Five days ahead of a possible strike that would completely paralyze scheduled services on the Capital Transport Network (RTC), the Bus Drivers Union (CSN) regrets that “negotiations are stalled”.

“The employer comes to the table unprepared and is holding back any progress that may be made,” lamented a union source familiar with the matter.

According to her, “Documents were made available to the employer in May to deal with certain issues and the union only received these documents back last week.” It has been almost three weeks since we sent out our strike notice and we seem to be slowing the pace on the part of the employer not to increase.

Upcoming press conferences

Hélène Fortin, leader of the drivers’ union, will hold an impromptu press conference this Monday at 12:30 p.m. to give an update on the talks. The Employers’ Party should react later in the afternoon as the RTC will organize a press conference at 2pm on a completely different topic.

Two weeks ago, the two parties began intensive negotiations under the aegis of a Labor Ministry mediator.

The drivers’ union strike notice covers the period July 1-16, which falls during the Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ). The collective agreement expired on June 30, 2022.

A recent decision by the Administrative Labor Court (TAT) states that no essential bus services will be offered in the event of a strike.

The RTC has not yet said if it will appeal the decision, which has been heavily criticized by Mayor Bruno Marchand.

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This Saturday, a bridge on the Yellowstone River in Montana collapsed when a train carrying hazardous substances ran over it. Two weeks ago, a truck crashed in Philadelphia, collapsing a bridge on I-95, a major artery on the east coast. The United States continues to have a somewhat outdated infrastructure that requires large investments. President Joe Biden has gotten Congress to pass multimillion-dollar investment legislation and has climbed on its back to allocate money for foundation needs across the country. With these investments, he will campaign for re-election in 2024. This Monday he started a new tour called Invest in America from the White House.

However, the new round of investment announcements begins with telecom infrastructure and internet access. According to the White House, more than 8.5 million homes and small businesses live in areas without high-speed Internet access, and millions more struggle with limited or unreliable Internet options. “Just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Act powered almost every home and farm in America, President Biden and Vice President Harris are fulfilling their historic commitment to connect all Americans to reliable and affordable high-speed Internet by the end of the decade,” announced the White House.

The Department of Commerce announced Monday that each state, territory and the District of Columbia will receive a high-speed internet connection under the Broadband Equal Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, a $42,450 million grant program. Internet infrastructure should be provided at the current exchange rate) created in the Infrastructure Act. Biden appeared at the White House this Monday to introduce it.

This is the largest internet funding announcement ever made in the United States, and with it, Biden is beginning a three-week nationwide tour of the President, Vice President and other senior members of his administration to highlight investments, jobs and projects emerging in the current Phase were carried out presidency.

Fund awards award more than $1 billion to 19 states. The top 10 recipients are, in alphabetical order: Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. The goal is for this and other programs to connect all citizens and small businesses to fast, reliable, and affordable internet by 2030.

“Bidenomics”

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Biden is also set to deliver a speech this Wednesday in Chicago, Illinois, to defend his economic leadership that has created millions of jobs and pushed unemployment to its lowest level in half a century. Inflation has been the major driver of the economy over the last two years, but it has fallen to less than half over the last year.

With some Republicans embroiled in the debate over Donald Trump’s allegations, Biden wants to show concrete results. As early as last November’s general election, he appealed to the working-class electorate and presented himself as the most pro-union president in US history, but then gas and food prices eclipsed any economic achievement. With inflation now down to 4%, the lowest level since April 2021, the President wants to bulk up his chest and deliver a speech in Chicago on Wednesday about what the White House has dubbed Bidenomics, the economic policies of his term.

However, the economic prospects are uncertain. Economists are forecasting a recession that has not materialized for more than a year. It is now expected towards the end of this year, when the impact of the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes will be felt more strongly. So far, however, the strength of the labor market has remained intact despite the tightening of monetary conditions.

Economists are pointing to a mild recession, although there are also voices that expect a soft landing for the economy, meaning a slowdown in economic activity that will allow inflation to be controlled without the country slipping into recession. If a recession does occur, Biden is better off seeing it come soon and not overlapping with campaigning for the 2024 presidential election, in which he is seeking re-election.

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A dozen chained workers in India were rescued from “torture” where they were forced to dig a well for 12 hours a day without pay, a state human rights organization said Monday.

This case sheds new light on a long-banned practice of forced labor, dubbed “debt slavery” by human rights activists, which forces debtors to pay back money they borrowed when interest accumulates.

The fate of these 11 workers from Maharashtra (West) reached the ears of state police because one of them managed to escape and guided them to free his comrades on June 17, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said. .

“They were forced to work 12-hour days without pay to dig a well,” the NHRC said, adding that they were chained to prevent them from escaping, fed once a day and forced to take their to relieve themselves where they were. They worked.

Four people were arrested by police, but NHRC says the task goes beyond “a simple rescue by police with the arrest of some of the accused.”

The NHRC considers the case “a gross violation of the 1976 Abolition of Forced Labor.”

Activists, who estimate the number of forced laborers in India at around 10 million, denounce that this abolition is regularly violated without much risk of prosecution.

In this case, according to NHRC, the bosses were used to using workers and then imposing such brutal conditions on them that when they were released after three or four months, they “preferred to flee without asking for their wages to find new ones to escape torture.”