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What is the Labour News Network?

For almost 25 years, LabourStart has served as the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement. Our news comes from articles posted on other websites — trade union sites, independent media, even mainstream news. We act as a “news aggregator” — a place where workers can see news about their struggles and their unions, gathered from all over the net.

But we know that some unions don’t have websites or don’t use them very well — and many of them share their news across social media or by email.

Labour News Network has been established to serve their needs — to offer a place where workers and their unions can post news.

News that’s posted here can later be posted as links to the main LabourStart home page.

If you’d like to post news here, drop us a line — we’re still building this site, and we welcome your interest and support.

LabourStart Segment Script for RadioLabour Episode of 16-01-2026

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:  https://rabble.ca/podcast/countries-adopt-15-corporate-income-tax-plan/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included coverage of CWA Canada’s response to Ubisoft’s announcement that it is shutting down its Halifax operation.  The news comes as the union was moving to start bargaining a first collective agreement after a successful organizing drive late last year.  And after the company reportedly managed to absorb almost a billion dollars in subsidies and incentives from the federal and Nova Scotia governments.

Other stories included some labour relations predictions from Press Progress for 2026 and an in-depth look at the short and long-term effects of asbestos on a BC mining town.  As well, I think I detect a certain level of anxiety in statements from unions, including the CLC, about the upcoming CUSMA trade talks.  Not just in the content of them but in the timing.  You’d almost think that they are expecting a rough ride this time around.

But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, is from CUPE which this week announced that 30 long-term care homes in Nova Scotia have held positive strike votes and bargaining heats up.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from Greenland where the head of SIK (sorry, I won’t even attempt the union’s full name) held a news conference to forcefully make the point that Greenland and Greenland’s workers are not for sale and not in favour of annexation by the Trump regime.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included coverage of efforts being made by several local unions to ensure the safety of their members who work in or have to walk through downtown Winnipeg.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was news of a building trade effort to harmonize safety standards for all the trades, how and why Calgary transit workers found themselves on the receiving end of so much violence while at work, and calls from hospital workers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba for and end to the workplace violence their members face on an almost daily basis.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Indonesia, where unions organized nationwide protests in the last two weeks of December 2025 against a newly introduced government regulation on wages.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 2007 the 21,000 members of ACTRA, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, broke new ground for cultural workers with the first strike in their 64-year history.

And of course it was this week in 1889 that innkeeper Joe Beef of Montréal dies, a legendary friend to the outcast poor and working class of that city. More than 50 unions marched in his funeral procession.

There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages.  Look for them and be inspired.

Speaking of inspiration, we are currently campaigning on behalf of trade unionists facing repression in Guatemala, Serbia, Lesotho and in the Netherlands.

If you can take just a few seconds out of your busy day you can add your voice to the thousands of trade unionists around the world who have already sent messages of solidarity and protest.

All our campaigns have been requested by the affected unions, so you know they’re legit and you know that the union thinks our campaigns have an effect or they wouldn’t request them.

So, if you haven’t already, do it; join one or all these campaigns.  Just follow the links on our main page.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

LabourStart in Numbers as of 1 January 2026

What follows is a brief summary of highlights followed by the usual long list of numbers.

SUMMARY:

XTwitter feeds continue to decline.  Most or all of that can be attributed to our followers abandoning the platform for Bluesky, where our numbers continue to rise despite no concerted effort being made to grow the accounts.

News stories posted per day dropped last month.  This is an annual event as many unions in the global north reduce services and activities during the traditional Christmas-New Year’s holiday period.

The recent surge in campaign requests accounts for the increases in our mailing lists.

Our other numbers remain fairly stable.

THE NUMBERS:

The first number next to each item is the current total as of today; the second number is the total as of the last report. Where one number is provided it means that there has been no change since our last report.

Lists or accounts that have shrunk are in italics.  Lists or accounts which experienced growth are in bold.

STORIES POSTED TO OUR NEWS SITE IN THE LAST MONTH:

3224-3520 (117 per day).

