The following open letter was published on January 22, 2018. By John Cartwright On January 17, 2018 the Canadian labour movement was plunged into a crisis with the exit of Unifor from the Canadian Labour Congress and the launching of raids on bargaining units of UNITE HERE Local 75. This open letter is intended as Continue readingAn open letter to our movement
By Nora Loreto On April 9. 2015, Andy Sokhan texted Gordon Graham saying that he thought that the crane that he was operating was dangerous. Graham, a supervisor for the construction company Forma-Con told Sokhan that if it the crane could be dangerous to use, it should be shut down. The crane was being used Continue readingBrampton: The most dangerous place to work in Ontario
By Melissa Graham I’m going to get right to the point here. An increased minimum wage is not harming disabled people. It is however doing a great job at highlighting the ableist and saneist bias that continues to exist within employment in Ontario and social services. When Bill 148 was still being debate, there were Continue readingEmployment, the minimum wage and ableism
By Christo Aivalis On January 1 of this year, the Ontario government instituted a minimum wage increase to fourteen dollars an hour, with a pledge to increase it to fifteen dollars by January 2019. While 60% of Ontarians support the increase, numerous businesses have retaliated against their workers by retracting things like benefits and paid breaks. Continue readingTim Hortons and the need for demand-side economics
“We hadn’t set up a new organization in order to be cannibals in the Canadian labour movement.” — Bob White, first president of the Canadian Auto Workers (now Unifor). By Doug Nesbitt, Gerard Di Trolio, Evan Johnston and David Bush Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, has left the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). Unifor’s website Continue readingUnifor-CLC split demands unity from below
By Lydia Dobson The minimum wage increase across Ontario has sparked a series of reactionary cutbacks from bosses. One of the many ways that employers have managed to download the cost of the minimum wage increase onto the backs of workers is through tip pools. Last week, a public debate took place in Ottawa where Continue readingHands off our tips!
By Kevin Taghabon The second week of Ontario’s minimum wage hike brought with it large pickets against Tim Hortons bosses and owners across the province. Coordinated actions were held province-wide in Cobourg, Dundas, Guelph, London, Peterborough, Ottawa, Windsor, and nine locations in Toronto. The actions were held in response to widespread reports of benefit clawbacks Continue readingThe People vs. Tim Hortons, Round One
On February 1 1968, two Memphis Tennessee sanitation workers were crushed to death in a malfunctioning garbage truck. Anger boiled over and the workforce of 1,300, all black men, went on strike on February 12. Led by shopfloor union organizers, the strike was for improved work conditions, better wages, and union recognition from the City Continue readingAll Labor Has Dignity: King’s Final Fight
The night before his assassination in April 1968, Martin Luther King told a group of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee: “We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through”. King believed the struggle Continue readingWeekend Video: I Have Been to the Mountaintop
By Chris Parsons With the holidays coming to an end, negotiations between the Irving family’s Halifax Shipyard Inc. and its unionized workers are set to resume this month with the help of a mediator. In December, the workers, members of UNIFOR Marine Workers Local One voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike mandate after the Continue readingClass warfare and the Irving Shipyard
By Doug Nesbitt, David Bush and Gerard Di Trolio For the last week Ontario has been ground zero over the struggle for a higher minimum wage. On Wednesday workers struck back against greedy employers and inequality with 17 coordinated protests across the province. The actions were directed at the most high profile offender, Tim Hortons, Continue readingBad boss, no donut: Workers strike back
By Joel Harden The heavy-handed response by some individual business owners to the Ontario government’s legislated minimum wage rise (from $11.60 to $14/hour) should shock the conscience of the community—and that includes the business community. Certain Tim Horton’s franchisees have been in the news recently, reacting to the increase by slashing their contributions to employee Continue readingThe retaliation must stop against low-wage workers