Yukon Arts Centre workers go on strike, picket outside concert
CBC
Workers on strike from the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) picketed outside a sold-out concert at the Whitehorse venue on Tuesday evening, while urging ticket-holders to skip the show and ask the facility for a refund.
It was the first job action by the unionized workers since the most recent round of contract negotiations broke down. A strike vote was held last month.
Yukon Employees Union president Steve Geick said the YAC was given strike notice on Friday. He said the union represents about 15 or 16 YAC workers, most of whom are casual or contract employees.
Tuesday evening's job action was announced shortly before a sold-out concert by musician Basia Bulat. In a statement, the union asked ticket-holders to "stand in solidarity" with the striking workers.
"We are asking patrons not to cross the picket line," Geick told CBC on Tuesday afternoon.
In a statement posted on Wednesday, the union claims that the sold-out show started late and the theatre was only about one-third full. It said that YAC managers were working to run the event.
Several comments posted on the YAC Facebook page about Tuesday's concert blasted the facility management for not advising ticket holders ahead of time about the labour dispute. Some people said they would not cross a picket line to attend.
YAC management declined comment on either Tuesday's event or the labour dispute.
Geick says the dispute is focused on wages, and treating casual and contract workers with "respect."
"They need to pay people a decent wage to be able to afford to live here and continue working," he said.
Geick said the union is prepared to resume negotiations but management does not seem willing.
"I guess you could say both sides have drawn their line in the sand," he said.
"The employer doesn't seem to want to get back to the bargaining table. They've had their opportunities. They don't want to talk to us."
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.
Montreal's St. Patrick's Day parade first started on Saint-Paul Street in 1824, and a couple centuries later, this annual tradition is still going strong.
A congregation in Carman, Man., is coming to grips with the loss of their Anglican Lutheran church, a fixture in the community that was ravaged by a fire on Thursday.