Union of BC Indian Chiefs calls for Coastal GasLink to halt work to reduce COVID-19 threat.
Amanda Follett Hosgood is the Tyee’s northern BC reporter. She lives amidst the stunning mountains and rivers of Wet’suwet’en territory. Find her on Twitter @amandajfollett.
Governments and bosses claim to be at war with coronavirus. In reality, it is a war against our social class that they are waging. A war against us for their profits!
In the face of the COVID-19 tsunami, our lives are changing in ways that were inconceivable just a few short weeks ago. Not since the 2008-09 economic collapse has the world collectively shared an experience of this kind: a single, rapidly-mutating, global crisis, structuring the rhythm of our daily lives within a complex calculus of risk and competing probabilities.
A 2014 report warned that reforms to the NHS would make it vulnerable to pandemics – by making staff redundant, undermining public health and defining spare capacity as waste. It was ignored.
“Sick… guess we didn’t move quick enough after all…” — Stephen King, The Stand.
The Covid-19 Shock Meets an Impending Economic Recession
As of March 2020, the world is back to the future. The global financial crisis of 2007-08, which escalated into a global financial meltdown in September 2008, was supposed to be the big bang crisis, a once in a lifetime event. And yet, here we are again.
Some Canadian organizations are asking the federal government to focus any bailout of the oil industry on workers and families, not corporations.
The request comes in an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, released Tuesday morning and signed by environmental organizations, faith and labour groups that the signatories say represent about 1.3 million people.
“Giving billions of dollars to failing oil and gas companies will not help workers and only prolongs our reliance on fossil fuels,” the letter says.
“CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AREN’T SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS.”
– ANDREW MERCIER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE B.C. BUILDING TRADES COUNCIL
Construction workers are vital to maintaining critical infrastructure and must be kept safe, says BCBT
Construction workers from across B.C. say they are at risk because their working conditions do not allow them to follow basic health, hygiene and safety regulations.