Annual: 38098 was the total for 2025.

MAILING LISTS:

The top 10:

English: 87036-86401

French: 7187-7170

Spanish: 5651-5579

German: 5575

Turkish: 4685-4508

Korean: 3197

Italian: 2845-2835

Russian: 2682

Norwegian: 2036-2025

Romanian:  1730

Dutch: 1587-1437

The others:

Arabic:  768

Azerbaijani:  56

Belarusian:  299

Bulgarian: 17

Chinese: 971-970

Creole:  11

Czech: 58

Danish: 79

Esperanto: 191-189

Farsi:  164

Finnish:  439

Georgian:  181-176

Greek: 54

Hebrew:  262-261

Hindi:  80

Hungarian:  174

Indonesian:  385

Japanese: 388

Lithuanian:  62

Malaysian: 20

Polish: 964

Portuguese: 1276

Punjabi:  2

Serbian:  97

Sinhalese: 1

Slovak: 15

Swedish: 909

Tagalog: 183

Thai:  142

Ukrainian: 493

Vietnamese:  21

Internal:

Executive:  12

Interns and Past Interns:  16

LabourStart ACTIVE Correspondents: 628

LabourStart INACTIVE Correspondents:  853

LabourStart Translators:  109

Africa Caucus:  63

Media Contacts: 69

Donors:  961

BLUESKY:

No efforts were made to increase the number of followers for either account.

Global:  17557-17307

Canada English-language:  456-438

FLICKR:

Members:  837

Photos:  10395-10403

TELEGRAM:

LabourStart channel:  131

FACEBOOK PAGES/GROUPS:

No concerted effort was made in the past month to increase our numbers. 

LabourStart.org page likes:  14k, details unavailable

Global Labour News and Information: 9220-9175

LabourStart UK likes:  2k-2.1k, details unavailable

LabourStart Francophone: 620 (last post February 2021)

LabourStart-de: 489

LabourStart Brasil:  552

LabourStart Turkce:  2k, details unavailable

LabourStart TV followers: 456-461

LabourStart Vostok:  119

LabourStart Italia:  68

LabourStart Esperanto:  18

LabourStart Canada-English: 229-217

LabourStart Nepal:  7 (last post April 2017)

LabourStart Israel: CLOSED (last post 2018)

LINKEDIN:

No concerted effort was made in the past month to increase our numbers.

Group: 2636-2645

Page: 503-490

PODCASTS:

LabourStart is a member of the US-based Labor Radio / Podcast Network.

Rather than list each podcast and the numbers of times they have been downloaded we will report the three (3) podcasts that have been downloaded the most times to date.

  1. 664downloads:  Interview with Mark Hancock, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees re. the union’s recently-adopted “Montreal Declaration” which was drafted in response to US President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada.
  2. 504 downloads:  Interview with Paul Finch, President of the British Columbia General Employees Union (BCGEU).
  3. 475 downloads:  USA: Interview with Shawna Bader-Blau from the Solidarity Center

X (TWITTER as-was):

No concerted effort was made in the past month to increase our numbers for these accounts.  If we wish to maintain our footprint we will have to start doing so again or the erosion of our numbers will continue.  Whether that is possible is another question given the current flight of users from the platform.

We experienced decline in all accounts except the Australian, which grew slightly.  Prior to the exodus to Bluesky all would have usually experienced slow growth without any effort on our part.  This is almost certainly the result of trade unionists closing their Twitter accounts and moving to other platforms (such as Bluesky or Mastodon).

Global English: 35546-35851

Canada English: 20327-20479

Global Portuguese: 9698-9757

Global Spanish: 10109-10214

Australia: 9207-9297

USA: 4565-4584

Canada French: 3051-3058

Russian: 50

Hebrew:  50 (last tweet 02-2021)

Italian: 472 (last tweet 11-2021)

Swedish: 329 (last tweet 2016)

Indonesia: 341 (last tweet 2015)

French: 205 (last tweet 2018)

German: 120 (last tweet 2018)

Japanese: 21 (last tweet 2012)

Dutch: 12 (last tweet April 2012)

Arabic: 7 (last tweet May 2012)

South Asia (English): 28 Placeholder and not yet active.

