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
Labour history
If you’ll win the wars at home,There’ll be no fighting anymore– Phil Ochs By Doug Nesbitt Remembrance Day is one of the few times each year we all agree upon the importance of learning history. However, the vested interests of certain Canadians have led to some very dangerous myths being built around Remembrance Day. If Continue readingIf we win the wars at home
Estevan, Saskatchewan 1931; RCMP murders 3 in union recognition strike By Doug Nesbitt, Rankandfile.ca editor On September 29 1931, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police murdered three miners in Estevan, Saskatchewan. The miners and their families were striking for union recognition. In 1931, 600 miners in the Souris coal fields of southeast Saskatchewan faced wage cuts Continue readingOur History: Remember the Estevan Miners
Rankandfile.ca caught up with Eden Haythornthwaite to speak about the long-running annual Joseph Mairs Memorial held every year on Vancouver Island. Eden is one of the main organizer’s of the annual event. This year’s memorial is Sunday January 19 1pm at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Hall in Ladysmith. Who is Joseph Mairs, and how long Continue readingJoseph Mairs: A coal miner who never died
By Doug Nesbitt and Andrew Stevens Editor’s note: This article was written at the start of the 2019-2020 lockout of refinery workers at the Co-op Refinery in Regina, Saskatchewan. For Rankandfile.ca‘s coverage of the lockout, click here. With near unanimous support from the membership, Unifor Local 594 provided the Co-operative Refinery Complex (CRC) with job Continue readingLocal 594 and the Lost History of Oil Worker Unionism
David Camfield, author of Canadian Labour in Crisis, explores Canada’s labour law, the Rand Formula, and how this framework impacts labour organizing today. fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/canadian-…bour-in-crisis
by Emily Leedham From May 8-11, 2019, Winnipeg unions hosted the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike Centenary Conference: inviting union members, labour activists and leaders from across Canada to reflect on the history for the General Strike, and apply its lessons to the present and future of the labour movement. This episode will explore the relationship Continue reading1919-2019: Labour, Colonialism & Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples
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
By Doug Nesbitt In 1987, Canada Post management began to unroll a major privatization drive of post offices and elimination of door-to-door delivery. The plan aimed to privatize 3,500 rural post offices and close another 1,700 over a decade. This would allow the company to slash 4,200 union jobs. Canada Post also announced that no new Continue readingNo Scab Mail Here: The 1987 postal strikes
By Brad Walchuk, CUPE 1281 With Labour Day approaching on Monday, it will sadly be close to 51 weeks before many folks to care about labour again. Labour Day presents an important time to reflect upon the important struggles and victories that the labour movement has helped to bring about in the past, but it Continue readingLabour Day: Recognizing labour’s ongoing successes
As Friend and Foe, a National Film Board short film from 1980, is a brief look at the Canadian federal government’s relationship to workers: “as friend and foe” in shaping the architecture of Canada’s labour relations from 1900 to 1980. The film ends by observing that after 1975, the federal and provincial governments have ordered Continue readingWeekend Video: As Friend and Foe
by Doug Nesbitt But the hardest thing I’ll ask you, if you will only try Is take your children by their hands and look into their eyes And there you’ll see the answer you should have seen before If you’ll win the wars at home, there’ll be no fighting anymore – final verse of Phil Continue readingIf we win the wars at home…