Despite his managerial veneer and quiet approach, the outgoing defence secretary is a highly political operator

• UK politics live – latest updates

If there was one thing Downing Street could rely on with John Healey, it was avoiding unnecessary drama. Whether in parliament or on the morning broadcast round, his sober suits and general demeanour of a benign but firm headteacher spelled reassurance.

But then, just before 12.10pm on Wednesday, the drama arrived. In a letter posted to social media, Healey resigned as defence secretary, a job he had held – whether in government or its shadow equivalent – from the moment Keir Starmer became Labour leader.

Crowds gather at sites across Belfast after Sudanese man charged with attempted murder

• Full report: Man seriously injured in Belfast stabbing Starmer describes as ‘sickening’

Badenoch said, after the murder of Stephen Lawrence, it was right that people wanted to ensure this did not happen again.

It led to the Macpherson report, she said.

[It] wanted to put right what went wrong with policing in the 1990s.

However, in attempting to do so, it also enshrined a principle which I believe is wrong that a racist incident is racist if it is perceived as racist by the victim or any other person.

Equality law, properly designed, should protect us all in the same way. It should be a shield, not a sword.

It should protect people from discrimination. It should protect people from being treated differently because of their race, sex, religion, sexuality, disability or age.

Heather McPherson wants to outlaw the targets of her private member’s bill. She refers to them politely  as “employer influenced unions.” Many workers know these repellent bodies as “yellow dog unions,” ugly creatures that pretend to be unions but put most of their energy into helping employers, often against the interests of the actual workers they purportedly represent. Think Colonel  Sanders claiming he can negotiate on behalf of the chickens or Dracula acting as a blood donor broker.

Unsurprisingly, the head of one of the unions that McPherson singled out for criticism, the Christian Labour Association of Canada, (CLAC) founded in 1952, objected to the proposed legislation. Wayne Prins, CLAC’s Executive Director, said “Nothing in this bill advances the interests of everyday working Canadians, and nothing in it provides protections that don’t already exist in every labour code in Canada……McPherson’s comments are a desperate attempt to garner favour with rival unions to CLAC, and they expose a remarkable lack of understanding of real labour relations in Canada.”

Speaking of lack of understanding of Canadian labour relations, it is worth noting that CLAC’s understanding of labour relations led them within living memory to form a lobbying alliance in BC with  the Progressive Contractors Association, the Independent Contractors and Business Associations, the BC Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the Canada West Construction Union (CWCU).   With the exception of the CWCU, which appears to be closely aligned with CLAC, these are all employer side organizations. I guess the folks at CLAC haven’t got the memo yet about being judged by the company you keep. 

On June 4, McPherson’s bill had its first hour of debate, with a second hour slated for October. To those of us who see CLAC as the prime example of yellow dog unionism in Canada, seems like a glacially slow time line, but private members bills (proposed by MPs who are not cabinet members or cabinet secretaries) are often slow to move, often taking several years to be resolved, and in many cases they are where good intentions go to die in Ottawa. 

One of the speakers scheduled to speak at the June 4 press conference being held to mark the first hour of debate on the McPherson bill, is BC heavy equipment operator and human rights advocate Mike Pearson. Pearson’s advocacy for a family whose son, Sam Fitzpatrick, died because of  management recklessness in 2009 at a Peter Kiewit Sons ULC construction site at Toba Inlet in BC, where workers allegedly were represented by CLAC, gave him his own reasons to oppose the pseudo union. Pearson is outraged that CLAC wrote a letter of support for the multinational construction firm when BC’s Worksafe BC issued a then-record fine against the lethal employer, claiming that Kiewit had  a “prior demonstrated commitment to safety.” 

This is a questionable claim, given how often Kiewit  has been cited in worker deaths, injuries  and shoddy workmanship at its projects (see my Tyee story linked above.) With CLAC support, Kiewit got the reduced fine it sought,  in what many observers, including this one, saw as an insulting-to-workers slap on the wrist.

Despite this reduced fine, Worksafe noted “In these circumstances, we would describe it as ‘heedless,’ ‘wanton,’ ‘extreme,’ ‘gross,’ and ‘highly irresponsible’ for the employer to have known that there was a potential for rocks to roll through the worksite but not take adequate steps to contain this risk by way of a detailed and carefully monitored scaling program.”

“My task is to laser focus on the CLAC supporting a smaller fine for the American corporation, rather than advocating for the dues paying (now dead) worker. I’m not here for the politics, I’m doing this to further support worker safety and rights on the jobsite,” Pearson told me in a recent email. 