In 2026, LabourStart will be there, every day, fighting for workers and their unions.

Will you support us?

2026 is going to be a challenging year for the world’s trade unions. Right-wing, anti-union governments are becoming more common. The world grows increasingly unstable. Workers need powerful unions now more than ever.

LabourStart is there, every day of the year, doing what we can to support working people and their unions.

Please click here to donate.

In 2025, we ran fifteen campaigns in support of workers and their unions in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Guatemala, Lesotho, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Türkiye, and the USA. Many of those campaigns were run in partnership with global and European labour federations, including the Education International, ETF, IndustriALL, PSI and UNI Global Union, as well as local unions.

In addition, our network of hundreds of volunteer correspondents posted over 38,000 news stories in 2025, in dozens of languages. LabourStart remains the best place online to find out news about workers and their unions.

Our podcast series continues to grow its base of regular listeners and this year featured a number of trade union leaders and activists from around the world — including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Canada, Lesotho, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbia, Turkey, and the USA.

In 2026, we’ll be growing our network of volunteer correspondents and translators, preparing for a LabourStart Global Solidarity Conference in 2027, doing many more podcasts and campaigns — basically doing whatever we can to help.

To continue this work, we rely on the ongoing support we’ve received from you.

Please click here to donate.

These are difficult times for working people as we face rising costs. I wish we didn’t have to ask, but we do. LabourStart urgently needs your donations to ensure that our work continues uninterrupted, especially during the coming weeks and months.

We hope that we can continue to count on your support.

Thank you!

Eric Lee

LabourStart

Official Statement from the Bolivarian National Union of Postal Workers of Venezuela (SINBTRAPOSTAL-Venezuela)

To all the Peoples and Governments of the World, we inform you that our beloved homeland, Venezuela, has been attacked by air by the North American Empire, between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m., in the capital city of Caracas, as well as the state of La Guaira and part of Miranda, flagrantly violating the Charter of the United Nations, especially Articles 1 and 2, which enshrine respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of states, and the prohibition of the use of force.

This aggression threatens international peace and stability in Latin America and the Caribbean and seriously endangers the lives of millions of people. We earnestly request that all organizations worldwide—political, social, labor, governmental, and the general public—publicly and categorically reject the military aggression we suffered in the early hours of today, January 3, 2026, at the hands of the United States.

We remain steadfast in our struggle; we will not rest until we overcome this abhorrent threat of foreign invasion. The people of Bolívar and Chávez remain steadfast in their struggle; we will not surrender or give in. This attack only confirms what we have been denouncing to the world: this is not a fight against drug trafficking or terrorism; it is the most pestilent greed of a decadent empire desperately seeking to maintain its dying hegemony, its fangs drooling as it tries to deliver the final blow by seizing our strategic natural and energy resources, which we will defend with our very lives if necessary. At this hour (11:30 am) on January 3, 2026, our homeland is calm; however, we are organizing and preparing to face any event of this nature that may occur in the coming hours, days, weeks, etc.

We expect your solidarity, mobilization, and international support so that, with renewed determination, we can continue fighting the most genocidal empire in the history of humankind. Remember, today it is us, tomorrow it could be any other nation on the planet. In light of the foregoing, we categorically and unequivocally reiterate our support for the Revolutionary Socialist Government, led by the Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Worker Commander, Nicolás Maduro Moros. UNITED WE WILL WIN. ONWARD TO VICTORY, ALWAYS.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BOLIVARIAN NATIONAL UNION OF POSTAL WORKERS OF VENEZUELA (SINBTRAPOSTAL-VENEZUELA)

LabourStart Segment Script for RadioLabour Episode of 19-12-2025

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at: https://rabble.ca/podcast/the-ai-financial-bubble-will-burst-and-cause-a-great-recession/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a new report from UFCW on the struggles of migrant agricultural workers, a joint Steelworkers/CLC statement re. the systemic and abject failure of the federal government’s corporate social responsible watchdog to deal with Canadian Tire’s use of suppliers in Bangladesh who, among other things, pay workers there less than the living wage.

