds colleges, universities
Global News
As Ontario’s public colleges continue to struggle with massively reduced revenue from international students, the Ford government says it is taking a detailed look at how it funds post-secondary education.

Hard lessons
Globe and Mail
On a June afternoon in 2022, in the hallway of an ivy-covered high school in Ottawa, 15 year-old Matthew Morris was dragged into a bathroom by a fellow student, knocked to the tiled floor and punched and kicked repeatedly in the head. Several students stood around watching, and one filmed the assault on his phone.

Bringing experience to shape the future of post-secondary education
University Affairs
The current state of post-secondary education in Canada and elsewhere is a source of concern for academic retirees as much as for current faculty and administrators. Retirees worry at least as much about the future of the academic enterprise as they do about their pensions and benefits. For many, the central features of academic life remain central to their lives and values as well.

Employer Prosecuted for Workplace Incident
Government of Manitoba
Manitoba Labour and Immigration is reminding employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety, health, and welfare of all their workers at work after an employer was prosecuted under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

Employer Prosecuted for Workplace Incident
Government of Manitoba
Manitoba Labour and Immigration is reminding employers to ensure machines and tools used in the workplace are equipped with safeguards that prevent workers from coming into contact with the hazardous points of machines, such as areas where material is cut, shaped or bored, after an employer was prosecuted under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

Employer Prosecuted for Workplace Fatality
Government of Manitoba
Manitoba Labour and Immigration is reminding employers to ensure workers are aware of the hazards they may be exposed to and are trained on the hazardous substances they may encounter after an employer was prosecuted under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

Manitoba company fined $5K after plumber died from overexposure to toxic gas
CBC
A company in southern Manitoba has been fined after the death of a plumber working to unclog a sewer drain.

Union asks province for solution to long wait times after death of nurse's mother, 82
CBC
The union representing Manitoba's nurses says it would welcome an in-depth review of what led to the death of an 82-year-old woman following more than 30 hours in Winnipeg emergency departments.

Federal government takes down labour strike data relied upon by unions, researchers
Globe and Mail
The federal government has removed a key dataset from one of its departmental websites that details the number of strikes across the country, depriving labour experts and unions of key data needed for research and to draft policy.

So much for Canada’s manufacturing-job rebound
Globe and Mail
For two months Canada’s most closely watched survey of the job market has reassuringly signalled that a rebound in manufacturing employment is under way.

Immigrants from China struggling to obtain security clearances for government jobs, senator says
Globe and Mail
A senator told a parliamentary committee that he’s hearing of immigrants from China, with marginal connections to the ruling Chinese Communist Party or other government bodies, who are finding it difficult to obtain security clearances for Canadian public-sector jobs.

Government demanding public servants reimburse years-old Phoenix overpayments
CBC
Federal public servants are being threatened with legal action if they don’t repay money they were overpaid during the error-plagued rollout of the Phoenix pay system nearly a decade ago, Radio-Canada has learned.

US Congress Should Protect Child Workers Harvesting Crops
Human Rights Watch
As families across the United States prepare to gather for Thanksgiving this Thursday, too many children face danger cultivating and harvesting the foods that will end up on our tables.

A decade after Rana Plaza, workers still die for fast fashion, Amazon can change that, but won’t
maktoobmedia.com
On 24 April 2013, in Savar, just outside Dhaka, the building known as Rana Plaza collapsed. The day before, the banks and shops on the lower floors had closed because the walls were cracked. But the garment factories above were kept open. The next morning, the building collapsed: over 1,100 workers died; thousands more were injured and scarred for life. The hunt for survivors under the wreckage lasted 19 days.

Successful three-day action in Belgium – Workers stand up against austerity and weakened rights
IndustriALL
Since the national, conservative Prime Minister Bart de Wever formed his government in February 2025, there has been massive unrest in the Belgian labour market. All representative trade unions have protested persistently, and their actions have yielded some results. They have preserved end-of-career schemes, included temporary unemployment in pension calculations, and integrated periods of sickness or caregiving leave.