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.
August 19, 2026
Manitoba commissioner received 94 complaints about teacher misconduct in first 15 months
CBC
Manitoba's commissioner of teacher professional conduct received 94 complaints and reports in the first 15 months since the role was created, the office's first full annual report says.
Students, teachers discuss the pros and cons of AI in the university classroom
CityNews
The school year is right around the corner, and one of the biggest challenges facing educators is the use of artificial intelligence. AI has evolved so fast that most students now use it on a day-to-day basis to help with their studies, leaving profs with the difficult task of preventing cheating.
Review finds protests that led to TMU student arrests 'symptoms of a deteriorating campus climate'
CBC
Two protests that led to the arrests of Toronto Metropolitan University students last year were "symptoms of a deteriorating campus climate" after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, an external review has found.
‘A culture of silencing’: John Abbott teachers call for better treatment from college’s administration
The Gazette
Dozens of teachers and other faculty members at John Abbott College gathered outside the school Tuesday, calling for better treatment from the administration as the start of the school year approaches.
‘We are going to fight’: Ontario teachers’ unions mull strike action as bargaining talks stall
CP24
With just weeks to go before the start of the school year and without a new collective agreement in place, Ontario’s teachers and education workers say job action isn’t off the table as negotiations hit an impasse.
Most B.C. residents feel AI is impacting education and devaluing degrees
DailyHive
The rise of AI is real, and while there are some out there hoping that the so-called AI bubble bursts, some B.C. residents are worried about how it’s impacting education.
AI in universities: the case in favour
University Affairs
Universities have long organized education around a basic constraint: the scarcity of expert time. To maximally leverage professors, students are taught in large groups using common lectures, readings and assignments. This model achieves scale but sacrifices the individual attention that produces the best learning.
AI in universities: the case against
University Affairs
Generative artificial intelligence based on large language models (LLMs) has become a hot topic of debates in higher education. University administrators, professors, staff and students are now asking practical questions about the dos and don’ts, cans and can’ts, and consequences of AI. What can AI do and not do for teaching and research? What AI platforms are best for doing this or that task? How to ensure data privacy and copyrights? How can we prevent academic dishonesty?
What to Know About the Pentagon’s Crackdown on Universities’ Foreign Research Ties
Time
The Trump Administration ordered 30 universities to audit their foreign research partnerships or risk losing funding.
Manitoba Government Adds 4,725 Net New Health-Care Workers Since 2023
Province of Manitoba
The Manitoba government has added 4,725 net new health-care workers across the province since October 2023, adding capacity to a health-care system experiencing significant pressure as hospitals and emergency departments care for more patients with increasingly complex needs, Premier Wab Kinew and Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced today at Seven Oaks General Hospital.
Manitoba's NDP says it's added 4,725 health-care workers since being elected
CBC
Manitoba's NDP government says the province has added a net 4,725 health-care workers since the party came to power nearly three years ago.
Flight attendants and pilots have highest risk of dying from radiation-linked cancers, study says
CBC
Flight attendants and pilots are at the highest risk of dying from radiation-related cancers — even more than people who work with radioactive materials, according to a new study.
New research shows that women are overrepresented in public service job cuts
PSAC
Prime Minister Carney’s public service cuts are disproportionately impacting women workers in the federal public service.
Would you turn down a promotion that includes more time at work? A majority of Canadians would
Globe and Mail
Canadians aren’t so sure they want that next promotion.
Employer’s guilty plea leads to first conviction under Saskatchewan’s foreign worker protection law
Canadian Lawyer
The Saskatchewan government has highlighted the conviction of Dyan Jeny Enterprise, an employer, under the province’s Foreign Worker Recruitment and Immigration Services Act, 2013 (FWRISA), making this the first conviction under Saskatchewan’s previous foreign worker protection legislation.
Store accused of making staff pay to work for it
Global News
A Saskatchewan employer and company are facing charges for allegedly making two foreign workers pay to work for them.
‘Boomerang Employees’ Surging—Why Companies Want Former Workers Back
Forbes
The "boomerang employee" trend is rapidly transforming the job market, with a significant rise in former staff returning to previous employers, shedding old stigmas. This shift reflects a cautious hiring environment and workers prioritizing stability or better opportunities. Companies benefit from familiar talent, faster onboarding, and new skills acquired by returning staff. However, a crucial consideration is preventing loyal current employees from feeling undervalued if boomerangs and cultivating a boomerang-friendly workplace.
