The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at: https://rabble.ca/podcast/pension-surplus/
This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a piece on the organizing efforts of the Women of Steel around mental health in and out of the workplace, more evidence that the Alberta Federation of Labour is becoming a key component of the organized opposition to the UCP government in that province, and statements from several unions of Red Dress Day.
We also carried news of the potential impact of a new round of USian tariffs on Canadian films. Who knew that Guy Maddin was a threat to US national security? Cronenberg now, that’s different. His films are a threat to something, that’s for sure. But Maddin, Egoyan and Polley?
And, of course, our volunteers are following the CUPW negotiations and we’ve got more than a few stories about the chances of another post office walkout at the end of May.
As LabourStart is a global organization I should slip in at least one non-Canadian story worth being highlighted for you. This week that story is from the ITUC which marked the defeat of fascism in Europe with a call for resistance to the global coup being effected by billionaires. Authoritarian, business-friendly, to put it mildly, regimes are replacing political democracies.
Kinda makes you wonder whether we should be marking the end of WW2 in Europe as the defeat of fascism or as the start of a truce that just ran out.
Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week were, inevitably it now seems, several stories about workplace violence in healthcare. One is a piece about the increased security coming to hospital emergency rooms in Newfoundland and Labrador as a result of a series of vicious attacks on healthcare workers, another is about the MGEU pushback in Manitoba where paramedics are burning out even faster than usual as a result of what the union calls “unbelievable levels of violence”..
LabourStart’s Photo of the Week isn’t often Canadian but as a Canadian is our photo editor and as that Canadian is me, you all get to hear about our photo of the week in each episode.
This week we carried a shot from Nepal where the Teachers Federation is campaigning to force the government to implement education legislation it committed to over two years ago.
Labour’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:
This week in 1972 Saskatchewan’s NDP government brought in an Occupational Health (and Safety) Act, considered the first of its kind in North America. It included the right to information about workplace hazards, to participate in safety decisions and to refuse unsafe work, all unprecedented in North America.
And also in 1972, leaders of the Québec Common Front went to jail for defying back to work laws during the April general strike. More than 300,000 public sector workers participated in work stoppages and occupations that brought the provincial government back to the bargaining table
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, is your dream job a staff position with a union? On our main page is a link to our jobs listings page where you’ll see openings at unions around the globe. If you’re looking for work with a Canadian union or perhaps one of the global union federations be sure and check it out.
This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.
Labour News Network 