The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at: https://rabble.ca/podcast/clc-sets-a-workers-agenda-for-canada/
This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included what’s becoming a weekly announcement: Two more CUPE locals in Nova Scotia’s LTC system have joined the expanding provincial strike. Over thirty care homes are now behind pickets.
Other stories that caught my eye were the national protests organized by SEIU to draw attention to a cleaning company’s enthusiasm for creating toxic workplaces.
And while there will be questions about whether it goes far enough and the extent to which all affiliates will participate with enthusiasm, the CLC convention this week “adopted a sweeping action plan to rebuild democratic participation, strengthen working-class political power and confront authoritarian politics.”
But my favourite item among our Canadian stories this week and a candidate for Favourite Labour Story of 2026, was about the delivery drivers in Saskatoon who cut to the chase and skipped the whole ‘sign cards, get a vote, get a union legally certified and go through a few months of bargaining’ stages of building a union and went straight to the picket line. With reason, given their working conditions and abysmal pay.
As their walkout continues the workers are talking to UFCW about formally organizing, which should be a dawdle.
As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you. This week’s is from Ukraine where the ILO is working with the country’s labour movement to build its capacity despite having to do so in wartime conditions. Both of Ukraine’s central labour bodies, the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU) and the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine (KVPU) are involved. The program is largely funded by the government of Belgium, thanks to lobbying by Belgian unions.
Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included more interviews by the mainstream media by striking Nova Scotia care workers, a collection of first impressions by CUPE members attending the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and the struggles of BC women farmworkers for basics like toilets and lunch rooms, not to mention PPE when pesticides are in use.
That same story popped-up on our health and safety page and newswire along with stories about a Teamster working as a security guard who was shot during a robbery in London Ontario and why retail unions are livid after a shop worker in Winnipeg was assaulted by an irate customer.
LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is a photo of one of the many creative organizing tactics FECUT, the healthcare workers union in Peru has used in its wildly successfully organizing efforts over the last year or two.
This week we did not publish a new podcast..maybe next week. However the series of interviews with trade union activists and leaders from around the globe remains available. Just follow the link on our main page. For better or for worse, almost all of them are as relevant today as they were when recorded.
The labour movement’s history is what inspires our current struggles and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events. This week has historically been a big one for Canadian workers.
In 1992 an underground explosion took the lives of 26 miners in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. A public inquiry into the Westray Disaster blamed politicians, managers and bureaucrats for creating “a predictable path to disaster.”
In1972 leaders of the Québec Common Front went to jail for defying back to work laws during the April general strike. More than 300,000 workers participated in work stoppages and occupations that brought the provincial government back to the bargaining table.
In 1940 Emma Goldman, the veteran feminist, labour and anarchist organizer, dies in Toronto. A memorial service was held at the Labour Lyceum on Spadina Avenue. She was later buried with the Haymarket martyrs in Chicago.
This week in 1946 saw the start of a six-week strike by loggers in British Columbia, the first after the achievement of collective bargaining rights during the war. The strike helps set postwar standards by achieving higher wages, shorter hours, and an industry-wide contract.
In 1872 some 1500 workers in Hamilton, Ontario took to the streets under the banners of the Nine Hours movement, to demonstrate for a reduction in working hours.
And now the biggie: This week in 1919 a general strike in a major city brought thousands of workers out in support of labour rights and social change. Winnipeg came to a standstill in an urban rebellion that exposed the unresolved class conflicts of capitalist democracy in Canada.
There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages.
This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.
Labour News Network 