The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at: https://rabble.ca/podcast/work-overload-is-destroying-the-physical-and-mental-health-of-workers/
This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included the movement’s reaction to the new federal cabinet, Unifor on the news that Honda is at best delaying its EV investments in Ontario, an end to a months-long lockout of the CSN members who work at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, and the good and cheering news that workers at five Starbucks shops in Ontario have ratified first collective agreements after organizing with Steel.
We also carried news of what’s going on in Alberta. There’s a lot, even now, after the CUPE schools strikes. Some of it is historic and much of it will have an impact nationally, so check out our Alberta page. To do that click on Canada on a news item on our main page and then on Alberta wherever it appears. Or on Nova Scotia, or PEI or…you get the idea.
But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was from Ontario where CUPE members in the education sector are calling out the provincial government on systemic understaffing. These are the same folks who faced down the same government in an illegal strike that threatened to engulf the entire province so this should be fun to watch.
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 Palestine. Gaza to be specific. The stories say it all so I won’t even try.
This week’s LabourStart podcast is an interview with Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour. Gil was interviewed by LabourStart’s Co-ordinator in Canada, Pat Bulmer, about the AFL’s Solidarity Pact initiative and what unions are facing in Canada’s most conservative province.
Coming in at about 25 minutes it’s our longest-ever pod and you’ll hear why when you listen to it. Our most popular podcast ever is Pat’s interview with Mark Hancock, National President of CUPE, about the Montreal Declaration, and so we have high expectations of this one.
On our Working Women News page you’ll find stories from around the globe in 9 languages. But not a one from Canada. C’mon, Canadian women workers are doing stuff, we’re just not reading about it. If you have a story send it along and we’ll follow up.
Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week is an account of life as a migrant worker and the discovery of lead in a provincial government building in Alberta.
LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from New Zealand, where a right-wing government has introduced legislation to roll back pay equity rights for women. Unions are calling it a ‘declaration of war on women workers’. Protesters, like the healthcare workers in the photo, were marching in towns across the country all of last week.
The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:
This week in 1872, 1500 workers in Hamilton, Ontario took to the streets under the banner of the Nine Hours movement to demand a reduction in working hours.
In 1940, this week saw Emma Goldman, the veteran feminist, labour and anarchist organizer, die in Toronto. A memorial service was held at the Labour Lyceum on Spadina Avenue. She was later buried with the Haymarket Martyrs in Chicago.
And of course, we and the rest of the labour movement marked the start, this week in 1919, of the general strike called by the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council that brought out 30,000 workers in support of unions in the building and metal trades. The city came to a standstill for six weeks in one of the major labour struggles in Canadian history.
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.
Before I go, a quick shout out to all the AUPE members, that’s the Alberta Union of Public Employees, who work for the government of Alberta. Well done on the strike vote and all our solidarity in what’s coming.
This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.
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