Other stories included Press Progresses reminder that 2025 was an interesting, to say the least, year on the labour rights front.  Posties and flight attendants may have been out front and making the headlines, but 2025 also saw direct attacks on workers and their right to strike in Alberta and Quebec.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from Argentina where on the 18th workers against struck for a day against the so-called reforms of the country’s labour laws.  Coming from a self-described ‘anarcho-capitalist’, those ‘reforms’ are what you might expect.

Rather than point you to a few stories on our health and safety page, given that the holiday season is upon us, I thought a rant was in order.

It may not seem so at times but Amazon isn’t the only way to shop.  The Christmas shopping season has started and retail workers are preparing to face a tsunami of abuse and even violence.

A quick survey of LabourStart’s health and safety news page tells the tale.  Unions representing shop workers in dozens of countries where Christmas is celebrated are campaigning to protect workers from over-stressed shoppers.

Some, like UFCW and Unifor here in Canada and the USDAW in the UK, where 70% of retail workers report abuse or violence, and where reports of physical attacks have been skyrocketing, are campaigning to raise public awareness of the issue and to remind consumers that shop staff don’t set prices and aren’t responsible for maintaining stocks of popular gifts.

Projections based on historical data predict that as consumers, most of them workers themselves, experience increased stress in their own workplaces, attacks on retail workers will increase.

If you’re out shopping this Christmas, remember that the worker helping you find that special toy or cashing you out when you buy increasingly expensive groceries is no more responsible for how their employer runs its business than you are for your employer’s decisions.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from the National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh.  It’s a shot of one of the union’s members, a victim of a massive fire in a slum where thousands of the union’s members live.  That fire destroyed 1500 homes.  The photo shows a garment worker with the relief package that the union has been able to pull together and distribute to otherwise destitute and homeless members.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In1995 workers in London, Ontario mounted the first of a series of Days of Action held across the province in response to attacks on labour and social programs initiated by the Progressive Conservative government.

In 1965 a small group of women workers at Tilco Plastics in Peterborough, Ontario, went on strike for a union contract, only to face strikebreakers and court injunctions against picketing. The strike is lost but leads to the abolition of ex parte injunctions.

And in 1945 the historic 99-day strike at Ford in Windsor, Ontario ends with an agreement to have Supreme Court Justice Ivan C. Rand arbitrate a new collective agreement. His decision leads to adoption of the Rand Formula for union security.

And that’s it for 2025.

A happy new year and a merry and kind holiday season to all who celebrate at this time of year from everyone at LabourStart.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

LabourStart Segment Script for RadioLabour Episode of 12-12-2025

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a push from CUPE to build support for bill C-247 which would eliminate the vile s. 107 of the Canada Labour Code, and a nice analytical piece from The Tyee demonstrating the knock-on effects of the recent, very strategic BCGEU strike and predicting that we’ll see more of the same from BC nurses and teachers in the not-too-distant future.

Other stories included statements and actions in support of striking USian Starbucks workers from several unions here in Canada, coverage of a StatsCan report detailing the wage gap for trans and non-binary workers, and, the kind of story you’d think we wouldn’t being, a report from CUPE of a town employee and local union president in Newfoundland and Labrador who had been sacked because he had the temerity to exercise his right to participate in a local election.

