The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at: https://rabble.ca/podcast/unifor-no-to-exporting-jobs-south/
This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included, of course, lots regarding the state of post office bargaining and the start of a residential construction walkout in Quebec.
We also carried news of a joint statement coming from teachers union leaders from across the country. The statement highlights two critical issues: teacher retention in the face of increased and increasing workloads and job-related stress, and the continuing spike in workplace violence and harassment targeting teachers that has gone on for so long now that it can’t really be called a spike.
And, of course, we carried a bunch of union statements as they reacted to the Speech From the Throne.
But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It’s a call for profound labour law reform targeting private sector workers and their unions.
As LabourStart is a global organization I should slip in at least one non-Canadian story worth being highlighted for you. This week’s is from Myanmar where a truly global effort by unions inside and outside Myanmar, supported by the global union federations and the ITUC, is being made to evict the military dictatorship and release from prison thousands of trade unionists.
Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was a piece from The Tyee making the argument for workplace temperature limits across BC, and by extension the country, as climate heating continues to exceed predicted values.
Also from BC we had a number of stories about the threats directed at Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff as they gear up to cull an ostrich flock infected with avian flu.
LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Panama where two union leaders have been jailed and another is claiming asylum in the Bolivian embassy in Panama City.
Their crimes? Mobilizing workers to oppose, with huge demonstrations, the privatizing of social security benefits and an agreement with the Trump regime that will see USian troops stationed along the canal.
Despite the repression strikes and demonstrations like the one in the photo continue.
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 1919 coal miners in Drumheller, Alberta went on strike for recognition of the One Big Union after they voted overwhelmingly to leave the United Mine Workers of America.
Also in 1919 thousands of workers in Calgary and Edmonton walked out in solidarity with their Winnipeg counterparts.
And in 1927 The House of Commons approved a limited old age pension plan. To qualify, Canadians had to be 70 years of age, pass a means test and they had to live in a participating province.
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.
This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.
Labour News Network 