Tag: RadioLabour

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:  https://rabble.ca/podcast/how-labour-in-minnesota-is-protecting-people-from-ice/

Top stories on our Canadian French- and English-language pages this week included the PSAC announcement that 8,000 of its members have now been targeted for layoff.  Other unions in the federal public service like PIPSC, CAPE and others, are reporting proportionate numbers. 

We also carried a statement from the ITUC condemning the anti-union legislation in play and soon to be passed by the CAQ government of Quebec.  That’s a bit odd and worth noting.  Odd not because the iTUC is on side but because what’s happening in Quebec is at least as over the top as anything the UCP have done in Alberta, but because it’s getting more attention outside the country than in.  Which in turn is odd on its own given that bad ideas like an end to the Rand Formula are not going to be turned back by provincial boundaries.

Other stories our volunteers found and posted were less depressing.  We covered the push by the Northern Territories Federation of Labour to end contracting-out of healthcare workers positions and there were a number of organizing victories to report.

And as the deadline for taking out a NDP membership to participate in their federal leadership race passed, we started to see more unions endorse one of the candidates.  Steel has been out there for Ashton for quite a while and this week CUPE Saskatchewan joined it while just a few days later we saw CUPE’s Ontario Division come out for Lewis.

But my favourite story, stories really, came from across the country where nurses and nursing students, following the call from the CFNU, came out to mourn and remember the life of USian ICU nurse Alex Pretti following his extra-judicial execution in Minneapolis

This week’s story from outside the country is from Myanmar.  Or, rather, from outside Myanmar looking in.  Research into the country’s factories producing garments and other goods for global brands since the military coup there has pretty definitively proved that factory owners and the military are working closely to suppress anything resembling worker organizing.  Often violently.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included a call from UFCW to strengthen pay transparency legislation in Ontario and PSAC’s renewed call for the federal government to act on the principles set out by Beth Bilson back in the early 2000s when she headed the federal Pay Equity Task Force.  The Alliance’s pay equity efforts have been continually stymied by successive governments’ commitment to fighting women workers equality demands tooth and nail, to the very last lawyer.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was coverage of Steel’s problems with the safety culture at a copper mine in BC.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Minneapolis where on 23 January unions and the rest of civil society, and I mean civil in both senses of the word, organized a huge protest demanding an end to the occupation of that city by Trump’s militia.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 1988 members of the United Nurses of Alberta defied a ban on strike action and began a province-wide strike against cutbacks in health care. They win their case, and a better contract follows two years later.

Continuing on the healthcare theme, this week in 1981 saw  16,000 Ontario hospital workers, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, take part in an illegal strike. CUPE President Grace Hartman later goes to jail for supporting her members.

In 1872 a public meeting at the Mechanics’ Institute in Hamilton, Ontario adopted resolutions to reduce the normal six-day working week from 60 to 54 hours. When the creation of the Nine Hour League is announced, support grows in a dozen industrial centres, from Sarnia to Montréal.

And this week in 1980 Jean-Claude Parrot, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, began a three-month jail sentence for defying a back-to-work law that ended a legal strike by postal workers in 1978.

If you didn’t understand the reference to Quebec’s attack on union security in the news summary a few minutes ago, it was this week in 1946 that Supreme Court Justice Ivan C. Rand released his report on the Ford strike and imposed the Rand Formula to promote union security.

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.

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:  https://rabble.ca/podcast/countries-adopt-15-corporate-income-tax-plan/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included coverage of CWA Canada’s response to Ubisoft’s announcement that it is shutting down its Halifax operation.  The news comes as the union was moving to start bargaining a first collective agreement after a successful organizing drive late last year.  And after the company reportedly managed to absorb almost a billion dollars in subsidies and incentives from the federal and Nova Scotia governments.

Other stories included some labour relations predictions from Press Progress for 2026 and an in-depth look at the short and long-term effects of asbestos on a BC mining town.  As well, I think I detect a certain level of anxiety in statements from unions, including the CLC, about the upcoming CUSMA trade talks.  Not just in the content of them but in the timing.  You’d almost think that they are expecting a rough ride this time around.

But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, is from CUPE which this week announced that 30 long-term care homes in Nova Scotia have held positive strike votes and bargaining heats up.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from Greenland where the head of SIK (sorry, I won’t even attempt the union’s full name) held a news conference to forcefully make the point that Greenland and Greenland’s workers are not for sale and not in favour of annexation by the Trump regime.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included coverage of efforts being made by several local unions to ensure the safety of their members who work in or have to walk through downtown Winnipeg.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was news of a building trade effort to harmonize safety standards for all the trades, how and why Calgary transit workers found themselves on the receiving end of so much violence while at work, and calls from hospital workers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba for and end to the workplace violence their members face on an almost daily basis.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Indonesia, where unions organized nationwide protests in the last two weeks of December 2025 against a newly introduced government regulation on wages.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 2007 the 21,000 members of ACTRA, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, broke new ground for cultural workers with the first strike in their 64-year history.