But my favourite item, really many items but forming an obvious pattern, among our Canadian stories, was from Nova Scotia, where CUPE members at home after home after long-term care home are returning wildly positive strike votes as healthcare unions in the province gear up for a tough round of bargaining.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from Portugal where on the 11th the two trade union centres joined together to mount a hugely successful general strike against a smorgasbord of austerity policies affecting all but Portugal’s rich.  Choosing this story to mention was a tough call because as I write this, a similar national general strike is underway in Italy.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included an angering report from the Centre for Migrant Worker Rights Nova Scotia on the ways in which the labour rights of migrant women workers are trashed in Novas Scotia.  Most of the women surveyed were working in the province’s agriculture and seafood industries.  Interestingly but not surprisingly, the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal just reached similar conclusions and we are carrying a CBC story with all the vile details.

And, making the painful point that co-workers can be hazards in the workplace, Shannon Welbourn had a piece in The Conversation on gender-based violence in the building trades that one of our volunteers picked up.

Last but not least, we carried a large number of statements from unions large and small on and about the 6th of December.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was a piece from CUPE on the UCP government’s failure to protect care workers in Alberta, even in the aftermath of a worker’s death.

But the biggie on the safety front were appeals from unions representing retail workers aimed at consumers, that’s you and me, asking us to not go from trade unionist to workplace hazard when shopping for gifts in the run-up to Christmas.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Bangladesh where last week 1500 garment workers were made homeless when the Korail ‘slum’ in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, was devastated by a fire. Their union, the National Garment Workers Federation, is raising money to provide for their immediate needs and to assist in rebuilding.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 1921 J. S. Woodsworth, a Methodist minister arrested during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, was elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre. Re-elected five times, he is a founder, in 1932, of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

In 1970 The Royal Commission on the Status of Women released its report. Many of the 167 recommendations relate to the status of women in the workplace, including pay equity and access to childcare, education and training.

Not all inspiring history has to come to us from the distant past.  In 2023 A seven-day general strike began in Québec, led by a common front among union federations and involving more than 500,000 workers. With broad public support, the mobilization won strong wage increases and other gains.

There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages.  Look for them and charge your batteries.

Or listen to our latest podcasts.  One’s an interview from the USA on the complicated labour market governing the lives of women migrant workers there.  The other is the first of our 60-second quickie pods and it focuses on Lee Cheuk-yan, the jailed leader of the Hong Kong Trade Union Confederation, whose trial starts next month.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

LabourStart Segment Script for RadioLabour Episode of 05-12-2025

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:  https://rabble.ca/podcast/steelworkers-endorse-rob-ashton-for-ndp-leader/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a whole lot of scary news from Quebec.  There the CAQ government is attacking the labour movement in two ways, with two pieces of legislation.

First, a new law gives the Minister of Labour the power to end a strike or to force a partial return to work without special legislation.

Second, Bill 3 splits union dues into two categories: ‘principle’ and ‘optional’.  Unions will need to account for how each penny is spent and workers will have the options of paying or not paying to support those activities that the government, not the workers through their union but the government, decides are optional.

Leaving aside the inescapable conclusion that this move is straight from the US ‘right to work’ playbook, the accounting nightmare alone will cause problems.

And those are just the two biggies.  There’s lots more.  Our current Canadian top story is an excellent explainer from Press Progress.  Look for it.  Bad ideas travel fast, even if you don’t live in Quebec you need to know what’s headed your way.

Other stories included the Steelworkers’ endorsement of Rob Ashton for federal NDP leader.  Ashton is a dockworker and a union member for over 30 years, the National President of the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) Canada.  The Steel announcement cites Ashton’s plans for decent work as a ley plank in his platform.

But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was the really excellent news that the Operating Engineers is the new home for hundreds of Alberta workers who left CLAC, the Christian Labour Association of Canada.  Some of the coverage makes the claim that this is the largest single ding the Clackers have ever taken.  If true let’s hope it’s not so for much longer.

This week’s international story of interest is from Hong Kong.  What wasn’t noted in most of the coverage of the horrific apartment buildings fire there last week was the fact that many of the dead were domestic workers, all of them women, and that the surviving workers are now unemployed and at risk of deportation.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included a stunning report from the Social Planning Council of Toronto on the extent to which migrant women workers subsidize homecare in Ontario.

