The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at: https://rabble.ca/podcast/1-increase-in-health-care-spending-could-raise-billions/
First of all, May Day greetings to you all. Look for coverage of celebrations and demonstrations around the world on, where else, LabourStart.
This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included May Day greetings from CUPE that hopefully will be joined by statements from other unions as the day goes on, updates on the strike by CUPOE members working at long-term care facilities across Nova Scotia, and reactions by unions and the CLC to the federal budget update.
Other stories included the release of the CCPA’s report on the state of the labour market in Nova Scotia (not good), the ratification of a first contract for Uber drivers in Victoria after a vote by UFCW members, and the coming strike vote by members of the BCNU.
But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was Unite-HERE local 40’s demo at the FIFA congress in Vancouver during the run-up to the world Cup. The rally was meant to highlight the growing gap between the billions generated by the global sporting event and the affordability crisis faced by the workers who make these events possible.
As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you. This week’s is from New Zealand where healthcare workers and school staff formed a solidarity chain to mark May Day. The chain ran across Wellington, from a school to a hospital in an effort to draw attention to the workers affected when the new conservative government killed-off the New Zealand Pay Equity Act, depriving hundreds of thousands of women workers, many of them working in care and education jobs, of a chance for pay equal to that of male workers.
Speaking of women workers, over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included a WTF story from Nova Scotia (is it just me or is that province often in the labour news these days, and not in a good way) about retro pay calculations for daycare workers.
On our health and safety page and newswire this week were a pile of stories that used the Day of Mourning to highlight ongoing dangers for workers.
Globally this year’s theme was mental health at work and a highlight for me was a speech by a comrade in Sudbury who spoke at the Day of Mourning event in that Ontario city. Hip-hop musician and miner Mickey O’Brien shared his story of recovering from addiction and mental health struggles during the Day of Mourning ceremony. His opening was “I’m lucky I’m still here”.
LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Istanbul where this week 15 women leaders of KESK, the Turkish public sector union confederation, were finally acquitted of numerous criminal charges dating back 14 years. The charges related to such nefarious activities as organizing conferences for women workers and advocating for gender equality.
This week we published a new podcast, an interview with
Stirling Smith, a trade union educator who has worked in many countries, and especially in South Asia. He is active now in the Greater Manchester Hazards Centre and he spoke with our editor Eric Lee about the International Labour Organisation’s estimate that 70% of the world’s workforce is now vulnerable to extreme heat. Stirling ansewers the questions how is this affecting workers and what can unions do?
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 1921 the Communist Party of Canada is founded at a three-day meeting in a barn in Guelph, Ontario. The party was to achieve its greatest influence in the 1930s and 1940s organizing unemployed workers and industrial unions, and in struggles against war and fascism.
In 1919 coal miners in Drumheller, Alberta went on strike for recognition of the One Big Union after they vote overwhelmingly to leave the United Mine Workers of America.
Also in 1919 thousands of workers in Calgary and Edmonton go on strike in solidarity with their Winnipeg counterparts.
And in 1927 under pressure from unions, feminists and social reformers, the House of Commons approves a limited old age pension plan.
There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages.
And speaking of inspiration, we are currently campaigning on behalf of the recently arrested leadership of the Turkish Shipbuilding and Maritime, Warehousing and Storage Workers’ Union. Demanding secure employment, a decent living and trade union rights, and opposing unpaid wages, workplace murders and precarity is not a crime unless you live and work in a country like Türkiye.
The union is asking us all, and I do mean all, to send protest messages. A message is prepped and waiting for you and in seconds you can join the thousands of workers around the world who are demanding an end to union-busting by the Turkish government.
This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.
Labour News Network 