(Full disclosure, I spent years covering the Fitzpatrick death and Worksafe BC’s fine reduction and through that reporting came to know and respect Pearson)  I am not a neutral on this topic, or on the question of CLAC’s dubious legitimacy. 

Neither are spokespeople for organized labour in Canada and abroad. CLAC, which currently claims to represent over 60,000 Canadian workers (https://www.clac.ca/About-us) was suspended from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in 2011 and does not belong to Canadian labour bodies like the Canadian Labour Congress, which hailed McPherson’s bill in a January social media post that read: 

Canadian Labour Congress – Congrès du travail du Canada January 2:

“We applaud  @heathermacnow for introducing Bill C-259, the Fair Representation Act, taking on employer-dominated “company unions” and standing up for real collective bargaining 

This bill gives the Canada Industrial Relations Board stronger tools to protect workers’ right to independent, democratic unions  Canada’s Unions supports this bill because workers deserve a real voice and real power on the job.”

Other union bodies that offered early support for C-259 include the Edmonton and District Labour Council  IUOE local 955( IUOE Local 955 support) and  IBEW local 424 (IBEW Local 424 support.) 

Avi Lewis, the newly elected NDP leader, has voiced his support for this initiative, saying “Workers fought for generations to build strong, independent unions. Those gains shouldn’t be taken for granted. Protecting union independence means protecting workers’ ability to stand together and fight for better wages, safer workplaces, and more dignity on the job.”

Heather McPherson has called on every member of Parliament who claims to support labour rights and worker safety to support her bill. She  told the Tyee at the end of 2025:

“One of the things I like best about the anti-CLAC legislation is, if Pierre Poilievre really wants to show himself as being opposed to company unions, if he’s really on it for the side of workers, his folks will support that bill. Otherwise, his cards are on the table and it’ll be pretty clear that’s not who he’s here for.” 

In my view, that goes for every MP, not just the Poilievre posse. I urge every reader to let their MP know you want them to support this bill, and get your union local, labour council, faith group, book  or bowling club to tell Parliament that bill C-259 should be passed and implemented. Some people are worried, too often rightly these days, about the phenomenon of “fake news.” We should also beware of “fake unions”.

The post Curb that Yellow Dog! Private Members Bill targets employer-collusive unions appeared first on rabble.ca.

Migrant farmworker advocates have alerted Prime Minister Mark Carney that they will be submitting a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee in December to mark International Migrant’s Day. The complaint will highlight what advocates say is the government’s failure to act on the preventable deaths of migrant farmworkers. 

The complaint will be filed by Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW), a grassroots political organization with more than 20 years of organizing experience. 

“What we’re seeing is that agricultural work, by design, is violent, dangerous, dehumanizing and it’s dirty,” Chris Ramsaroop, an longtime J4MW organizer, . “Structurally, we create workplaces such as agriculture where people’s lives – particularly racialized workers – are not valued. We want to shed a light on this.” 

The International Labour Organization (ILO) classifies agriculture work as one of the world’s most dangerous occupations. Workers are exposed to agrochemicals and can also sustain injuries when handling heavy machinery. The ILO estimates that 170,000 people working in agriculture die each year. 

These risks paired with Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), which has been called a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, and has left migrant agricultural workers especially vulnerable to injury and death. On top of the common risks associated with carrying out agricultural work, migrant farmworkers also deal with high levels of anxiety and

stress due to family separation, unsafe and abusive workplace and precarity of their low-wage employment and immigration status.

“Racism and white supremacy are central to the creation of these programs,” Ramsaroop said. “In the 60s, when it came to talking about labor shortages, politicians were championing freedom, dignity and respect. They  spoke about how they couldn’t have controlled, contained or contracted labor when it came time for white Europeans. We had no qualms whatsoever about creating these conditions, first for black workers from Jamaica and then for workers from across the world.” 

J4MW wrote in their letter to the Prime Minister’s office that they will continue to demand inquests in migrant farmworker deaths, call for investigations and fight for justice. 

“We refuse to accept a system where indentured servitude is not merely a legacy but a clear and proud practice across this country,” the organization wrote in their letter. 

The Prime Minister’s office received rabble.ca’s request for comment but was unable to respond before deadline. 

Ramsaroop said he has felt unimpressed with past responses from the government to J4MW’s complaints.

