By Lee Gilchrist On Monday June 6, 51-year-old welder Quoc Le was crushed under a 2,000 pound bulkhead while working on a rail car. Le was pronounced dead after paramedics rushed him to hospital. Le’s workplace death is the third at National Steel Car in 21 months. Labour responded immediately by calling a protest at Continue readingHamilton unions attack National Steel Car’s bloody record
Hamilton
By Doug Nesbitt On Friday, February 23 1996, the industrial centre of Hamilton, Ontario was shut down by a one-day general strike. If it wasn’t for the 300 picket lines across the city, Hamilton would be mistaken for a ghost town. The following day, a huge protest of 100,000 people marched through the city’s downtown Continue readingHamilton vs Harris: The 1996 Steeltown Shutdown
By Doug Nesbitt At least half of Hamilton’s sanitation workers initiated a health and safety work refusal on Monday March 23 at 7am. By 11:30am, the Ministry of Labour was contact to address the ongoing work refusal. The seventy sanitation worker involved are members of CUPE Local 5167, the union representing City of Hamilton employees. Continue readingBehind the work refusal by Hamilton sanitation workers
Prime Minister Trudeau was met with protests and chants against his government at the beginning of the Labour Day parade in Hamilton. Trudeau was invited by LiUNA, and was not given microphones and a stage to speak. Trudeau’s SUVs, police and security detail arrived before the march began as he took selfies among the crowd. Continue readingHamilton Hammers Trudeau at Labour Day
I wrote the following short verse poems and haikus during my shifts as a bus driver in December 2018. In 8 hours, my longest break was nine minutes, but the busy schedule meant I often didn’t even see that. Playing around with words in my head while stopped at red lights or long stops loading Continue readingFrom the Drivers’ Seat: Can I be a poet too?
By Chloe Rockarts October marks the sixth month of the East Hamilton Rent Strike, where tenants from Stoney Creek Towers are fighting ongoing attempts by their landord, CLV and InterRent Group, to defeat the rent strikers. These tenants, who have been withholding their rent since May 1, are doing so in protest of the landlord’s Continue readingClass struggle at home: Hamilton’s rent strike
By Chloe Rockarts On Saturday, September 15 workers across the province took part in a day of action marking 15-weeks until January 1, 2019, the scheduled date for the $15 minimum wage increase. These 23 actions, coordinated by the Fight for 15 and Fairness campaign and Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) aim to pressure the Continue readingMessage to Tories: Hands off $15
By Brad Walchuk The pension battled heated up in Hamilton at a major rally at the local Steelworkers Hall on Friday afternoon, but it’s been a hot issue since the US Steel Canada (formerly Stelco) entered into bankruptcy protection in September 2014. In fact, the new unofficial slogan of the influential USW Local 1005 is ‘CCCA Continue readingPension battle in Hamilton is on to Ottawa
By Evan Johnston Transit workers in Hamilton have launched a new campaign to keep the city’s public transportation system — and specifically, the city’s newly approved Light-Rail Transit (LRT) — under public control. The campaign, “Keep Transit Public,” was launched on June 15 by Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 107, the union representing drivers, maintenance workers, Continue readingHamilton fights to keep transit public
By Evan Johnston The arrival of Max Aicher North America (MANA) in Hamilton was supposed to be a success story, ushering in a new era of advanced steel manufacturing in a beleaguered steel city eager for good news. Public money was thrown its way by both the province and the city as politicians saw their Continue readingThe MANA lockout in Hamilton
by Brad Walchuk CUPE Local 1281 member Upwards of 100 workers and community allies gathered in Hamilton, Ontario on February 29, 2016 for a rally in support of the roughly 170 unionized workers (Unifor Local M-1 Hamilton) at “CH”, a local Hamilton television station, who were terminated without cause in mid-December 2015 as part of Continue readingCancelled: How a local TV station destroyed a union
By David Bush Thousands of steelworkers, community members, and union allies from across the province rallied outside of Hamilton’s city hall on Jan. 30. The demonstration was called to show support for the workers at U.S. Steel who have weathered major job losses and are now facing the loss of their benefits and pensions. U.S. Continue readingHarper lives: The U.S. Steel robbery