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.

April 29, 2025

Faculty votes no confidence in BU leadership
Brandon Sun
Brandon University’s leadership faces scrutiny as BUFA passed a no-confidence motion against top administrators, while the university defended its actions, citing independent reviews and initial improvements underway.

Trump administration to investigate Harvard Law Review for ‘race-based discrimination’
The Guardian
The Trump administration said it would investigate whether Harvard University and the student-run journal, the Harvard Law Review, violated civil rights law when editors of the prestigious journal fast-tracked consideration of an article written by someone of a racial minority.

Dozens gather for National Day of Mourning ceremony at Winnipeg city hall
CBC
Officials from the provincial and municipal government along with union leaders gathered at Winnipeg city hall Monday for a sombre ceremony, joining Canadians in observing Canada's National Day of Mourning.

Organizations reflect on those lost to workplace injuries, look towards future prevention
Rabble
Workers are holding vigils across the country today to honour the National Day of Mourning for workers who have lost their lives, been injured, or become ill due to workplace incidents. Advocates are calling on people to commit to fighting for increased workplace safety as they reflect on those who have been affected. 

UPS to cut 20,000 jobs on likely lower Amazon shipments; first-quarter profit exceeds estimates
Globe and Mail
United Parcel Service’s first-quarter profit beat market estimates and the parcel delivery giant said it will cut 20,000 jobs to lower costs in an uncertain economy and in anticipation of weak volumes from its largest customer, Amazon.

Duolingo will replace contract workers with AI
Engadget
Duolingo is now going to be "AI-first," the company has announced — aka it will drop employees in favor of using AI. In a publicly shared email, CEO Luis von Ahn outlined how Duolingo will "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle." This follows the company's January 2024 decision to cut 10 percent of its contractors, in part because AI could do their tasks.

About 55,000 L.A. County workers go on strike, disrupting services
Los Angeles Times
About 55,000 L.A. County workers walked off their jobs Monday night, disrupting public services from healthcare and social work to libraries and parks.

Unions, local governments sue to block Trump administration’s workforce cuts
The Washington Post
A coalition of labor unions, local governments and nonprofits sued the Trump administration in federal court Monday evening, seeking to block the U.S. DOGE Service’s federal workforce cuts because they lack approval from Congress.

Starbucks Workers United Grew Out of Jaz Brisack’s Undercover Organizing. Here’s How.
Teen Vogue
In the fall of 2020, I returned to Buffalo, New York, after a brief stint in grad school in the United Kingdom. The pandemic was in full swing, many of the restaurants and cafes I'd been helping workers organize at were temporarily or permanently closed, and many workers were laid off. Just before the COVID lockdown, I had been trying to help a Starbucks barista organize their store on the University at Buffalo campus. Management found out and fired them, supposedly for cursing on the job. Based on the lessons I learned from working with them, and from attending and helping run Inside Organizer School trainings on workplace organizing, I decided to get a job at Starbucks with the goal of helping launch a union campaign, a practice known as "salting."

Trump administration’s attempt to nix the labor rights of thousands of federal workers on ‘national security’ grounds furthers the GOP’s long-held anti-union agenda
The Conversation
As the Trump administration seeks to shrink the federal workforce, slash nonmilitary spending and curb opposition to its policies, it is taking steps beyond the firing and furloughing of thousands of government workers.

Trump’s tariffs hurt the working class. Why are some unions on board?
Vox
President Donald Trump’s tariffs have drawn a lot of opposition — from economists, businesses, Wall Street, and the majority of Americans.

April 28, 2025

City firefighters union warns of low staffing levels
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg’s firefighters’ union is pleading for reinforcements, warning low staffing levels and soaring overtime have triggered a five-alarm fire inside the emergency service.

Quebec union wants conciliation, cites impasse in daycare negotiations
CBC
The union representing 400 publicly-funded daycares in Quebec, known as CPEs, and some 13,000 workers has filed a request for conciliation.

Unions leaders focus on ‘invisible injuries’ for National Day of Mourning
CTV News
Ahead of the National Day of Mourning, labour leaders gathered in Windsor on Sunday afternoon to demand better worker protections.

Judge blocks Trump’s anti-union executive order
Government Executive
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from implementing a March executive order that purported to strip collective bargaining rights from two-thirds of the federal workforce.

After 3 years without a contract, Starbucks workers are turning to civil disobedience
Fast Company
Michelle Eisen, a 15-year Starbucks veteran, is a barista for the coffee chain at a location in Buffalo—the first Starbucks store to unionize back in December 2021, in fact. But on a Tuesday in March, Eisen was at a Pittsburgh Starbucks, to participate in what Starbucks Workers United members have dubbed “sip-ins.” A spin on “sit-ins,” they involve union workers and allies hanging out for hours in a Starbucks store, ordering drinks under names like “Union Strong” and leaving tips for workers.

Largest federal employee union to shed more than half its staff amid Trump attacks
CNN
The American Federation of Government Employees is planning to lay off more than half its staff, as the largest federal employees’ union reels from President Donald Trump’s move to end collective bargaining rights for many federal workers.

