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
the politics of labour
By Doug Nesbitt This Labour Day, the new Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole released a video talking frankly about the massacre of jobs in manufacturing, energy and forestry. He says too many are “living in quiet desperation.” In the video, O’Toole attacks not just “big government” for lousy free trade negotiations, but also “corporate and Continue readingBeware the Corporate O’Toole
By Doug Nesbitt The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) is now law and the program will last three months retroactive to March 15. The legislation passed at a sitting of parliament on April 11. It is the single biggest trickle-down economics program in Canadian history. All private businesses, as well as charities and NGOs, are Continue readingThe Business Wage Subsidy: Trickle-Down Economics on Steroids
By Doug Nesbitt Across the country, the right-wingers are outraged once again about the loss of thousands of potential jobs in the Alberta oil sands. Teck Resources, the Vancouver-based energy company, pulled its proposal to develop a new massive oil sands mine north of Fort McMurray. Jason Kenney wasn’t the only politician choking for air Continue readingOil politicians only care about fantasy jobs, not real jobs
By Bob Barnetson Last week, Alberta’s United Conservative government introduced legislation designed to suspend the arbitration of wage re-openers in most public-sector collective agreements. This move is widely expected to give the government time to cook up wage-freeze or wage-rollback legislation. There’s good coverage and analysis of this decision elsewhere. One of the more interesting twitter exchanges about this that Continue readingLabour Politics and Deflection
by Doug Nesbitt One of the most pernicious myths circulating in Ontario’s labour ranks is that the Days of Action – the big protests and strikes against the Harris Tories in the late 1990s – somehow led to the re-election of the Harris Tories in 1999. This is complete nonsense. Let’s examine why the Tories Continue readingWhy did Harris win re-election in 1999?
By Lisa Descary As a rank and file trade union member and a socialist, I am very focused on reforms that I think will make life better for other workers: things like inexpensive quality childcare, cheap (or free) public transit…and housing. Given that I live in Vancouver, the most unaffordable city in North America, I Continue readingVancouver labour council has the wrong vision for the fall election
by Doug Nesbitt It’s been a year of bruising battles and bully governments for Canadian workers. But despite all this, there have always been glimpses of what’s possible when workers organize and fight. During the October 2015 federal election, millions of Canadians jumped at the chance to get rid of Harper, betting on the Liberals Continue reading2016: The Canadian labour movement in review
The federal Liberal retreat from their big flashy promise of electoral reform has definitely killed the Trudeau honeymoon. Meanwhile, Prince Edward Islanders narrowly voted for electoral reform but Premier MacLauchlan has decided to ignore the results, leading to an angry protest of hundreds in Charlottetown. The PEI fiasco is just the latest modern electoral reform mess that Continue readingElectoral reform and labour
In the waning hours of Monday evening at the Canadian Labour Congress’s Young Worker Summit, a surprise guest was announced. The 400 young union activists who had gathered in Ottawa to address the issues facing their generation would be face-to-face with the most influential decision maker in the country: Justin Trudeau. As Prime Minister Trudeau Continue readingWhy we turned our backs on Trudeau
On February 18, the Ottawa & District Labour Council held its biannual election. Sean McKenny was re-elected as president for a seventh consecutive term but a strong challenge was mounted by a campaign group that put forward Joel Harden for president. Harden, chief steward for CUPE Local 4600, received 44 percent of the vote. Rankandfile.ca’s Continue readingShaking up Ottawa’s labour council, Part Two
On February 18, the Ottawa & District Labour Council held its biannual election. Sean McKenny was re-elected as president for a seventh consecutive term but a strong challenge was mounted by a campaign group that put forward Joel Harden for president. Harden, chief steward for CUPE Local 4600, received 44 percent of the vote. Rankandfile.ca’s Continue readingShaking up Ottawa’s labour council, Part One