In this edition of Progressive Political Economy, Kaylie Tiessen, a national representative in Unifor’s research department, highlights how unions and workers are responding to heightened inflation and a worsening affordability crisis through stronger collective agreements. Facing the increasing risk presented by AI amid these crises, Unifor’s research department has been on the frontlines developing new strategies to defend workers against precarity. From shifting public policy on wages to developing new collective bargaining standards, unions have made major breakthroughs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, while encountering new challenges.
The Broadbent Institute and Perspectives Journal have launched Progressive Political Economy: a new video series that spotlights progressive economics and political ideas that push for a just and equal society.
Through interviews with Canada’s leading progressive economic thinkers, we lay out alternative approaches to orthodox economic thinking that have lent today’s inequalities and injustices. From broadly envisioned industrial strategy in the fight against climate change to episodic economic phenomena like sellers’ inflation felt by all during the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Progressive Political Economy series brings forward debates and inquiry on today’s major issues while being grounded in working-class, social democratic values. Valuing people over profits, decommodification, and a political economy that works for the 99%, the ideas shared in this Progressive Political Economy series are a much needed counterweight to Canada’s business-backed economic discourse.