And of course it was this week in 1889 that innkeeper Joe Beef of Montréal dies, a legendary friend to the outcast poor and working class of that city. More than 50 unions marched in his funeral procession.

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 trade unionists facing repression in Guatemala, Serbia, Lesotho and in the Netherlands.

If you can take just a few seconds out of your busy day you can add your voice to the thousands of trade unionists around the world who have already sent messages of solidarity and protest.

All our campaigns have been requested by the affected unions, so you know they’re legit and you know that the union thinks our campaigns have an effect or they wouldn’t request them.

So, if you haven’t already, do it; join one or all these campaigns.  Just follow the links on our main page.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at: https://rabble.ca/podcast/the-ai-financial-bubble-will-burst-and-cause-a-great-recession/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a new report from UFCW on the struggles of migrant agricultural workers, a joint Steelworkers/CLC statement re. the systemic and abject failure of the federal government’s corporate social responsible watchdog to deal with Canadian Tire’s use of suppliers in Bangladesh who, among other things, pay workers there less than the living wage.

Other stories included Press Progresses reminder that 2025 was an interesting, to say the least, year on the labour rights front.  Posties and flight attendants may have been out front and making the headlines, but 2025 also saw direct attacks on workers and their right to strike in Alberta and Quebec.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from Argentina where on the 18^th workers against struck for a day against the so-called reforms of the country’s labour laws.  Coming from a self-described ‘anarcho-capitalist’, those ‘reforms’ are what you might expect.

Rather than point you to a few stories on our health and safety page, given that the holiday season is upon us, I thought a rant was in order.

It may not seem so at times but Amazon isn’t the only way to shop.  The Christmas shopping season has started and retail workers are preparing to face a tsunami of abuse and even violence.

A quick survey of LabourStart’s health and safety news page tells the tale.  Unions representing shop workers in dozens of countries where Christmas is celebrated are campaigning to protect workers from over-stressed shoppers.

Some, like UFCW and Unifor here in Canada and the USDAW in the UK, where 70% of retail workers report abuse or violence, and where reports of physical attacks have been skyrocketing, are campaigning to raise public awareness of the issue and to remind consumers that shop staff don’t set prices and aren’t responsible for maintaining stocks of popular gifts.

Projections based on historical data predict that as consumers, most of them workers themselves, experience increased stress in their own workplaces, attacks on retail workers will increase.

If you’re out shopping this Christmas, remember that the worker helping you find that special toy or cashing you out when you buy increasingly expensive groceries is no more responsible for how their employer runs its business than you are for your employer’s decisions.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from the National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh.  It’s a shot of one of the union’s members, a victim of a massive fire in a slum where thousands of the union’s members live.  That fire destroyed 1500 homes.  The photo shows a garment worker with the relief package that the union has been able to pull together and distribute to otherwise destitute and homeless members.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In1995 workers in London, Ontario mounted the first of a series of Days of Action held across the province in response to attacks on labour and social programs initiated by the Progressive Conservative government.

In 1965 a small group of women workers at Tilco Plastics in Peterborough, Ontario, went on strike for a union contract, only to face strikebreakers and court injunctions against picketing. The strike is lost but leads to the abolition of ex parte injunctions.

And in 1945 the historic 99-day strike at Ford in Windsor, Ontario ends with an agreement to have Supreme Court Justice Ivan C. Rand arbitrate a new collective agreement. His decision leads to adoption of the Rand Formula for union security.

And that’s it for 2025.

A happy new year and a merry and kind holiday season to all who celebrate at this time of year from everyone at LabourStart.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a push from CUPE to build support for bill C-247 which would eliminate the vile s. 107 of the Canada Labour Code, and a nice analytical piece from The Tyee demonstrating the knock-on effects of the recent, very strategic BCGEU strike and predicting that we’ll see more of the same from BC nurses and teachers in the not-too-distant future.

Other stories included statements and actions in support of striking USian Starbucks workers from several unions here in Canada, coverage of a StatsCan report detailing the wage gap for trans and non-binary workers, and, the kind of story you’d think we wouldn’t being, a report from CUPE of a town employee and local union president in Newfoundland and Labrador who had been sacked because he had the temerity to exercise his right to participate in a local election.

