William Davis Miners’ Memorial Day (AKA Davis Day, Miners’ Memorial Day) is an annual day of remembrance observed on June 11 in coal mining communities in Nova Scotia where residents recognize all miners who were killed on the job in the province. “They Didn’t Starve Us Out”: Industrial Cape Breton in the 1920’s, directed by Continue readingWeekend Video: “They Didn’t Starve Us Out”: Industrial Cape Breton in the 1920s
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The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and the Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups (ONIWG) were joined by hundreds of injured workers, family member and advocates who are fighting for justice from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). As rankandfile.ca has recently covered, the reforms to the WSIB are nothing but smoke and mirrors. Continue readingWeekend Video: Injured Workers’ Day Rally 2016
The ongoing Nuit Debout protests in France against proposed changes to labour law is but the latest round of protests by the French working class and students trying to stop the complete erosion of France’s social model which has been under attack since the 1980s. This tradition of protest can be traced all the way Continue readingWeekend Video – Confrontation: Paris, 1968
Salt of the Earth (1954) is an American drama film written by Michael Wilson, directed by Herbert J. Biberman, and produced by Paul Jarrico. All had been blacklisted by the Hollywood establishment due to their alleged involvement in communist politics. The film is one of the first pictures to advance the feminist social and political Continue readingWeekend Video: Salt of the Earth
Maternity and parental leave is not a right or privilege given to workers by benevolent employers or progressive governments. It is a right that was fought for and won by progressive unions and a supportive public. In 1981 the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) became the first union to gain a 17 week maternity Continue readingWeekend Video: A Struggle to Remember – Fighting for our Families
Author and professor Peter Linebaugh discusses his new book, “The Incomplete, True, Authentic, and Wonderful History of May Day.” Then filmmaker Avi Lewis discusses worker-owned factories in Argentina, and Laura focuses on the intersectional feminism of 19th Century radical Lucy Parsons. Peter Linebaugh is professor emeritus at the University of Toledo, and the author of Continue readingWeekend Video: The History of May Day
By using film as a means of communication, the people of Fogo Island, Newfoundland, voice some of their daily concerns and thoughts about the future. Some of the problems discussed are the fishermen’s unions, the fish plant, able-bodied men on welfare, the problems of education, and the issue of the consolidation of schools. This classic Continue readingWeekend Video: Fogo Island
On Friday April 15 workers across the country will be taking action demanding a $15 minimum wage and better working conditions. In Ontario the $15 and Fairness campaign is working to raise the floor of working conditions and to make it easier to join and keep a union. Ontario’s outdated laws fail to protect workers. Continue readingWeekend Video: $15 and Fairness
Locked Out is a 2010 documentary about the lockout of Borax miners represented by International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 30 in California by Rio Tinto. As millions of American workers were facing cuts in their pay, their pensions and their benefits, a group of unionized miners in the desert town of Boron, California said Continue readingWeekend Video: Locked Out
When Bombardier fell on hard times in Quebec, the province offered a billion-dollar bailout. The argument: Bombardier is too important to Quebec to fail. Should the same thing happen for Ontario’s steel industry? TVO’s The Agenda hosts a debate how the province and the federal government should approach the U.S. Steel bankruptcy.
This panel discussion is a chance to learn about the many shortcomings of the existing private banking system in Canada and of the potential of a public postal bank to address them! Predatory lenders are draining money out of low-income communities; could postal banking be a public alternative? By offering banking services through its existing Continue readingWeekend Video: Postal Banking
The 44-day Flint sit-down strike of 1936-37 was the workers’ battle that defeated General Motors, the largest corporation in the world at the time. It transformed the United Autoworkers (UAW) from a fledgling campaign in the auto sector to the vanguard of a militant labour movement that spread across the continent and put employers on Continue readingWeekend Video: Women of the GM Flint sit-down strike