August 18, 2026
Coalition dismayed after U of M decides not to establish master’s in speech-language pathology
Winnipeg Free Press
A new coalition representing students who stutter, speak with a lisp and struggle with other speech challenges is decrying the University of Manitoba’s decision to shelve plans to train in-demand clinicians.
Les universités craignent que la baisse des étudiants internationaux nuise à la recherche
Radio-Canada
À l'aube de la rentrée, le nombre d’étudiants internationaux est encore à la baisse, et la recherche dans les universités du Québec devrait en subir les conséquences.
12 international students at Calgary protest referred to CBSA office after status check
CBC
A dozen people who took part in a weeks-long international student protest in northeast Calgary have been flagged as "being possibly inadmissible" and, according to an immigration lawyer, could be forced to leave Canada.
Ford government preparing education ads taking aim at teacher unions as contract talks grind to a halt: leaked script
The Trillium
The Ford government is preparing an advertisement taking aim at teacher unions, as contract negotiations with five of them are stalled over a dispute about bargaining rules.
The betrayal of Jewish students needs to end
Globe and Mail
A school that isn’t safe for all of its students is a failing school. There is overwhelming evidence of such failure in two new reports on antisemitism on Canadian campuses. Jewish students are not safe, not even in the classroom.
Is the Houston government about to dismember huge swaths of our university system?
Halifax Examiner
Is the Houston government about to dismember huge swaths of our university system?
The ultra rich are collecting fossils. And that’s bad for science - video
The Guardian
One of the UK’s best fossil collections has been sold overseas in what experts have called a loss to the nation. The collection, which is now on display at the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi, was gathered on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. As dinosaur fossils sell to private collectors for increasingly large sums, scientists are worried that domestic museums are being priced out of the market, and in turn scientists are missing out on the opportunity to make new observations. To find out how fossils became big business and what it could mean for research, Madeleine Finlay hears from science correspondent Nicola Davis.
Trump 2.0 has deleted or altered nearly 400 US datasets, endangering public health, education and more
The Guardian
A database of federal law enforcement officer misconduct records. A survey measuring physical, sexual and emotional violence against children and youth. Real-time pollution readings collected by air quality monitors from US embassies around the world.
Wrongful denial of remote work exposes return-to-office shortcomings
Rabble
The government’s one-size-fits-all approach to return to office has been proven to not work, according to the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), a public service union representing 80,000 government professionals.
Ford government ignored, 'disrespected' Hamilton youth mental health workers, 2 say after weeks-long strike
CBC
After a 10-week strike, two youth mental health workers in Hamilton say union members are returning to work feeling supported by the community but disrespected by the provincial government.
P.E.I. declines Ottawa's offer to let rural employers hire more temporary foreign workers
CBC
Prince Edward Island is the only Atlantic province that has opted out of a federal measure allowing rural employers to hire more low-wage temporary foreign workers.
WestJet Flight Attendants Have Won A Major Settlement
The Maple
WestJet flight attendants have emerged from their brief strike with a tentative agreement that makes significant gains on one of the airline industry’s most persistent labour issues: unpaid work.
Meta’s Training Camp For Building Data Centers Is An ‘Anti-Union Scheme’ - The Company ‘Promises People A “Fast Track” To A Career In The Trades As Long As Workers Don’t Care About Their Safety, Job Security Or Right To Organize’
WNYLabourToday
Facebook’s Parent Company - Meta, has put $115 million behind its launch of America's Workforce Academy, a free five-week Training Program promising American Heroes, which encompasses basically anyone a guaranteed construction job offer from the contractors who build Meta’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) Data Centers.
Exploitative zero-hours contracts are endemic, TUC says
TUC
Responding to the latest labour market statistics, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “Exploitative zero-hours contracts are endemic in this country, with more than 1.2 million people stuck not knowing how much they’re going to earn each week. That’s why the government must deliver on its promise of a right to guaranteed hours for everyone.
August 17, 2026
Manitoba Government Celebrates Opening of 1,075 New Child-Care Spaces Since Late 2025
Province of Manitoba
The governments of Canada and Manitoba are making significant progress creating new child-care spaces for families, with 1,075 new infant, preschool, nursery and school-aged spaces opening in Manitoba since late 2025, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt and Terry Duguid, member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, on behalf of federal Secretary of State for Children and Youth Anna Gainey, announced today.
