Good morning!
It may be time to say goodbye to the house with an ocean view. Pierre Poilievre’s housing prescription doesn’t add up. And Doug Ford’s government could open up even more protected Greenbelt lands for development.
This week, I posed a few questions to my colleague Natasha Bulowski, who wrote about a looming strike in the auto industry and why unions — traditionally resistant to change — are so on board with the electric vehicle transition. Read on to find out who’s striking, how climate change affects work issues and what’s driving a surge in Canada’s labour movement.
As always, you can let me know what you think of this newsletter at [email protected].
Have a great weekend and stay safe!
— Dana Filek-Gibson
Looking for more CNO reads? You can find them at the bottom of this email.
Workers want in on the EV transition
Electric vehicles are all the rage these days. Companies and politicians are jumping on every opportunity to develop an EV industry in Canada. Cars are apparently flying off the lot faster than dealerships can stock them. And if Canada’s goal of making all new vehicle sales emission-free by 2035 is any indication, the EV market is about to boom.
But for all the good news a shift to EVs brings, it also raises a question popping up in many corners of the world’s transition to a more climate-friendly economy: How do we rapidly switch gears without leaving anyone behind?
If the autoworkers living through this lightning fast transition have their say, that won’t happen. As my colleague Natasha Bulowski reports, Unifor workers at GM, Stellantis and Ford — known as the Big 3 auto manufacturers — are poised to strike over wages, pensions and support for the shift to EV manufacturing jobs. While unions have historically been wary of change in their respective industries, these autoworkers want to embrace it — and make sure they have a place in the new low-carbon economy.
“Across the board, a main concern is always job losses during a transition — maintaining good-paying unionized jobs is a priority for every union,” Natasha tells me. “Then there's the challenge of fighting employers to ensure that new jobs created in the transition are on par with the jobs that are being phased out.
“For unions and workers, the most natural reaction is to defend existing jobs, so naturally, there is tension in carbon-intensive industries like oil and gas,” she explains. But with federal policies like the zero-emission vehicle mandate in play, unions see the transition as inevitable and want to make sure they have a say in how Canada achieves that mandate — preferably not at the expense of autoworkers.
And they’re not the only workers standing up, Natasha tells me. Beyond the auto industry, workers at Toronto-area Metro grocery stores went on strike recently to negotiate a better contract, as did dock workers in B.C., whose 13-day strike shut down goods transport on the West Coast. Add to that the public service sector strike last spring and the Ontario education workers’ strike last winter, and unions across the country — many of which are speaking out about their own climate concerns — are taking bold action.
“It has been a big year for the labour movement in Canada … from where I'm sitting, and from what experts and prominent labour leaders (like Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske) are telling me, workers are increasingly understanding their value and standing up for themselves,” she says.
For her story, Natasha spoke to Stephanie Ross, associate professor at McMaster University’s School of Labour Studies, who put the surge in union activity mainly down to low unemployment and high inflation.
“It makes sense,” Natasha explained. “Inflation is making life unaffordable, and many people are struggling to put food on the table. At times like this, unions and workers have to push for better wage increases and other provisions out of necessity.”
The pandemic — and the way workers were treated during that time — had an impact, too, Ross told Natasha.
“To me, it makes sense for workers to be ready to go to bat for better contracts after being put at risk by their employers or disrespected, as was the case when grocery stores revoked the $2 per hour ‘hero pay,’” Natasha says. “This is at a time when corporations in so many sectors (grocery, oil and gas, auto, to name a few) are making record profits. Why shouldn't workers be demanding more?”
Even though climate change isn’t necessarily front of mind in every union negotiation, Natasha points out that a hotter planet is reshaping our world in ways that affect our work, too.
“I think the impacts of climate change are working behind the scenes to worsen the affordability crisis and other issues that are top of mind for workers, but it's not always easy to draw a clear line linking the two, so climate change can get lost in these conversations about the daily struggles of workers just trying to feed their families,” she says.
“For example, droughts in the U.S. or Canada can hurt crop yields, which can have an effect on food prices, the impact of which is then felt by regular people at the grocery store if scarcity drives prices higher.”
Going forward, it remains to be seen what happens with Unifor autoworkers. Their contract expires Sept. 18, at which point, they could go on strike. At the same time, another big autoworkers’ union — UAW — is in talks with the Big 3 auto manufacturers and has a contract expiring Sept. 14. They could strike, too.
“This is truly an historic moment for autoworkers on both sides of the border — the power that comes from negotiating separate contracts at the same time cannot be understated, and this is the first time in roughly 20 years bargaining has lined up,” Natasha explains.
“It's also a huge moment in terms of the energy transition and the shift to EVs — this is not to diminish the importance of public transit and some of the inherent problems with an over-reliance on cars, but EVs are overwhelmingly better than (internal combustion engine) vehicles in terms of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.”
If you ask Natasha, how the auto industry navigates this change “will be an important case study for transitions in other sectors.”
“If done well, it's a model for others to follow and a beacon of hope for workers who are worried about being left behind in a low-carbon economy,” she says. “If it goes badly, it will be viewed as a cautionary tale of transition.”
More CNO reads
Plants can help protect your home from extreme weather. Natasha Bulowski explains how you can protect your property from floods, fires and extreme heat with a hand from nature.
In the battle for our lives, is it possible we're winning? Seth Klein reflects on a summer of extreme weather and the precarious terrain between hope and despair.
Left high and dry. Small rural communities in B.C. are struggling to protect their water supplies as the West Coast sees more frequent droughts, Rochelle Baker reports.
Inspired by insects. Scientists at the University of Waterloo are trying to mimic spiderwebs and Namib desert beetles, both of which can pull moisture from thin air and convert it to water, Abdul Matin Sarfraz reports.
Did Enbridge mislead customers? A new Competition Bureau complaint accuses the gas utility of lying to Ontarians about the most cost-effective way to heat homes, John Woodside reports.
Heat pumps challenge the chill. Critics of the energy-efficient heaters argue they can’t handle the cold. But a Nova Scotia man’s data tells a different story, Cloe Logan reports.
A sport fishing fight puts salmon at stake. Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans has launched a program allowing anglers to keep the hatchery-raised chinook salmon they catch. But environmentalists and some First Nations worry the scheme threatens wild chinook already at risk, Marc Fawcett-Atkinson reports.
When we flood the streets, we remind those in power who put them there — and who can remove them. Columnist Auston Chhor explains why he’s joining the global climate protests this month.