Tentative Agreement reached between Carleton and CUASA
CUASA
Carleton University and the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA), which represents full-time faculty and professional librarians, are pleased to announce that they have reached a tentative collective agreement. Details of the settlement will be released publicly following ratification by members of the bargaining unit and the University’s Board of Governors.

Sask. academics shun travel to U.S. amid political climate
CBC
With political tensions rising between Canada and the U.S., some academics are choosing to stay home.

‘Stop the cuts’: Vancouver rally protests international study permit limits
CTV News
Colleges and universities across B.C. continue to grapple with the fallout from the federal government’s reduction in international student permits.

'Hard work ahead' even as University of Windsor trims budget deficit to just over $4M
CBC
The University of Windsor says it has cut its operating budget deficit from $42 million to $4.6 million in time for the 2025-26 academic year.

Hope as US universities find ‘backbone’ against Trump’s assault on education
The Guardian
Americans anxious about their country’s slide into authoritarianism found some solace in the past week over what appears to be growing pushback by American universities against Donald Trump’s assault on higher education.

Harvard labor unions rally behind non-citizens and workers amid Trump attacks
The Guardian
Labor unions and allied organizations representing students, staff, researchers and faculty at Harvard University are holding a rally on 27 April on campus to raise awareness and support for the role workers at the university have in research and education on campus in the face of attacks on the university by the Trump administration.

Trump’s university mandates are about control, not antisemitism
The Hill
I’m not the most likely defender of Cornell University. For the last 20 years, first as a student activist, and then during a decade as mayor of Ithaca, New York, I have been one of Cornell’s biggest critics.

Harvard University exploring $1 billion of private equity stakes sale, source says
Reuters
Harvard University's endowment is in advanced talks to sell private equity fund interests totaling about $1 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

April 25, 2025

Province announces mandatory Holocaust education, partnership with Jewish Heritage Centre
Winnipeg Free Press
Grades 6, 9 and 11 students will receive explicit instruction about the Holocaust and learn about Jewish cultural traditions and contributions to Manitoba in the fall.

NDP calls for auditor general to probe 2022 PC daycare project
Winnipeg Free Press
The NDP has called on the auditor general to investigate a mega-contract to build daycares that it says allowed the previous government to funnel $2.8 million to a Progressive Conservative campaign manager’s firm.

Andrew Irvine: We're taking UBC to court over DEI and other political activity
National Post
petition I and others filed earlier this month asking the Supreme Court of British Columbia to require administrators representing the University of British Columbia to stop engaging in political activity has begun to generate discussion.

New university funding deals include tuition freeze for Nova Scotia students
CBC
New bilateral funding agreements between the provincial government and universities will freeze tuition at current levels for Nova Scotia undergraduate students, but they also appear to represent a major shift in the way the government involves itself in post-secondary education.

Quebec judge invalidates tuition hike, French requirements for out-of-province university students
CBC
A Quebec Superior Court judge on Thursday struck down a tuition hike for out-of-province Canadian university students in Quebec and the French language requirements that the province had attempted to impose on them.

Science under siege: The rise of the wellness-conspiracy-prosperity gospel
Globe and Mail
We are witnessing an unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely affected public health in the U.S. and to a lesser extent in Canada. Note the following views as expressed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Dr. Peter Marks.

Columbia University students plan to build tent encampments this week, sources say
NBC
A group of protesters is planning to set up tent encampments on Columbia University campuses this week in protest of the war in Gaza, according to three people familiar with the planning and a recording of a meeting to plan the action shared with NBC News.

The Trump Department of Education Is Going After People Who’ve Defaulted on Federal Student Loans
Teen Vogue
For the first time in five years, student loan borrowers whose payments are long overdue could face stiff consequences, and that puts a disproportionate number of women at further financial risk. The Trump Department of Education announced Monday that, starting on May 5, its Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) will start collecting student debt in default. Delinquent borrowers could have their wages garnished as early as the summer.

US judges block Trump's ability to withhold school funds over DEI
Reuters
Federal judges in Maryland, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., on Thursday blocked Republican President Donald Trump's administration from following through on threats to cut off funding to public schools that engage in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

New Trump order targets university accreditation
BBC
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to overhaul university accreditation, a process colleges must go through to receive federal financial aid.

New momentum to ease labour mobility rules worries some Manitoba health-care leaders
CBC
Federal party leaders and provincial governments are trying to make it easier for workers to seamlessly move between provinces as a response to U.S. tariffs, but some health-care leaders in Manitoba aren't enthusiastic.

L.A. county first responder unions release documentary, advocate for raises following fire response
Police1
On the heels of the catastrophic January wildfires, L.A. County first responders are demanding raises and rebuking politicians for not moving faster to grant them.

Largest federal employee union, a leading Trump opponent, to lay off more than half of staff
Yahoo
The largest union for federal employees is planning to lay off more than half of its staff nationwide after President Donald Trump’s executive actions have rapidly weakened the organization’s finances, the union said Thursday.