But my favourite item, really many items but forming an obvious pattern, among our Canadian stories, was from Nova Scotia, where CUPE members at home after home after long-term care home are returning wildly positive strike votes as healthcare unions in the province gear up for a tough round of bargaining.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from Portugal where on the 11^th the two trade union centres joined together to mount a hugely successful general strike against a smorgasbord of austerity policies affecting all but Portugal’s rich.  Choosing this story to mention was a tough call because as I write this, a similar national general strike is underway in Italy.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included an angering report from the Centre for Migrant Worker Rights Nova Scotia on the ways in which the labour rights of migrant women workers are trashed in Novas Scotia.  Most of the women surveyed were working in the province’s agriculture and seafood industries.  Interestingly but not surprisingly, the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal just reached similar conclusions and we are carrying a CBC story with all the vile details.

And, making the painful point that co-workers can be hazards in the workplace, Shannon Welbourn had a piece in The Conversation on gender-based violence in the building trades that one of our volunteers picked up.

Last but not least, we carried a large number of statements from unions large and small on and about the 6^th of December.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was a piece from CUPE on the UCP government’s failure to protect care workers in Alberta, even in the aftermath of a worker’s death.

But the biggie on the safety front were appeals from unions representing retail workers aimed at consumers, that’s you and me, asking us to not go from trade unionist to workplace hazard when shopping for gifts in the run-up to Christmas.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Bangladesh where last week 1500 garment workers were made homeless when the Korail ‘slum’ in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, was devastated by a fire. Their union, the National Garment Workers Federation, is raising money to provide for their immediate needs and to assist in rebuilding.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 1921 J. S. Woodsworth, a Methodist minister arrested during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, was elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre. Re-elected five times, he is a founder, in 1932, of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

In 1970 The Royal Commission on the Status of Women released its report. Many of the 167 recommendations relate to the status of women in the workplace, including pay equity and access to childcare, education and training.

Not all inspiring history has to come to us from the distant past.  In 2023 A seven-day general strike began in Québec, led by a common front among union federations and involving more than 500,000 workers. With broad public support, the mobilization won strong wage increases and other gains.

There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages.  Look for them and charge your batteries.

Or listen to our latest podcasts.  One’s an interview from the USA on the complicated labour market governing the lives of women migrant workers there.  The other is the first of our 60-second quickie pods and it focuses on Lee Cheuk-yan, the jailed leader of the Hong Kong Trade Union Confederation, whose trial starts next month.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:  https://rabble.ca/podcast/steelworkers-endorse-rob-ashton-for-ndp-leader/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a whole lot of scary news from Quebec.  There the CAQ government is attacking the labour movement in two ways, with two pieces of legislation.

First, a new law gives the Minister of Labour the power to end a strike or to force a partial return to work without special legislation.

Second, Bill 3 splits union dues into two categories: ‘principle’ and ‘optional’.  Unions will need to account for how each penny is spent and workers will have the options of paying or not paying to support those activities that the government, not the workers through their union but the government, decides are optional.

Leaving aside the inescapable conclusion that this move is straight from the US ‘right to work’ playbook, the accounting nightmare alone will cause problems.

And those are just the two biggies.  There’s lots more.  Our current Canadian top story is an excellent explainer from Press Progress.  Look for it.  Bad ideas travel fast, even if you don’t live in Quebec you need to know what’s headed your way.

Other stories included the Steelworkers’ endorsement of Rob Ashton for federal NDP leader.  Ashton is a dockworker and a union member for over 30 years, the National President of the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) Canada.  The Steel announcement cites Ashton’s plans for decent work as a ley plank in his platform.

But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was the really excellent news that the Operating Engineers is the new home for hundreds of Alberta workers who left CLAC, the Christian Labour Association of Canada.  Some of the coverage makes the claim that this is the largest single ding the Clackers have ever taken.  If true let’s hope it’s not so for much longer.

This week’s international story of interest is from Hong Kong.  What wasn’t noted in most of the coverage of the horrific apartment buildings fire there last week was the fact that many of the dead were domestic workers, all of them women, and that the surviving workers are now unemployed and at risk of deportation.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included a stunning report from the Social Planning Council of Toronto on the extent to which migrant women workers subsidize homecare in Ontario.

Or at least that’s how the report describes it.  My take would be that these women are the target of a huge wage theft operation run by for-profit homecare contractors with the encouragement of the Ontario Ministry of Health.

Another was about some good news from BC where the HEU-CUPE has reached a spectacular agreement with BC’s NDP government.  How spectacular you ask?  This spectacular: More than 5,000 unionized workers in eligible long-term care and assisted living facilities will transition to the provincewide Facilities Collective Agreement over the next two years, giving them higher wages and improved benefits.

As with Ontario homecare workers, the affected care staff are overwhelmingly women and a large proportion are migrants.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was PSAC’s take on an arbitration award won by the Sudbury Professional Firefighters Association.  The arbitrator ruled that the death of a Sudbury firefighter qualified as an accidental death under his collective agreement. The award found that the employer violated its obligations by purchasing an Accidental Death & Dismemberment policy that excluded coverage for suicide, despite the well-established recognition that PTSD is an occupational illness for firefighters.

