Publications

TWLH-Aug-4

Summer in Canada is the time of music festivals and one of the earliest held was Mariposa at Oval Park in Orillia. So what does this have to do with the labour movement you ask? Well – many folk singers of the past and still today focus on social justice issues, many of these focus on workers’ struggles and gains.…

TWLH-Aug-5

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TWLH-Jul-4

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TWLH-Jul-3

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TWLH-Jul-2

Stanley Moore and Dale Akerstrom were both employees of the federal government. Moore was a Foreign Service Officer, employed by the Department of External Affairs, while Akerstrom was working for the Canadian Employment and Immigration Commission.  In 1991, Moore was posted to the Canadian Embassy in Indonesia. When he applied for spousal benefits related to the move for his partner,…

TWLH-Jul-1

The “On To Ottawa Trek” was a worker protest against unfair treatment and government austerity that captured public support, contributed to the defeat of the Conservative federal government of R.B. Bennett later that year, and paved the way to the establishment of a national unemployment insurance plan. In the 1930s, “The Great Depression” had crippled the Canadian economy and resulted…

TWLH-Sep-3

War brings out the worst in people and part of the propaganda of government in war time is to play on fear; fear of the “other”, fear of the “unknown”. During the First World War it was radical groups and publications, many whose membership came from Eastern Europe, that were targeted. Within weeks of the start of the war in…

TWLH-Sep-2

In 1945, workers at the Windsor Ford plant went on strike; in doing so they helped bring union security to Canada’s workplaces. Their union, United Autoworkers Local 200, wanted all employees at the plant to be union members – something known as a closed shop – with union dues automatically deducted by Ford on each pay day. Ford refused, even…

TWLH-Sep-1

Today, Labour Day marks the unofficial end to summer and the start of a new school year for children in Canada and the United States. It is a day of rest and, for unions and labour activists, a day to celebrate the accomplishments of the labour movement and the benefits of having a union at work. But, as is the…

TWLH-Dec-4

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