By David Bush and Gerard Di Trolio This January marks the fifth anniversary of the struggle to save the Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) factory in London, Ontario. Despite public outrage and political controversy, EMD was shut down in February 2012 after its owner, Caterpillar, demanded 450 EMD employees take a 50 per cent pay cut. The Continue readingRustbelt Blues: Electro-Motive closure 5 years later
EMD-London
by Doug Nesbitt The current Ontario election could be an immense turning point for organized labour in the province and across Canada. As union activists know, the Tim Hudak Tories are promising devastating public sector layoffs of 100,000 people, union-wrecking right-to-work legislation, and the privatization of the already unjust Workplace Safety Insurance Board. And his Continue readingOrganizing our way out of Ontario’s political mess
By Doug Nesbitt, November 30, 2013 Reprinted from The Bullet The closure of the Leamington, Ontario Heinz factory by mid-2014 will result in 740 job losses in the industrial and agricultural region of southwestern Ontario between London and Windsor, Ontario. Over thirty tomato farms are losing contracts with Heinz which will also put 350 migrant worker Continue readingHeinz Leamington: Ripe for a Cooperative
By Samantha Ponting Nora Loreto’s newly published book, From Demonized to Organized: Building the New Union Movement, should be added to the toolkit of any educator interested in collective consciousness raising in the 21st century. The book’s last few chapters serve as valuable reading material for Canada’s current union leadership, who need to come to Continue readingA Review of Nora Loreto’s From Demonized to Organized: Building the New Union Movement
Nearly a thousand men and women represented by United Steelworkers Local 8782 employed at US Steel Lake Erie Works have been locked out on Sunday April 28, 2013. This is the second lockout for Nanticoke workers after being locked out by US Steel for eight months in 2009-10. Hamilton steelworkers of USW Local 1005 were Continue readingNanticoke Steelworkers locked out
Written February 11, 2012 (before Caterpillar and CAW reached a severance settlement) Published as “Love’s Labours Lost” in The Leveller Vol.4, No.5 By Doug Nesbitt Thousands of protesters carrying home-made placards and union banners surrounded Indiana’s Capitol Building as the State Senate passed HB 1001 with a 28 to 22 vote, ushering in the first Continue readingLove’s Labours Lost
article published by The Bullet, Socialist Worker and Lenin’s Tomb. By Doug Nesbitt A wage cut of fifty per cent. An elimination of pensions. Cuts to benefits. These demands have inevitably led to a major showdown at a locomotive factory in London, Ontario between the 700 unionized workers of Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) and Caterpillar, a Continue readingLabour at the Crossroads?