Or at least that’s how the report describes it.  My take would be that these women are the target of a huge wage theft operation run by for-profit homecare contractors with the encouragement of the Ontario Ministry of Health.

Another was about some good news from BC where the HEU-CUPE has reached a spectacular agreement with BC’s NDP government.  How spectacular you ask?  This spectacular: More than 5,000 unionized workers in eligible long-term care and assisted living facilities will transition to the provincewide Facilities Collective Agreement over the next two years, giving them higher wages and improved benefits.

As with Ontario homecare workers, the affected care staff are overwhelmingly women and a large proportion are migrants.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was PSAC’s take on an arbitration award won by the Sudbury Professional Firefighters Association.  The arbitrator ruled that the death of a Sudbury firefighter qualified as an accidental death under his collective agreement. The award found that the employer violated its obligations by purchasing an Accidental Death & Dismemberment policy that excluded coverage for suicide, despite the well-established recognition that PTSD is an occupational illness for firefighters.

The Alliance is right, this is a biggie and deserves to be tabled at every joint health and safety committee table everywhere.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from India where on 27 November the country’s trade unions staged nationwide protests after the government of India unilaterally implemented four labour new codes without any consultation with workers’ organizations. The new codes have been condemned by unions and their allies as anti-worker.

And we released a new episode in our podcast series last week.  In it we interview Pawel Rudzki.  Pawel has not worked for the Albert Heijn supermarket chain for some two months now. An exemplary worker, never late, with a spotless record, he was bullied and lied about, given warnings he could not reply to — and then summarily sacked. His union, the FNV, together with UNI Global Union, has been campaigning for his reinstatement claimning that he was sacked for his success in organizing migrant workers and not for any performance problems.  Pawel is the subject of a major campaign on LabourStart – click here to learn more and show your support.  In this interview, Pawel tells his story in his own words — and ends with a message about the importance of solidarity.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and so it’s crazy that this week we marked the anniversaries of absolutely no events in the movement’s history.  Get in touch if you know of a past event that we can add to our database.

Finally, a bit of a shout-out to Luc Boissonneault, president of CUPE 1638.  At a meeting with the Quebec Minister of Labour over the provincial government’s attack on the labour movement he very publicly invited the Minister to attend a local union membership meeting to see what real democracy looks like.

This after the Minister admitted to not knowing that many of “democratic reforms” being imposed on unions were already in place.

Here’s hoping we get to carry the video of the meeting sometime soon.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

LabourStart Segment Script for RadioLabour Episode of 28-11-2025

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included the release of Unifor’s guide to supporting migrant worker members, more developments in the debate regarding Quebec’s Bill 3, proposed legislation that would segment union dues into ‘mandatory’ and ‘optional’ portions, and a piece from Briarpatch on the history of organizing at the Canada Goose factories in Winnipeg.

Other stories included signs that a crab prices dispute is coming in Newfoundland and Labrador, and lots of speculation about the content of CUPW-Canada Post tentative agreement and what the unconventional end to the strike means.

But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was from CWA Canada which marked the 15th anniversary of The Story Board, a blog site the union has been hosting for freelancers since 2010.  The Story Board is a great example of an organizing and service tool for precarious workers.  Take a gander at it when you have a moment even if you’re not a freelance journo.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from Amnesty International, which just released a detailed and damning report on the extent to which the global garment supply chain depends on South Asian women garment workers remaining non-union. 

Read it and weep.  It’ll make you a winter nudist.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included just a smattering of union statements marking the International Day for the Elimination of Gender Violence.

If you just quickly scanned our health and safety page or if your union’s website carries our safety newswire this week what would have jumped out at you is the number of stories from public transit unions.  In four provinces three unions representing bus operators are raising alarms about a wave of health and safety concerns ranging from verbal abuse to assaults with weapons.

Take a step back and you’ll see that the problem is global.

On a somewhat cheerier note, LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Switzerland where on 18 November 25,000 workers marched through Lausanne as Swiss unions organized protests and short strikes across the country to demonstrate their opposition to government austerity policies.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In November of 2000 workers at a McDonald’s restaurant in Montreal gained union recognition.