Manitoba's 'passive' approach to creating child-care spaces needs to change, advocates say
CBC
Advocates say Manitoba's "passive" and "ad hoc" approach to increasing access to child care needs to change in order to speed up progress and meet space-creation goals.
E-learning hub finds home at Brandon University
Winnipeg Free Press
Brandon University has absorbed all the public resources created by a defunct online education hub that promoted free textbooks and coordinated remote learning courses.
Nova Scotia teachers group fears government control over university programs
Winnipeg Free Press
A group representing Nova Scotia’s university teachers says it’s concerned the government is taking more control over which academic programs get funded.
U of R Faculty Association Challenging Pay Dispute (video)
Global News
Queen’s University Faculty Association to hold strike vote
The Hamilton Spectator
Queen’s University Faculty Association (QUFA) members have been in the midst of a vote to authorize a potential strike after 40 days of bargaining with Queen’s University, following the expiration of their previous collective agreement on June 30.
Nova Scotia teachers group fears government control over university programs
CBC
A group representing Nova Scotia's university teachers says it's concerned the government is taking more control over which academic programs get funded.
Lab techs at Dynacare in Winnipeg and Brandon vote to strike
Winnipeg Sun
Lab technicians and technologists at Dynacare in Winnipeg and Brandon have voted 99.7 percent in favour of strike action, though no strike notice has been issued yet.
Labour Force Survey Shows Strong Manitoba Job Growth, Lowest Unemployment in Canada
Province of Manitoba
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey, released today, shows Manitoba recorded the strongest job growth among the Prairie provinces and the second-highest increase nationally, adding 5,900 jobs in July, Business, Mining, Trade and Job Creation Minister Jamie Moses announced today.
1,200 National Steel Car workers in Hamilton on strike after rejecting contract offer
CBC
Over 1,200 workers at National Steel Car in Hamilton are on strike as of midnight on Wednesday after rejecting a contract offer.
Railroaders across B.C. continue 11-week strike as union rejects CPKC offer
The Northern View
Labour disruption continues for CPKC’s signal and communications department across Canada as union members overwhelmingly reject the railway company’s latest contract offer.
Metro Vancouver unionized workers walk off jobs in parks, water services
CityNews
Metro Vancouver unionized workers have resumed strike action, with employees in parks and water services walking off the job at 1:30 p.m. Friday.
Inside the Amazon Decertification Campaign
The Tyee
As Amazon and Unifor approach a first collective agreement for employees in Delta, B.C., the union says the company has been supporting a decertification campaign.
The Odyssey: Amazon’s Desperate Fight to Avoid a Collective Agreement Continues
The Law of Work
Unifor was certified as the representative of employees at an Amazon warehouse in Delta, BC in July 2025. That certification was a result of a remedial order by the BCLRB following a finding that Amazon committed multiple illegal acts in an effort to defeat employees’ attempts to unionize, including deliberately flooding the employee list with artificial employees. The Board ruled that “Amazon’s lengthly and pervasive anti-union campaign” meant a certification vote would not ascertain the true wishes of the employees.
The Union Deal That’s Undermining Gig Workers
Jacobin
In recent months, unions in the United States and Canada have been claiming victory in gig worker organizing. In May 2026, Uber settled its first collective bargaining agreement with drivers in Victoria, British Columbia. Massachusetts has recognized a union representing seventy thousand Uber drivers, constituting what labor leaders describe as “the largest private-sector organizing win” since the United Auto Workers unionized the Ford Motor Company in 1941. This long-standing record has since been outdone again as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)–affiliated California Gig Workers Union was named the “union of record” to represent potentially two hundred thousand app-based drivers in the state, establishing “the largest union of gig rideshare drivers in the world.” Legislation allowing drivers collective bargaining rights has also passed in Illinois. All of this, on the surface, enables the possibility for record numbers of workers to be brought into the labor movement.
Federal surveillance operation targeted progressive groups, unions in Minnesota, documents show
The Hill
Federal agents secretly monitored progressive groups and protesters during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, according to court documents filed Thursday.
Elon Musk's Tesla Is Ending Sweden's Longest Strike by Buying Out Every Worker Still on It
Yahoo
The longest labor conflict in modern Swedish history is ending, and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) won it without signing a collective agreement. Swedish union IF Metall said Thursday that it will call off its strike against the electric-car maker on Aug. 19. The walkout reached day 1,021 this week -- about 130 Tesla mechanics across seven workshops were covered when the strike began on Oct. 27, 2023, demanding the collective agreement that covers most Swedish workers.