The Alliance is right, this is a biggie and deserves to be tabled at every joint health and safety committee table everywhere.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from India where on 27 November the country’s trade unions staged nationwide protests after the government of India unilaterally implemented four labour new codes without any consultation with workers’ organizations. The new codes have been condemned by unions and their allies as anti-worker.

And we released a new episode in our podcast series last week.  In it we interview Pawel Rudzki.  Pawel has not worked for the Albert Heijn supermarket chain for some two months now. An exemplary worker, never late, with a spotless record, he was bullied and lied about, given warnings he could not reply to — and then summarily sacked. His union, the FNV, together with UNI Global Union, has been campaigning for his reinstatement claimning that he was sacked for his success in organizing migrant workers and not for any performance problems.  Pawel is the subject of a major campaign on LabourStart – click here to learn more and show your support.  In this interview, Pawel tells his story in his own words — and ends with a message about the importance of solidarity.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and so it’s crazy that this week we marked the anniversaries of absolutely no events in the movement’s history.  Get in touch if you know of a past event that we can add to our database.

Finally, a bit of a shout-out to Luc Boissonneault, president of CUPE 1638.  At a meeting with the Quebec Minister of Labour over the provincial government’s attack on the labour movement he very publicly invited the Minister to attend a local union membership meeting to see what real democracy looks like.

This after the Minister admitted to not knowing that many of “democratic reforms” being imposed on unions were already in place.

Here’s hoping we get to carry the video of the meeting sometime soon.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

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.

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:  https://rabble.ca/podcast/canadas-nurses-will-say-no/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a piece from CUPE about a bill just passed into law in Quebec that allows for the privatization of the province’s electricity generation and distribution system.  This is an even bigger deal in Quebec than it would be elsewhere as the creation of Hydro Quebec back in the 1960’s was a huge point of pride.  Hydro became cheaper and more reliable and electrification spread to rural areas that had been ignored as unprofitable.  In some ways Hydro Quebec symbolized the Quiet Revolution.

Inevitably we also carried news of union reactions to the new USian tariffs, the Posties’ attempt at resolving their strike using arbitration, and why unions in Ontario are wigging-out over the Tory government’s Bill 5 and Bill 6 and why the rest of the country should be watching carefully.  If the dictatorial powers the Tories have given themselves are sustained by the courts it is hard to imagine the UCP and the Saskatchewan Party not copying them.  At least those two provincial governments.  At least.

But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was also my favourite global top story:  the announcement by the New Brunswick Federation of Labour that delegates to its convention had voted to impose a hot cargo edict on military equipment destined for Israel.

Why it’s my favourite is complicated, but a big part of my reaction is due to the long and proud history the province’s longshoreworkers have for giving effect to the principles of international solidarity.

International Longshoreworkers Association Local 273 in St. John most recently refused to load armoured fighting vehicles destined for Saudi Arabia.  And most famously in 1979 its members designated nuclear equipment and materials being shipped to the military dictatorship in Argentina by the Trudeau government.  Their action had a practical effect on the dictatorship’s plans for civil and military nuclear programmes but it was of huge symbolic value to those fighting for the return of democracy there.

And when they won that struggle the new government of Argentina honoured the local union with its Orden de Mayo, the highest award given by the Argentine government to citizens of another country for courage, honour and solidarity.

So, yeah, it’s a big deal.

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 Saudi Arabia where a coalition of unions from 36 countries is taking on the government of Saudi Arabia over the widespread abuse of migrant workers.

Over on our Women Workers page Canadian stories this week included a piece from Press Progress about the work being by the City in Colour Cooperative in BC to better understand the unsafe and exploitative working conditions many racialized immigrant women face, and how unions can better support them.

The short summary is well worth reading if only because it will make you want to listen to the half hour audio interview.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was the announcement by UFCW Canada that the union is taking on Health Canada over pesticide exposures suffered by farmworkers and more threats against the PSAC members tasked with culling an ostrich flock in BC infected with avian flu.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from India where one of country’s largest unions, the Self-Employed Women’s Association, is confronting police and courts over the abuse suffered by a Dalit domestic worker.

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 1987, in British Columbia, 250,000 workers walked off the job in a one-day general strike against restrictive labour laws introduced by the Social Credit government. The legislation was repealed when the New Democratic Party returned to power in 1992.

In 1986, in Edmonton, meatpacking workers struck against wage and pension rollbacks. One of their slogans was “Gainers makes wieners with scabs”. There were more than 400 arrests before an agreement was reached in December.

And in 1935 hundreds of unemployed men boarded boxcars in Vancouver, beginning the historic On-to-Ottawa Trek to protest conditions in the relief camps run by the Department of National Defence.

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.

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.