And in 1921 a Maternity Protection Act, introduced by a labour member, was enacted in British Columbia. It allowed women to apply for six weeks’ unpaid leave before giving birth. It also prohibits the employment of mothers for six weeks after.

Speaking of inspiration, we are currently campaigning on behalf of trade union activists facing down hostile governments and employers in Guatemala, Serbia, Lesotho, the Netherlands, Türkiye, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

These are all people being persecuted, even facing imprisonment or worse, for doing what you and I do every day.  So take a minute and show your solidarity by sending the requested message.

Finally, a bit of a shout-out to all the folks in Alberta who have been organizing recall petitions as a response to the provincial government’s use of the Notwithstanding Clause to end the ATA strike this fall.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

LabourStart Segment Script for RadioLabour Episode of 21-11-2025

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included coverage of the hearings at the Quebec labour tribunal where Amazon is facing charges of union-busting stemming from its decision to close its warehouse operations in that province after workers at one location organized.

The case reminds me of similar charges for similar reasons after workers at a Walmart store in Quebec organized some years ago.

Major testimony so far has come from the company president.

The workers union, the CSN, is pouring resources into the hearings, good on it.  Watch for updates as we’ll be posting everything we see.  Hearing dates run into next summer.

Other stories included a Manitoba Labour Board decision that found a construction company illegally fired a worker who preferred the Carpenters Union over the Christian Labour Association of Canada or CLAC, as any reasonable worker would.  Looking over the coverage of the decision it looks to me as though the company was doing what it could to maintain a cosy relationship with CLAC rather than have an aggressive union elbow it aside.

This week’s global story is from the US where Labour Notes is calling for more support from US workers and their unions for organizing efforts in Mexico.  It makes the obvious but also too often ignored point that international solidarity has concrete benefits for all and isn’t charity.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included a summary of a  new survey from the Ontario Building and Construction Tradeswomen (OBCT) which shows that while more women are choosing careers in the skilled trades, many continue to face systemic barriers that affect recruitment and retention in the sector.   The story contains a link to the full report.

Another was from rabble and lays out the potential harm women workers in the federal public service will experience as layoffs hit just as the positive results of a decades-long push for pay equity for federal government workers is going to kick-in.

And we had a story about an innovative anti-gender violence programme, a collaboration between the White Ribbon Campaign, the Steelworkers, and the CFL Players Association.

The CFLPA is in the habit of coming up with some really interesting programmes.  A union worth keeping an eye on.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was yet another call for an effective response to workplace violence in schools.  This time it came from CUPE and was specific to Ontario, but it could have been any other union in any province or territory.  Or just about any other country, as you’ll see if you give out health and safety news page a quick scan.  Australia for instance.  Or Kenya.  Violence aimed at public-facing workers is a global epidemic.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is of protesters from five major unions marching outside the Malaysian Parliament, urging the government to take decisive action against employers accused of engaging in widespread union-busting.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 1925 three thousand workers at shoe factories in Quebec City went on strike when the employers announce reduced rates of pay. When the workers agreed to submit the dispute to arbitration, they won a favourable result, but the employers refused to accept the decision.

And in 1929 at Onion Lake, in Northern Ontario, two Finnish-Canadian lumber camp union organizers were seen for the last time. When the bodies of Viljo Rosvall and Janne Voutilainen were found under the ice in the spring of 1930, they were buried as martyrs to the labour cause.

A quick personal note: a few years ago I was in Thunder Bay and an old CUPE comrade took me around town for an informal labour history tour that included not only the Finnish Labour Temple, and, of course, the Hoito, but the monument in a local cemetery, paid-for by Labour Council, in memory of Viljo and Janne.

There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages.  Look for them and be inspired.