READ MORE: Mark Carney favours the wealthy and privileged over working-class Canadians

“These are template responses and and there hasn’t been any real changes,” he said. “It’s not just that the government refuses to act. The government very much supports the agricultural industrial complex.” 

He said he hopes this complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee will push the government to finally take the action needed. 

“Historically, progressives have failed and have fallen to the tropes of white supremacy,” Ramsaroop added. “At this moment, while we’re calling for changes, it’s about ensuring that people have the ability to come as free and equal. Just because they’re from the Global South, just because they’re racialized, doesn’t mean they should be facing a certain differential and very racist set of exclusions.” 

The post Migrant farmworker advocates to submit complaint to UN Human Rights Committee appeared first on rabble.ca.

Starmer ‘can’t sack him or let him resign’, says ally of Dan Jarvis after predecessor’s resignation

The new defence secretary is to revisit a controversial plan for funding the armed forces and may return to demand more cash from the Treasury, allies have said.

Multiple government sources said Dan Jarvis would look to “reprioritise” aspects of the defence investment plan (Dip), which was delayed until July after the resignation of John Healey following a disagreement over its funding.

Full-time job vacancies suitable for Hong Kong university graduates have plummeted by 60 per cent, as artificial intelligence (AI) sweeps through the city’s labour market, a minister has said.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said on Wednesday that entry-level jobs vulnerable to automation have been hit hardest, with vacancies in administration dropping nearly 90 per cent over the three-year period and roles in information technology and programming falling by 80 per cent.

The number of full-time job vacancies suitable for university graduates shrank from 80,000 in 2022 to just 31,000 in 2025, the minister said.

The figures were derived from the Joint Institutions Job Information System, an online job search platform for students from Hong Kong’s eight publicly funded universities seeking employment, Sun said in his reply to enquiries by lawmaker Priscilla Leung.

“We all know the impact of AI is sweeping and global. We are all exploring how to help young people find jobs in a world changed by AI,” Sun told the Legislative Council in Cantonese.

Citing a survey by global consulting firm International Data Corporation, Sun said over 60 per cent of companies surveyed around the world had indicated they would cut entry-level positions in the next three years due to AI.

He vowed that the Labour and Welfare Bureau would analyse the impact of AI on Hong Kong’s overall labour market and specific industries.

Findings are expected to be released in the fourth quarter of this year as part of the mid-term update of the government’s Manpower Projections, he added.

He also said that, between 2025 and 2028, the eight University Grants Committee-funded universities will introduce 30 new academic programmes covering emerging sectors, such as AI, cybersecurity, and the creative industries.

Sun noted that, despite the drops in job vacancies, the unemployment rate among university graduates has not increased significantly.

The number of employed people aged 15 to 29 with a degree or above was about 268,000 in 2025, compared with 270,000 in the previous year, Sun said, citing government data.

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, the use of generative AI chatbots and tools has become increasingly common across industries around the world.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has pushed for expanding the applications of AI across government departments and social sectors. In his Policy Address last year, he said the authorities would promote “extensive and deep integration of AI” across industries.

During his annual budget speech in February, finance chief Paul Chan announced that he would chair a new “AI+ and Industry Development Strategy” committee.

The government will also provide “AI training for all,” embedding AI education at different levels of education and vocational training, Chan said at the time.

Ontario has established a regulatory body for the province’s 100,000 personal support workers. But they are not represented on the body which the workers call fundamentally flawed. Plus the LabourStart report about union events. And singing: ‘Hold That Line.”

Music credit: Robin Roberts (vocals) Peter Hicks and Geoff Francis (Lyrics). Used with permission.

RadioLabour is the international labour movement’s radio service. It reports on labour union events around the world with a focus on unions in the developing world. It partners with rabble to provide coverage of news of interest to Canadian workers.

The post Ontario’s personal support workers need support too appeared first on rabble.ca.

This week on the show, rabble editor Nick Seebruch and publisher Sarah Sahagian sit down to discuss ongoing news coverage on rabble.ca this summer, the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the war in Iran, Pride Month coverage and more. 

Some pieces mentioned in this episode include:

• Scott Douglas Jacobsen’s on-the-ground reporting in Ukraine 
• The heroic life of Betty Baxter, athlete and activist by Tom Sandborn 
• Five Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ books to add to your TBR list 
• US-Mexico start free trade review talks without Canada by Evan Wexler

And celebrating rabble’s three summer interns: 

• Lea Lagredelle
• Hannah Bolwell
• Piper Canniff

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and now: subscribe to rabble on Patreon to hear exclusive bonus episodes of rabble radio. 

