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.

July 21, 2026

Teacher disciplinary panel will make history today
Winnipeg Free Press
A professional disciplinary panel will assemble today to hear serious allegations against a Manitoba teacher.

CBU pushes ahead with housing despite 34% on-campus vacancy rate
CBC
Cape Breton University is pressing ahead with plans to build more housing, despite internal documents warning that the school already faces a worsening "oversupply" of student accommodations.

P3 SCHOOLS – A MISTAKE ALBERTA’S GOVERNMENT KEEPS MAKING
CUPE
The Alberta government has returned, again, to the failed approach of private-public partnership (P3) for the building and maintenance of schools in Alberta. The Government of Alberta announced in mid-July that seven elementary and junior high schools in Edmonton, Calgary, and Chestermere would be built using the controversial model.

Aligning curricula with the workforce: the case in favour
University Affairs
The debate over whether universities should align with workforce needs is flawed, because it starts from a false choice. Students aren’t choosing between personal and intellectual growth on the one hand, and preparing for careers on the other. They expect both.  

Education workers can create political crisis for Doug Ford
Spring
As fires ravage North West Ontario and Canada’s biggest city chokes under yellow skies and the worst air quality in the world,we are reminded of Doug Ford’s agenda for Ontario. In 2025, Ford’s Conservative government decreased the province’s budget for emergency forest firefighting from $177 million to $135 million, with $4 million cut from emergency preparedness. This is the same plan he has for healthcare and education, where investment has poured into private options and spending has not kept pace with inflation. His government is undemocratic, corrupt and the only way to stop it is with the collective mass action of Ontario’s working class. Mass collective action has the potential to cut against the divide and rule politics dominate right now. 

Northwestern University’s Campaign against Free Expression
AAUP
The AAUP stands in solidarity with Steven Thrasher, the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair of Social Justice in Reporting at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, who last week filed a lawsuit against Northwestern and against partisan government actors who pursued a targeted campaign against him that culminated in the termination of his position.

Contractors say policy on major public builds in Manitoba trying to fix problem that doesn't exist
CBC
Some Manitoba contractors say a new labour policy for major public construction projects is trying to solve problems the industry has already addressed.

Airport security screeners win wage increases, benefits, through arbitration
USW
Members of the United Steelworkers union (USW) working for GardaWorld Security Screening at airports in Ontario and Atlantic Canada have secured new three-year collective agreements through a binding arbitration award.

Unifor turns attention to Stellantis, General Motors after Ford members ratify deal
CTV News
The head of the union representing nearly 19,000 Canadian auto workers says she anticipates “challenging” talks ahead with Stellantis and General Motors after securing a deal with Ford Motor Co.

Opinion: Too hot to ignore: B.C. workers should not have to choose between their health and their livelihoods
Vancouver Sun
As B.C. announces heat warnings, thousands of workers once again report to jobs where dangerous temperatures are simply part of the work day. Across the province, people will pour concrete, harvest crops, deliver packages, prepare food in overheated kitchens, staff warehouses, and perform countless other essential jobs while temperatures climb to hazardous levels.

How Life Got Better For LA’s World Cup Workers
MotherJones
“I see the federal agents walking. I had one of those ‘Kick ICE out’ buttons, and he looked at me, and he looked at it again. I said, would you like one? I have some extra buttons…He just looked at me and walked off.”

A union criticizes Microsoft over allegations of "unfair labor practice," claiming that Xbox has "unlawfully" dismissed employees
WNHub
There are allegations against Xbox for allegedly dismissing employees without alerting or collaborating with established unions.

Google layoffs: 4,500 workers seek guaranteed severance, voluntary buyouts in petition to Sundar Pichai
Mint
More than 4,500 Google employees have signed a petition calling on Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sundar Pichai to introduce stronger safeguards against layoffs, as the company continues to expand its investment in artificial intelligence while reducing headcount across multiple teams, The Guardian reported.

Threshold for strike ballot votes should be repealed, says union leader
MorningStar
A UNION leader is calling for the immediate repeal of the threshold for votes in a ballot for strike action.

How AI may drive union-resistant tech workers to the bargaining table
The Guardian
For decades, the technology industry was a fortress that labor unions couldn’t breach. Tech workers already had cushy compensation packages, dream benefits like unlimited vacation and free lunch, and a flat corporate hierarchy that made engineers feel as powerful as their bosses, all of whom dressed down in sneakers and hoodies. So why unionize?

