A union representing 40 per cent of Quebec teachers has reached a deal in principle with the government and is ending a strike that has shut around 800 schools since Nov. 23. Fédération autonome de l’enseignement — or FAE — said Thursday night on social media that it spent the day analyzing a tentative deal with the province(opens in a new tab) and will recommend it to its members for approval during general assemblies after the holidays. Details of the agreement have not been released. Even though the FAE called the deal "a new step," it emphasized "it is up to the teachers to respond to (Premier) François Legault's government and to say whether they feel they have been heard."

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Tagging @politicsofcanada

From teachers to health workers, more than 420,000 public sector employees are on strike today in Quebec. Primary and secondary school teachers will launch an unlimited general strike on Nov. 23 if the government don't settle with them.

It complicates my life a bit, especially with schools closed, but it is moving to see this wave of solidarity.

i refuse to write essays in the tags of other people's posts but if you are so ignorant to say that "it's going to be hard to support writer's strikes because shows are delayed" then firstly you have no concept of solidarity and secondly the fact just because you are harmed by strikes doesn't mean you should stop supporting them at all and you do sometimes need to just suck it up.

personal example to ground things in real life. I need trains to get around and train strikes negatively impact my life significantly. have I ever wavered in support for strikes? absolutely not because it is not about me. same with any other strike.

if still really want to think about yourself then the quality of any service whether that be writing or teaching will always be improved by a raise in wages or an improvement in working conditions.

it's very common anti-strike rhetoric to talk about how strikes are selfish because they negatively impact the "general public". and this is deployed against when emergency or public sector workers strike e.g ambulances. if you think it's impacting you when writers strike then I feel like you just need to get a grip.

101 Things You Should Know About the UK Tory Government

Thing 75

In case anyone had any doubts about Sunak’s right-wing, anti-union beliefs  this should remind them that the fight with nurses, rail personnel , teachers, ambulance staff and many other groups of workers  is one of political philosophy rather than economic necessity as is often argued.  

“Resolving rail disputes would have cost less than strikes, admits ministerRail minister Huw Merriman told MPs the rail dispute has "ended up costing more" than a resolution"  (Sky News: 18/01/23)

Clearly, unelected Sunak is prepared to sacrifice both the train using public and businesses reliant upon rail freight in his obsession to cripple the unions.

The Tories know they can’t beat the unions – they just want someone else to blame

“The reason a government would want such a bill is entirely obvious: if strikes are making ministers look bad, why not simply ban the strikes? But the lack of detail of what a ‘minimum service’ actually is, and the sweeping powers the bill offers ministers to amend the law once it has passed, united an unlikely alliance of John McDonnell and Jacob Rees-Mogg in criticism when it passed the Commons last January. This week, peers asked the government to look again.

“There’s another problem with the idea of anti-strike legislation, that’s not so much legal as philosophical: it misunderstands the nature of union power. The miners’ strike was defeated through implacability and brute force, yes, but it also required preparation, such as the stockpiling of coal, and for the NUM to have been in a much weaker position than it had once been. An earlier wave of strikes, a decade beforehand when the industry was stronger and coal a more important part of Britain’s energy mix, had effectively brought down a Conservative government, when Edward Heath called an early election under the campaign slogan ‘Who governs Britain?’ and promptly lost his majority. In the early 1970s, when the miners had the power to bring the country to a standstill by withdrawing their labour, they won; a decade later, it turned out they no longer had the power, so they lost.

“It is very far from obvious that nurses, teachers, rail workers and the others are in the sort of weak position that would mean sheer bloody mindedness on the part of the government would be enough to defeat them: that, of course, is both why the government has been forced to open negotiations, and why it is attempting to make strikes harder. But this doesn’t feel like a problem that can just be legislated away. Even if the bill passes staff may walk out anyway, or withdraw their labour in other ways by quitting or not joining these sectors in the first place. The government can pass as many anti-strike bills as it wants: that won’t be enough to change the fact that the country fundamentally needs nurses and teachers and railway workers a damn sight more than it needs these particular politicians.”

i would love to have new fucked up mars as a free roam spot but i want io back the most. please please please? pretty please?

Three union federations representing more than 400,000 public sector workers announced Sunday they intend to move forward with strike plans after rejecting a new contract offer from the Quebec government.

The federations — which describe themselves as the common front and are negotiating together — say the new offer falls far short of what they were looking for.

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada

The UK is very very close to falling apart. We need another way. General election and Labour won’t cut it- we need real change.

Anyway a national holiday is not gonna solve the sociopolitical and economic crisis peace and love

black friday deals last all week now so why is everyone ditching work to come at the mall

y'know it's not the whole problem but one of the biggest reasons American police are so uniformly terrible is that they're basically just one enormous union with near-universal membership and an obscene amount of bargaining power

Workers face the sack if they don't cross their own picket lines. What kind of country is this?

“Six sectors of public services in Britain – some of them privatised – will in the next month or so be subject to Minimum Service Levels. The list covers health services, fire and rescue services, education, transport, nuclear decommissioning, and border security. 

“What this means in practice is that when workers vote to strike in these sectors from now on, a significant proportion of them will be forced to come in – even if they voted to strike – or face the sack.

“For most sectors so far – including transport and education – that figure is 40%. The Trades Union Congress estimates that five million workers are now affected by the workers’ rights clampdown, with many told to cross their own picket lines even if they vote to strike ...

“The new Code of Practice is a convoluted mess which requires unions to instruct their members to defy strike actions they democratically voted for ... Unions must now navigate a complex web of requirements, pushing them to act against their members’ interests and their own principles. Members will be told to break their own strikes, or face the sack. Unions will be told to break their own strikes, or face hefty fines.”