Speaking of inspiration, in this week’s podcast Eric Lee spoke with Amalie Hilde Tofte from the trade union Styrke in Norway.  They’re the sponsors of the annual Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade Union Rights, what’s often referred-to as the Nobel Prize of the global labour movement.  Amalie talks about the background to the prize, some of the winners in recent years, and how one applies. We even learned who Arthur Svensson was.

LabourStart is currently campaigning on behalf of a Guatemalan union leader, garment workers in Lesotho,  Serbian air traffic controllers, and a Dutch migrant workers union organizer.  In each case a union is asking that we all send a prepared solidarity message, something that will only take a few seconds out of your busy day.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

LabourStart Segment Script for RadioLabour Episode of 14-11-2025

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:  https://rabble.ca/podcast/heather-mcphersons-fight-against-company-unions/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a reaction to the latest Statistics Canada update to its ongoing “Quality of Employment in Canada” publication.

No surprise, there’s a direct relationship between income and other forms of inequity and sectoral unionization rates.  Or, to put it simply:  more union, more equality.

Other stories included UFCW’s take on an IUF, that’s the global union for food and hospitality workers, conference that aims to provide decent work for foodworkers in Canada, and a interesting piece from Briarpatch on a subject not much studied: building local unions in rural communities. 

You’ll also see a series of articles from a variety of sources about the Montreal transit strikes and how the new and very, very scary Quebec legislation limiting the right to strike played and continues to play a role in the CUPE and CSN bargaining strategies. On their own none of the stories qualified as a top story so to follow the thread click on ‘Quebec’ and read forwards on the provincial page on our site. You can toggle between official languages or just clicking on ‘all languages’ to get the whole sordid story.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from South Korea and at first glance seems a little wacky.  It’s about the organizing drive mounted by K-pop idols, which this old Canadian takes to mean stars. 

In the organizing committee’s own words, the idols are organizing because they “suffer from industrial accidents, death from overwork, and mental illnesses while undergoing long-term training, filming, and overseas activities. However, they are excluded from industrial accident compensation insurance, the four major social insurances, and the Workplace Harassment Prevention Act because they are not recognized as workers.”

Works for me.  All the best to them.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included a piece on USW’s five-day Women of Steel: Developing Leadership course that ran in Ontario last week and more on the NSFL’s election of two women, one of them Black, to lead the fed as President and Secretary-Treasurer.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was the BC government’s decision, after years of pressure from unions, to limit the ability of employers to demand sick notes, what effect a lack of universal sick leave will have on us, again, this year as flu season approaches, and Unifor’s fight to have charges laid after a picket line assault.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Madagascar where the,  Firaisan’ny Sendikan’ny Mpiasa eto Madagasikara (FI.SE.MA.) was central to the protests that swept that country in October, leading to the departure of the country’s President.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 1983, in British Columbia, three months of protests to defend union rights and social services reached a critical turning point as teachers prepared to join a massive mobilization led by Operation Solidarity and the Solidarity Coalition.

Either this is a slow week in Canadian labour history or we’re missing some important events.  Know of a labour history item we should include?  Send it along.

It’s been a busy week for our campaigns volunteers.  We’ve two new ones for you.

Dutch union FNV asked us to generate some global solidarity for one of its activists who has played a critical role in organizing migrant supermarket workers and who has been targeted for harassment by his employer.  This is a big deal as clearly the company is aiming to make an example of him and frighten all migrant workers away from organizing.

The other new campaign results from a request from the Public Services International, the global union for public sector workers.  PSI affiliates in Canada include CUPE, PSAC and NUPGE.

Their campaign, on behalf of Lesbia Xiomara Conde Pacheco, General Secretary of the National Union of Legislative Workers (STOL) in Guatemala, aims to pressure the Guatemalan Congress to reverse its decision to not recognize her recent election to the top position in her union, apparently because they think her too militant.

Must be nice to be a government and have the power to decide who you want to deal with as an employer, eh?

Takes just a few seconds to send the requested solidarity messages.  And, really, how many of us have something more important to do with that time?  Hell, take your phone with you to the washroom if that’s what it takes.

Finally, a bit of a shout-out to

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.