A wage cut of 50 per cent. An elimination of pensions. Cuts to benefits. These demands led to a major showdown at a locomotive factory in London, Ontario between the 700 unionized workers of Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) and Caterpillar, a massive U.S.-based corporation. The workers, members of Canadian Auto Workers Local 27, responded to the Continue readingWeekend Video: The EMD lockout
Videos
In Kentucky, hundreds of demonstrators packed into the Capitol building last Saturday to protest the state Legislature’s passage of a slew of controversial bills, including an anti-union “right-to-work” law and extreme anti-choice legislation that bans abortions after 20 weeks and requires a woman to have an ultrasound before having an abortion. The surprise emergency legislative Continue readingWeekend Video: Right-to-Work in Kentucky
Income inequality has reached levels not seen since the 1920s. Labor unions’ membership is in decline, and popular opinion has turned against them. Promising movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter lack an organized base, and therefore are unable to build the power to effect meaningful change. Why do progressives in the United Continue readingWeekend Video: No Shortcuts
RankandFile.ca presents the two retellings of the holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. Its-a-Wonderful-Life-Lost-End by y10566
Author and activist John Rees explores the role of citizen journalism in strengthening social movements through effective writing. Rees’ workshop explains how activists and trade unionists can improve their writing by targeting a mass audience.
Students right across Nova Scotia walked out of class to protest the government’s handling of the negotiations with the province’s teachers. The students4teachers walkout was the largest student walkout in the history of the province. Teachers have twice rejected tentative agreements with the province. The main issues are class sizes, workload and the heavy handed Continue readingWeekend Video: Students4Teachers
Krishna Pendakur Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University, who has studied inter-ethnic disparity in earnings, discusses how the wage gap in the Canadian labour market for indigenous workers is the largest earnings gap within it. “Once you see a number like one-third lower earnings, it is hard to care about other forms of inequality Continue readingWeekend Video: Aboriginal People in the labour market
Nora Loreto, member of the Canadian Freelance Union and writer, speaks about the current crisis of precarious work and what happened to get us to where we are today. She was the keynote speaker at the The Precarious Generation: Millennials Fight Back forum in Ottawa.
The Parliament of Wallonia, a French-speaking area in Belgium, voted to prevent the country from signing onto the CETA deal. This in effect scuttled an upcoming CETA conference and may scuttle the entire deal. The Canadian trade minister walked out of the talks this week. The CETA deal was met with widespread opposition from the labour Continue readingWeekend Video: Stopping CETA
2016 marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, when London, England’s East End’s Jewish population came together with trade unionists and other groups to prevent Oswald Mosley’s ‘Black Shirts’ marching through their community. This event showed the power the working class has when it comes together in solidarity to defeat racist political Continue readingWeekend Video: Battle of Cable Street
This 1970 documentary film shows how Quebec textile workers organize themselves for better, healthier working conditions while the multinationals strenghten their empire. This film was blocked for several years by the National Film Board of Canada due to political commentary in the film.
The library workers in Mississauga went on strike this summer. They refused concessions and demanded that all members receive a living wage. Effective strategy and tremendous community solidarity won the day. The library workers’ victory is an example of what can be achieved when the gap between the precarious part-timers and the full-timers is bridged. They Continue readingWeekend Video: Library workers fight and win