‘My shirt was wringing’: National Express bus drivers speak out on 40C conditions
The Guardian
Bus drivers in the West Midlands have spoken out about the “horrendous” working conditions they have experienced during heatwaves, which led to 40C temperatures in their cabs.

Australia's jobseeker system fails workers and enriches millionaires, report says
Community and Public Sector Union
Australia's system of privatised employment services is structurally broken and its prized federal contracts are being used to enrich millionaires and private equity firms, a new report argues.

July 20, 2026

Show me the money - A provincial overview of extreme wealth in Canada
Canadians for Tax Fairness
Extreme wealth concentration is increasingly receiving political attention in Canada and around the world. While attention to the measurement of wealth concentration and wealth inequality at the national level in Canada has increased in recent years, there remains little attention to wealth concentration at the provincial level. In this report, we estimate the number of ultra-wealthy families and the shares of wealth held by the wealthiest families in the four largest provinces and two regions.

Retirees losing home care service band together to find new agency, hoping to bring back terminated staff
CBC
Residents of a Winnipeg retirement complex say they were left scrambling to find a new agency that can provide the home care services they rely on to do things like eat meals and take medicine, after dozens of health-care aides received termination notices.

Union representing more than 5,000 salaried worker at Ford Motor ratify new deal
Winnipeg Free Press
The union representing more than 5,000 hourly workers at the Ford Motor Company of Canada says members have overwhelmingly voted in favour of a three-year-deal with the automaker.

Why female freelancers earn less, despite setting their own rates
Globe and Mail
Research shows women freelancers in Canada earn less than their male counterparts, even though they set their own rates.

B.C. Nurses' Union raises concerns over 'intimidation, retaliation' from employers as mediation continues
Globe and Mail
Dozens of nurses and their supporters rallied in Prince George on Friday, as their union accused their employers of intimidating staff during ongoing contract mediation.

Workers Who Clean Public Transit in BC and Ontario Say Their Employer is Undermining Their Rights
PressProgress
In two of Canada’s biggest cities, the workers who clean public transit say they are facing worsening working conditions at the hands of a billion-dollar company. 

We Just Had The First Humanoid Robot Strike Ever
Forbes
In early July, Hyundai proudly showcased its Boston Dynamics Atlas robot kicking a soccer ball in the FIFA World Cup. Now its workers are engaging in a rolling strike aimed at ensuring no human jobs are lost to humanoid robot workers. This is likely the first-ever humanoid robot induced strike, although there are other issues at play in the current union negotiations.

A notorious consulting firm is selling austerity. Canada’s universities are buying
The Breach
In 2020, after decades of government budget cuts had plunged Canada’s post-secondary institutions into a financial crisis, the University of Alberta hired a consulting firm to find a way to slash its costs. The firm, called the Nous Group, had earned a name in its home country of Australia as experts in finding “cost efficiencies” inside austerity-riddled universities.

The decline of the liberal arts
Winnipeg Free Press
At his trial for impiety and corrupting youth, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates defended himself by justifying his life’s work, famously maintaining that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Lamentably, he was found guilty of the charges and ironically sentenced to death via drinking poison hemlock.

MUN promises ‘checks and balances’ after 103 students get engineering acceptance letter in error
CBC
Approximately 100 high school graduates had their excitement dashed last weekend after mistakenly receiving admission acceptance emails from Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering.

Students continue to protest closure of Montreal college after province suspends its permit
CBC
Students gathered Sunday in front of a private college in Montreal to protest its closure after its permit was not renewed by the Quebec government.

Australia plans to defund universities that don’t stop their antisemitism. Should Canada?
The Hub
On the first day of Hanukkah last year, the Australian government knew it had to act.

Yale caught between Trump administration pressure and a campus that wants to fight
Washington Post
The Trump administration’s battle with American higher education is heating up at Yale University, with students, faculty and prominent alumni urging the university president not to give in to White House demands.

Universities receive millions in funding from foreign entities on U.S. government watch lists, records show
CBS News
Major U.S. universities have received millions of dollars in funding from foreign entities that are on U.S. government watch lists, according to a CBS News review of university funding records submitted to the Department of Education.