All Committee’s Conference – KAIROS Blanket Exercise Workshop

Are you attending the All Committee’s Conference this year in Truro ? Thursday October 18, 2018 at 7:00pm CUPE Nova Scotia will proudly be hosting a workshop called ‘the KAIROS Blanket Exercise’. The KAIROS Blanket Exercise is an experiential teaching tool to share the historic and contemporary relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. The exercise builds awareness and understanding of our shared history as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada by having participants literally walk through situations that include pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance. Hope to see you there! “I found the Blanket Exercise to be a very unique and personal way to experience key moments in the history of Indigenous people in Canada. The way that historical facts about the Indigenous experience in Canadian history were personalized for the participants was truly profound. By engaging the participants in this way, the challenges, losses and triumphs of Indigenous people in … Read more…

CUPE 4764 picket line

Halifax restorative justice caseworkers serve strike notice

CUPE 4764 members, caseworkers employed by the Community Justice Society (CJS), are set to begin job action on July 30, after sending 48-hour strike notice to the Nova Scotia Minister of Labour and Advanced Education this morning. The strike will leave restorative justice clients and communities without options, and interrupt court dates.

A picket line will begin at 8 a.m. Monday at 1256 Barrington Street, Halifax. 

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Conciliation failing contract talks between crossing guards and Halifax Regional Municipality

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) representing crosswalk guards with the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) says conciliation has failed in contract negotiations. “We have had three days of bargaining and one day of conciliation that failed,” says CUPE National Representative Karen MacKenzie. “The main sticking point in negotiations is that the workers have asked for parity of wages with their counterparts in Cape Breton, based on annual salary.” “Crossing guards provide a valuable service to our communities. The employer, HRM, has decided they deserve less than crossing guards in other municipalities and that’s unacceptable,” says MacKenzie. CUPE Local 4814 President Glenna Casavechia says, “The union will be requesting a meeting with Mayor Mike Savage in the near future. This is precarious work and these workers deserve better.” HRM crossing guards are part-time workers with split shifts of 3.5 hours per day and they travel back and forth to their … Read more…