Link to my article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-strikes-potential-labour-deal-with-catholic-teachers/

Recently with one of the four main teachers’ unions in Ontario, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association is planning a potential labour strike if the union negotiation is not met with the government. This process of negotiation has showcased the three components of the work stoppage. The preconditions to be met for this work stoppage in this situation do not exist, thus making it convenient for the OECTA to go on a strike. This is because, since August 2019, the Catholic teachers have been working without a contract. Furthermore, the union has planned the strike to take place on March 28 if the bargain fails, giving the notice of more than seven business days, which made the labor strike fully legal. If the bargain between the OECTA and government does result in a labour strike, because of the current happening with the COVID-19 the school board shuts down all schools two weeks after the march break. Therefore the employer, in this case, would not be operational. The original plan for the four main teachers’ unions was to engage in job action, from work-to-rule to one-day-strike picketing in front of the school(Alphonso 2020). This would meet the restriction for both parties during the work stoppage because the requirement of the agreement permits such action of a labour strike. Lastly, the debate with giving in to the bargain will result in a more future potential strike is a factor to be considerate of. For the past years, there were many cases of teachers’ unions threatening and going on full work stoppage. This ranges from elementary to university, which does affect supporting this debate. However, all of the incidents are also isolated since the motive behind each bargain are individual yet share similarities such as lack of contracts, low wages with few increases. In the end, these debates ultimately raise a concern about the broader issue of why they are going on work stoppage frequently.

Reference:

Alphonso, C., “Ontario strikes potential labour deal with Catholic teachers”, The Globe and Mail, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-strikes-potential-labour-deal-with-catholic-teachers/.

Employers and employees should consider each other’s point of view regarding working benefits to prevent undesirable dismissals. Story: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/employee-who-got-6-bbq-sauce-as-holiday-gift-says-he-was-fired-for-angry-tweet-1.4752283

Hussein Mehaidli had been working at Fastenal Canada for six years, and he posted a tweet complaining about receiving a $6 bottle of sauce as a holiday gift from the company. The company later found out about his account. Although the district manager and regional VP fought for him, the corporate in the US dismissed him. More on the page, Hussein’s post exposed the sauce brand and created a negative image for the producing company Get Sauced & Spiced Inc.

How should we think about this? Is Fastenal cheap and ignorant towards employee feedback? Or is Hussein having trouble controlling himself on social media? 

I see this story, two-sided. And so should the company and Hussein. For a multi-billion dollar company such as Fastenal, giving their long term employee a $6 sauce as a holiday gift seems stingy since we need to embrace the fact $6 is probably not even Hussein’s half-hour working payment. If the company stands at Hussein’s position, they can easily understand why he got frustrated and claimed that he felt disrespected by the company. On the other hand, a complaining post regarding a famous company on a widely used social media such tweeter spreads fast. And the negative impact it can cause for the company is hard to measure. Hussein’s behavior disregarded the company’s welfare and showed a decrease in employee loyalty. 

As far as I consider, Fastenal should value employee experience more by researching employees’ preferences towards employee benefits. They should also provide employees with better internal channels to express themselves. Employee loyalty increases when a company becomes more willing to listen and accept critics. And employees should use proper ways to express themselves when they have concerns about the company.

Reference:

Slaughter, G., “Employee who got $6 BBQ sauce as holiday gift says he was fired for angry tweet”, CTV NEWS, January 3, 2020.

Hi, my name is Liang. I am a fourth year student in Queen’s majoring Applied Economics. My first job experience was working as a marketing intern in an international trading company in China. I am mostly interested in learning about the main features and elements of contemporary workplace policy in Canada throughout this course.

这是一篇示例文章，最初作为 Blogging University 的组成部分发布。报名参加我们十个项目中的其中一个，立即开始撰写您的博客。

您今天要发布一篇文章。不必担心您的博客的外观。如果您还没有给博客命名或是感到不知所措，也不必担心。只需点击“新文章”按钮，告诉我们您来此处的原因。

为什么要这样做？

• 因为它能为新读者提供背景信息。让他们了解您是做什么的，他们为什么应该阅读您的博客。
• 因为这将帮助您专注于自己对博客的想法，以及您想用博客来做什么。

文章可短可长，可以是对您的生活的个性化介绍或是博客宗旨说明，也可以是对未来的宣言或是对希望发布的内容类型的简要概述。

为了帮助您开始撰写，不妨思考以下几个问题：

• 您为什么要公开写博客，而不是写个人日记？
• 您认为您会写些什么话题？
• 您想通过博客和谁联系？
• 如果您的博客成功写到明年，您想要达到什么目标？

您并非一定要受此限制，博客的一个奇妙之处在于，随着我们学习、成长和与他人互动，它们是会不断演变的，不过如果知道从何处入手以及为何开始，这将会颇有益处，并且明确您的目标可能会激发您写其他一些文章的灵感。

不知道如何开始？只需写下您脑海中闪现的第一件事即可。Anne Lamott 是一位作家，大家都喜欢她写的书。她指出，你要允许自己写出“蹩脚的初稿”。Anne 提出了一个很好的观点，先开始写，之后再去考虑如何编辑。

在您准备发布时，给您的文章贴上三到五个标签来描述您博客的关注点 – 写作、摄影、小说、育儿、美食、汽车、电影、体育等。这些标签将帮助关注您话题的人在阅读器中找到您。确保添加“zerotohero”标签，这样其他新博主也可以找到您。