The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, Sept. 24, edition that union leaders are calling on the Bank of Canada to halt further interest-rate hikes, arguing that the brunt of a potential recession will be borne by Canadian workers whose wages are already lagging behind inflation. The Globe's Mark Rendell and Vanmala Subramaniam write that a group of top labour leaders recently met with BOC Governor Tiff Macklem to make the case for restraint. The BOC has increased interest rates five times since March, and union leaders are concerned that it is not paying enough attention to the damage that further monetary policy tightening could do to employment. Canadian Union of Public Employees national president Mark Hancock says, "It can take a year or more to see the full impact of the bank's actions and that's why we recommended to them a wait-and-see approach." The BOC is expected to raise rates again in October, and financial markets expect the policy rate to hit 4 per cent by the end of the year. The bank's governing council said earlier this month that "the policy interest rate will need to rise further" -- an unequivocal statement that leaves little room to change course in the months ahead.