The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at: https://rabble.ca/podcast/fighting-for-childrens-education-in-ontario/
This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included the shocking news that Quebec’s right-wing CAQ government is looking seriously at upending the Rand formula and making dues optional. The plan, it seems, is to offer union members a kind of smorgasbord of services that they can then select from and pay for. Or not.
Workers could, for example, opt to pay for bargaining and representation but not for charitable donations or court challenges.
This is a direct attack on the trade unions of Quebec. And as we know far too well, when it comes to labour legislation, bad ideas travel fast.
Until this week the CAQ’s plan was under wraps, for obvious reasons. Stay tuned for how unions in the rest of Canada react.
Some of our other Canadian top stories are smaller in scale perhaps, but just as concerning. Like one we caught from Ontario that lays out just how easy it is for employers to engage in wage theft and how difficult it is for temporary foreign workers to collect what’s owed them, even with the backing of the Labour Board.
And, of course, we collected lots of news about the Posties return to the picket lines. By lots I mean LOTS.
But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was from BC where ILWU leader Rob Ashton announced that he’d be injecting some working class politics into the federal NDP leadership race.
As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you. This week’s is from the US where unions representing workers in the federal public service, already on the back foot after the Trump regime voided unions rights for almost 4 million workers are struggling to cope with the government shutdown. And, soon, with whatever Plans the White House has for the future of the civil service down there.
If that’s too much bad news for you, take a gander at our top stories from Greece and France where general strikes against neoliberal government policies came off in a big way this week.
Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included a report from the Trades Women Build Nations conference last week and the CLC’s call for increased investment in care services across the country. Services almost always provided by women workers.
Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was one from Newfoundland and Labrador where the Tory candidate for premier in the provincial election had a bad day as a sister from the Marystown Shipyard Alliance grabbed a mic and challenged him in front of a crowd and some TV cameras.
Look for it, it might make your day.
LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Brazil where unions and their allies have organized a popular referendum to pressure the national government to enact progressive tax reforms and other social justice policies.
The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversary of a truly historic event.
On the first day of October in 1741, workers at the Royal Shipyard in Québec organized the first recorded strike in Canadian history. Why this event doesn’t get more attention in what’s left of the labour press in this country escapes me.
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 workers facing down hostile governments and employers in Turkiye, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. In each case the workers, through their unions, are asking us all to take just a few seconds out of our day to send a solidarity message.
So why don’t you?
This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.
Labour News Network 