COPE 378 President David Black, in a letter to the editor of the New Westminster Record, takes on Southern Railway’s misleading claim in a January 7 article that they’re a “small, local company” when in fact they’re owned by one of the richest men in the U.S.

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BURNABY— Speaking to a crowd of more than 100 labour supporters and activists in Burnaby last night, Wisconsin labour activists Betsy Kippers and Marc Norberg shared inspirational stories of the current struggle there to protect collective bargaining rights and the right for public sector workers to join unions.

Kippers is Vice President of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the union that represents teachers, wh

After several weeks of relatively dull legislative activity following the September 1 Budget Update, the government made a substantive move in the Legislature on Monday, November 2, introducing Bill 21 – the Ambulance Services Collective Agreement Act.

While the BC Liberals have introduced other regressive labour legislation before, Bill 21 marks yet another shameful precedent – this is the first time in Canada, a government has imposed a collective agreement while a union is in the middle of voting on an offer from that same government.

The first session of the 39th provincial parliament began on August 25. The morning session saw Bill Barisoff returned to the role of Speaker. Lieutenant-Governor Steven Point addressed the Legislative Assembly in the afternoon session to deliver the Speech from the Throne.

Throne speeches are meant to outline the government’s agenda for the coming year, but are usually void of detail. This Throne Speech provided us with more specifics than we’ve previously seen, although much of it was couched in vague or poetic phrases.

Following the May 12, 2009 provincial election, a new Cabinet was appointed on June 10, 2009. Nine of the 24 cabinet members are new, including seven who are new MLAs. Many of the appointments are intriguing, including new MLAs Margaret MacDiarmid and Moira Stilwell in the Education and Advanced Education portfolios, respectively. Perhaps most significant of the appointments is Kevin Falcon’s assignment to the Health Services file.

In his decision released on March 30, 2009, Justice Cole struck down the Third Party spending limits during the 60-day, pre-campaign period set out in the Act.

Friday, March 27 Justice Cole gave an oral decision in the Bill 42 case which struck down the Third Party spending limits during the 60 day pre-campaign period set out in the Act.

The B.C. government has recently put out to tender the administration of the TILMA - The Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement between B.C. and Alberta. This means that a private sector corporation will be administering the Act that gives corporations the right to challenge and/or sue our governments (provincial and municipal) if in protecting the public interest they interfere with the competing interest of businesses.