• Magazine

    The workers AI hides

    Behind the newest AI technologies are hundreds of Canadians labouring for a fraction of minimum wage.

  • An illustration of a person with six arms. They have brown skin and black locs. With their many arms, they are frantically sipping an energy drink, typing on a laptop, holding a cell phone to their ear, waving a newspaper, and holding a
    Magazine

    Independent media’s bad labour problem

    From union-busting to systemic racism, when bad labour practices have embedded themselves in the very publications trying to write into existence a more just world, what is to be done?

  • A photo of people marching on a road in Brampton. Two people in the front are carrying a large banner that says
    Magazine

    “With our own hands”

    Workers and international students in Brampton are fighting back against wage theft, naming and shaming employers to recover over $250,000 in stolen wages. 12 workers share the lessons they’ve learned in the fight.

  • A digital illustration. On the left half of the illustration is a desk and folding chair surrounded by beige crates. On the right half of the illustration is a path with sunflowers and a blue sky. The person, who has brown skin and is wearing a red leather jacket, is walking through a revolving door that separates the two halves, exiting into the right half.
    Magazine

    Exiting the revolving door

    Sheltered workshops for disabled people allow employers to evade labour standards and pay workers below minimum wage, all under the guise of never-ending “training programs.”

  • Magazine

    反人口贩卖政策运动的剖析

    在过去的一年里,新市的低收入亚裔女性一直在与镇议会进行激烈的斗争。议会一直努力关闭她们的按摩业务,声称这些工人既是不光彩的罪犯,又是性交易人口贩卖的受害者。

  • A group of Asian community members wearing masks and holding up signs in multiple languages with anti-trafficking messages written on them.
    Magazine

    Anatomy of an anti-trafficking policy campaign

    In Newmarket, Asian massage workers have been engaged in a battle with the town council, which is intent on shutting down their businesses by claiming that the workers are both disreputable criminals and sex trafficking victims.

  • Magazine

    The right to return to work

    At the beginning of the pandemic, the Pacific Gateway and Hilton Metrotown hotels laid off their workers – then refused to hire them back. Hotel workers are fighting for their jobs, and for the future of the hotel industry after the pandemic.

  • Online-only

    The dark side of prison food service

    In Ohio, where Aramark is contracted to provide food to state prisons, the corporation seems more interested in profit than the safety and health of prisoners.

  • Magazine

    Rumour has it

    Anti-gossip policies, like other ostensibly good policies, are wielded by management to keep workers from building solidarity and transforming their workplaces.

  • Magazine

    « C’est un régime de terreur. »

    Pour mobiliser les travailleuses et travailleurs migrant∙e∙s en région rurale, il faut d’abord les trouver. La seconde étape est de réussir à desserrer l’emprise de surveillance et de peur qu’exerce leurs patrons.

  • Magazine

    “It’s a regime of terror”

    The first step in organizing rural migrant workers is finding them. The second step is breaking through their bosses’ iron grip of surveillance and fear.

  • Online-only

    Levelling the playing field

    Canadian Premier League soccer players are being paid poverty wages by billionaire team owners. Now, a new union is helping players fight for dignity and respect.

  • Online-only

    The story of the union drives sweeping Indigo stores

    Four Indigo stores have unionized in less than five months. It’s a lesson in how workers can play the pandemic to their advantage – leveraging social media and relying on community support to fight for lasting changes in their workplace.

  • Online-only

    Amazon, McDonald’s, A&W, Sleep Country, TJX Linked To Anti-Union Conference

    Top Canadian companies were among the sponsors and attendees of Canada’s largest union-busting event, according to photos and documents obtained by Briarpatch.

  • Magazine

    Exorcise Amazon

    Amazon has made a name for itself in pioneering new strategies for worker exploitation. The best way to fight back is to build worker power from below.

  • Online-only

    Community without accountability at CCGSD

    Former staff are raising allegations against the former executive director at one of Canada’s biggest LGBTQ nonprofits, saying he made the workplace unpredictable and unhealthy. It raises the question: where does a community end, and a workplace begin?

  • Magazine

    What do we do when humanitarians are the disaster?

    AidToo is exposing abuses of power at aid organizations. Two stories from Canadian NGOs show what it takes to blow the whistle, and how the industry responds to accusations.

  • Sask Dispatch

    The Fight for $15 in Saskatchewan

    Saskatchewan has the second-lowest minimum wage in the country – but there’s hope in a fledgling fight for a living wage.

  • Magazine

    Strike surveillance

    During the York University strike of 2018, workers on the picket line found themselves being watched

  • Magazine

    Should unions say no to closed-door negotiations?

    Unions in Canada and the U.S. are throwing open the doors to collective bargaining meetings, hoping to win stronger contracts and more engaged members. Will it work?