Halifax WAC: Print

Recently, Cyclesmith’s tires have been pumped. Celebrated for its living wage policy, the Halifax-based bicycle shop has garnered positive media attention and was named Business of the Year by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.

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But Cyclesmith’s pro-worker image contradicts the experience of three former employees...

...Lisa Cameron, writer and organizer with the Halifax Workers’ Action Centre, tells rabble.ca that while the $2 per hour hazard pay is a start, it still leaves many low-income Canadians far from a livable wage. Cameron says workers have devoted themselves “tirelessly” to their frontline work, while being both “underpaid and unappreciated.”

In Nova Scotia, your boss can demand proof that you’re sick, even if it’s just a short term illness. Those requests make life miserable for workers and put stress on an already overburdened medical system.

For many short-term sicknesses, a trip to the doctor is really not necessary.  To recover from...

When workers battle back against unfairness on the job, action speaks louder than words. Katrin MacPhee is a lawyer at Pink Larkin in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She’s one of a “healthy base of volunteers” who helped establish the Halifax Workers’ Action Centre, becoming involved through membership in Solidarity Halifax, a local social justice...

Earlier this year baristas employed by the Smiling Goat learned the hard way how vulnerable they are. 

This summer employees of a coffee shop in Bedford received a similar grim reminder.   

To the surprise of both its customers and its employees, The Nook Espresso Bar...

In August, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released their report “A Rising Tide to Lift All Boats”, making several recommendations to improve existing employment legislation in Nova Scotia. This 2019 report is a follow-up to the 2012 CCPA report, and provides an updated and...

Mr. MacGregor’s piece is intended to undermine the recent report produced for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives by Acadia sociologist Rebecca Casey. The report compares employment standards in Nova Scotia to those of other provinces and comes to the unsurprising conclusion that we fall far behind...

With low-wage and precarious work on the rise, many workers in Halifax are struggling to maintain decent employment while sustaining themselves and their families. For those without adequate wages and legal protection, addressing workplace inequality can be exhausting, risky, and costly with little reward...