Month: November 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 15^th 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.

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.

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.