SNOLAB says Sudbury MPP Jamie West should apologize for comments about ongoing strike
CBC
The executive director of SNOLAB is asking Sudbury MPP Jamie West to apologize for West's statement alleging the organization was hiring replacement workers, or "scabs," during an ongoing labour dispute.
Fifty-two workers at the underground laboratory in the northern Ontario city have been on strike since May 8.
"These workers need a cost-of-living increase and paid family responsibility leave," West said in the Ontario Legislature earlier this week.
"SNOLAB says they don't have any money, but somehow, they found the money to pay for scab workers, buses and security services."
SNOLAB executive director Jodi Cooley has taken issue with the second part of the statement by the New Democrat member.
"I want to be very clear with you, and to anyone else who levies this allegation, that SNOLAB is not using replacement workers during this dispute and has no plans to use replacement workers," she said in an open letter to West.
"One hundred per cent of work at SNOLAB normally done by unionized employees is being done by SNOLAB's non-union employees."
Cooley added the organization is "disheartened to see Sudbury's elected officials going public with such an obviously false and defamatory allegation and using SNOLAB to promote a political agenda."
West told CBC News he got information that SNOLAB was allegedly using replacement workers from a news release issued by United Steelworkers Local 2020-59, which represents the 52 workers on strike.
"So I've been trying to reach out to the Steelworkers to find out if the information is correct or not, and haven't been able to speak with them yet," he said, adding he saw Cooley's open letter Friday morning.
"Obviously, if it turns out the information is incorrect, I don't mind correcting it and giving an apology."
But West added the issue speaks to the NDP's calls for the provincial government to pass "anti-scab" legislation, as the federal government has done.
"If we had anti-scab legislation and Doug Ford hadn't voted against it at the provincial level, this wouldn't even be a question," he said.
West said he's not trying to pick sides in the dispute, but was using the strike to argue in favour of the proposed legislation.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.