Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Labour Day Review From LabourStart Canada



Most years Labour Day marks the end of the vacation season and a return to the slog.  This year is different.  From Canada Post to funeral homes, global furniture retailers to small town governments, employers have been aggressively pressing their agenda all summer long.  Workers who should have been on holiday were walking picket lines instead.

On Friday the rest of us will be heading out to enjoy the long weekend and perhaps a march or a picnic or some other celebration of Labour Day.  Before you go consider lending a hand to people sitting in an Egyptian prison or walking a picket line in St. John’s or Toronto or Richmond.

Just a few seconds of your time can mean a real morale boost for these folks.  All our campaigns are listed along the right side of our Canadian union news page right HERE.  Three are Canadian campaigns, but you can also celebrate Labour Day with some support for unions in Peru, India, Philippines and the USA.  If you join each and every one of our campaigns you will still have lost no more than a minute of your long weekend.

Leaving you with 4319 to enjoy with friends and family. J

On a cheerier note we have two optimistic items for you this Labour Day weekend.  Starting Saturday you can follow the founding convention of Unifor (the result of the CAW-CEPO merger) online at www.newunionconvention.ca.

And if you’re in the mood for new (and free!) takes on union classics you can download a CD’s worth of Labour Day music from UFCW Canada HERE.

Thanks.  Enjoy the long weekend.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Nasty Canadian Employers Are Busy This Summer

A pattern is emerging: employers are agressively looking to not just resist our bargaining demands, they're pushing and pushing hard for major concessions at the table and are prepared to put their employees out on the street for months in order to get them.

The unions representing all these workers are currently asking for solidarity messages from us all.

At the Labatt brewery in St. John's workers have been on strike for months while scabs take their jobs.  They're resisting the concessions InBev, Labatt's new owner, wants to make as it tries to bring the NAPE collective agreement in line with its global standards.  Globalization has come to the Canadian brewing industry.  Go HERE to send a message to Labatt.

CUPE members at the North shore Winter Club in North Vancouver have been locked-out since 3 May, also over their refusal to accept concessions.  Go HERE to send a message.

Calling his employees "animals" the owner of the Plaza Hotel in Toronto has pushed the USW members who work there out on strike over his demands for rollbacks on everything from benefits to the right to union representation.  Send him a message HERE.

Stay tuned for news of the locked-out Teamsters at IKEA in BC..in Ontario the US STeel lockout, the Bonfield strike(after the employer unilaterally changed the terms and conditions of employment)...