On October 16 12,000 faculty, librarians, and counsellors, represented by OPSEU, at 26 Ontario colleges went on strike. The three core demands of the strikers were a 50:50 ratio of full-time to contract faculty, job security for partial-load faculty, and academic freedom. The three proposals would be beneficial to both faculty and to students, as Continue readingWeekend Video: Ontario college faculty strike
Videos
This documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin introduces us to Randy Horne, a high steel worker from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, near Montreal. As a defender of his people’s culture and traditions, he was known as “Spudwrench” during the 1990 Oka crisis. Offering a unique look behind the barricades at one man’s impassioned defence Continue readingWeekend Video: Spudwrench – Kahnawake Man
A clear-eyed documentary look at the rise of the Union movements in Chicago during the ’30s, combining archive material and contemporary interviews with three women union organisers. The women, two white, one black, talk separately with clarity and conviction about working conditions during the Depression and the need to organise into unions. In the ensuing Continue readingWeekend Video: Union Maids
Jonathan Rosenblum, union activist from Seattle and author of recently published Beyond $15, will be talking about the lessons to be learned from the struggle for $15 in the USA. Rosenblum’s experience will be of particular interest to activists in the $15 and Fairness movement in Ontario. Deena Ladd from the Workers’ Action Centre will Continue readingWeekend Video: The Fight for $15, what next?
In March of 2017 striking York food service workers, represented by Unite Here Local 75, went on strike for and won a $15/hour starting wage and fair working conditions. Their victory paved the way for workers right across the province to achieve $15 and fairness. The workers won major improvements to their contract in the Continue readingWeekend Video: How striking food service workers won at York
What would you do? Your boss gives you three days’ notice that your workplace is closing. You will be unemployed in a recession, without the severance the law says you deserve. If you are the employees of Republic Windows and Doors… you fight back! For six days in December of 2008, laid-off Chicago factory workers Continue readingWeekend Video: Workers’ Republic
The failure to hire full-time faculty has led to a staffing crisis in Ontario colleges. Part-time, partial-load, and sessional faculty (collectively known as contract faculty) now outnumber full-time faculty nearly three to one, without accounting for the large number teaching in continuing education, online and part-time studies. Meanwhile, with tuition increases raising the cost of Continue readingWeekend Video: Ontario college faculty fight concessions
The big business lobby is out peddling the story that decent work and wages are bad for the economy. Seven decades of evidence disprove these myths. Two out of three people across this country support a $15 minimum wage. Deena Ladd of the Workers Action Centre explains what workers in Ontario are on the verge of Continue readingWeekend Video: Still fighting for $15 and Fairness
On July 27 over 700 workers employed by Swissport at Pearson Airport walked off the job. The workers, represented by Teamsters local 419, handle baggage and cargo, tow planes, clean cabins, and perform flight operations tasks for over 30 airlines. The company’s uncompromising attitude and disrespect for workers are directly responsible for this labour dispute. Continue readingWeekend Video: Swissport strike at Pearson
Without a doubt, the clashes between worker rights and corporate interests are prominent in today’s political and economic landscape, but they’re not a modern phenomenon by any means. These imbalances, and the wealth inequalities that have resulted in their wake, have existed for generations. The filmmakers provide a searing portrait of the brave workers who Continue readingWeekend Video: Plutocracy, Class War
On August 16, 1933, only a few months after Hitler and the Nazis come to power in Germany, one of the country’s most violent ethnic riots broke out at Christie Pits park(then known as Willowvale Park) the end of a playoff game for the Toronto junior softball championship. Toronto was a predominately British and Protestant Continue readingWeekend Video: The Christie Pits Riot
The film, which is the second part of an ongoing historical series, covers the seminal labor-related events which occurred between the late 1800’s and the 1920’s. Its subtitle refers to a 1915 song composed by Ralph Chaplin as an anthem for unionized workers. The film itself is the cinematic version of that anthem, as it Continue readingWeekend Video: Plutocracy, Solidarity Forever