By Kevin Taghabon “General Motors is not the solution. General Motors is the problem,” loud applause followed autoworker Tony Leah’s declaration at the front of the room at IBEW Hall. His speech was part of an event, Nationalize General Motors: Oshawa’s Green New Deal. The evening served as the first organizing meeting for a grassroots Continue readingNationalize GM
Unifor
By Sam Gindin Following an aggressive public relations campaign in which union officials questioned GM’s loyalty to ‘Canadian taxpayers’, General Motors has apparently agreed to keep its Oshawa facility partially open. No official announcement has yet been made, but there are rumours of a revised plan to retain 600-700 workers by investing $100-million to stamp Continue readingGM Oshawa: Lowered expectations, unexplored opportunities
General Motors has announced it will end production at five North American plants, just a decade after the company received billions of dollars in U.S. and Canadian taxpayer money and won sweeping concessions from auto unions as part of the bailout. All told, about 6,700 hourly and salaried employees stand to lose their jobs as Continue readingWhy we occupied our General Motors factory in Oshawa
By Gerard Di Trolio, David Bush and Doug Nesbitt The announcement on Sunday night that GM will close their Oshawa plant at the end of 2019 is devastating news for the thousands of autoworkers and their families in Oshawa. Site of the 1937 strike against against GM that marked the first big breakthrough of industrial Continue readingBuckle up: GM declares war on Oshawa
By Nora Loreto On day 597 of a lockout of workers by D-J Composites in Gander, N.L., Unifor Local 597 hosted a barbeque to boost morale. It was earlier this summer, and the lockout had almost reached two years. Iggy Oram, plant chair, told the crowd there wasn’t much that the 32 aerospace workers could Continue readingNaming and shaming scab labour
Since April 27, over 350 miners in Goderich, Ontario have been on strike. The union, Unifor Local 16-0, is fighting against concessions demanded by Compass Minerals which owns the salt mine, the world’s largest. The town of 8,000 and surrounding area has rallied to the miners’ cause. Lawn signs supporting the workers have popped up Continue readingWeekend Video: The Battle of Goderich
By Bruce Allen About a hundred autoworkers, led by workers from Toyota, and their supporters rallied in front of Queen’s Park in Toronto on April 22. They were protesting the Liberal government’s decision to allow an “exception” for the auto industry for personal emergency leave (PEL) days. The exemption was brought into effect in January 2017. Continue readingToyota autoworkers take on Liberal’s ESA exemption
By James Napier Unifor claims to be the “largest private sector union” in Canada. It would be more accurate to describe them as the largest union-raiding organization in Canada. Unifor now spends more time and money raiding other unions than they do organizing un-organized workers. Almost 60% of “new” members in the first 3 months Continue readingRaiding over organizing for Unifor?
By James Napier The membership of Unifor Local 222 has issued a stunning rebuke to Unifor National President Jerry Dias. At the Local 222 general membership meeting on February 1, two motions were passed that opposed the sudden, destructive action taken by Dias on January 16, to pull Unifor out of the house of labour. Continue readingUnifor local 222 opposes Unifor’s split from the CLC
By Jonathan Rosenblum Dear Canadian union sisters and brothers, There’s a lot to admire about your labor movement. With community organizing, creative street heat, and militant strikes, you’ve just scored the biggest win yet in the Fight for $15, forcing a pro-corporate Ontario government to raise wages for 1.7 million workers and grant new card-check Continue readingDear Canadian unions: Don’t let a union split tear the labour movement apart
By David Bush When Unifor left the CLC on January 16 it cited the inability of the CLC and its affiliates to properly handle the process by which workers can change unions. This process is outlined in Article 4 of the CLC constitution. The disagreement over Article 4 is the only reason that has been Continue readingArticle 4, a smokescreen for labour’s civil war
“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