The post Looking ahead to summer news coverage on rabble.ca appeared first on rabble.ca.

The fight to repeal section 107 from the Canadian Labour Code has progressed after the House of Commons had the second reading of the bill aimed at abolishing it. 

Leaders from the NDP and Canada’s union movement have rallied around the bill, framing the repeal of section 107 as key to defending the right to strike. At the same time, smaller labour organizations are working to reclaim the political strike as a tool the labour movement can wield to assert workers’ rights. 

Bill C-247 was tabled in October and highlights how section 107 of the labour code has been used in the last two years to tilt the scales during collective bargaining. Section 107 gives the labour minister the power to do things that “seem likely to maintain or secure industrial peace” when they deem it expedient.  

Section 107 has been invoked eight times in the last two years and has ended legal strikes being held by rail workers, flight attendants and postal workers. 

“Every single time that a government oversteps and uses 107 or any other legislation to send workers back to work, they are undermining the work that happens at the [bargaining] table,” said Siobhan Vipond, vice president of the Canadian Labour Congress. “Let us be clear, every single time that 107 has been used by this government, it has been used in favor of the employer.” 

NDP leader, Avi Lewis, expressed support for repealing section 107 in hopes it will balance the power at the bargaining table. 

“No worker wants to give up their own wages to go on a picket line,” Lewis said, “but when you’re talking about bargaining in Canada, in a cost of living crisis, where people cannot afford groceries, cannot afford rent and mortgages, being paid a fair wage is our only hope for workers in Canada of getting out of this cost of living emergency, and it’s only the right to strike that balances the scales in labor negotiations, so that employers can’t just do what they want.”

For organizers like Emile Lacombe, who has been organizing with the Alliance Ouvrière (Worker’s Alliance) since 2024, this effort to amend the labour code is positive. But the ongoing attack on the right to strike signals a need to build more labour militancy. 

“What we’re seeing right now is that the government is taking advantage of the fact that we’re disorganized, that we’re used to taking the legal route,” Lacombe said in an interview with rabble.ca. “The thing is that they have the upper hand on that department, because they can change laws, the bosses can hire better lawyers than us.”

LISTEN: Emile Lacombe talks about the political strike on rabble radio

Lacombe joined a panel at a conference held by the International League of People’s Struggles last week where he discussed the importance of reclaiming the political strike, a strike that happens not just to secure a fair deal but also to assert broader political or social demands. 

Representing the Workers Alliance Emile spoke alongside speakers with the Immigrant Workers Centre, the International Migrants Alliance, Migrante Canada and the 1919 Workers Collective. All groups agreed that labour should build towards the political strike. 

Lacombe highlighted that the history of the political strike is strong in Canada. Workers used the strike to fight against government austerity in 2015 and to stand up for the environment in 2019. Now, in a time where the NDP and unions are fighting to protect the right to strike, Lacombe said these large mobilizations of workers may be exactly what’s needed to demonstrate that workers’ hard fought wins cannot just be taken away.  
“If we want the right to strike, we need to prove it in action and to show it by defying back to work orders,” Lacombe said. “That’s the only way that we can ensure that we have this right.”

The post NDP and unions continue to push for repeal of section 107 of the Labour Code appeared first on rabble.ca.

Thousands attend CLC convention in Winnipeg. Comments by the leaders of the CLC, USW, PSAC, and UFCW plus NDP federal leader Avi Lewis. The LabourStart Report about union events. And Larry Rousseau singing “It’s a Wonderful World.”

RadioLabour is the international labour movement’s radio service. It reports on labour union events around the world with a focus on unions in the developing world. It partners with rabble to provide coverage of news of interest to Canadian workers.

The post CLC sets a workers’ agenda for Canada appeared first on rabble.ca.

Prime minister announces ban, saying social media is making children unhappy and unsafe

• Social media to be banned in UK for under-16s, Starmer announces

Starmer acknowledges some teenagers will get round these restrictons. But that does not make the rules pointless, he says.

Will it mean that no child ever looks at social media again? No.

But look, this might shock you, but it doesn’t shock parents of teenagers; they get around other laws too.

Some technology companies want us to think that social media is unchangeable, part of an almost natural order.

But we have to resist that kind of learned helplessness. We have agency, we can change it, and we will.