Canada’s unions mourn with Indigenous communities, call for action
June 2, 2021
Canada’s unions stand with Indigenous communities across Canada as they mourn the lives of 215 children whose remains were discovered at a burial site at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. “Our hearts are with residential school survivors, their families and all the children who never returned to the homes from which they were taken,” said Hassan Yussuff,…
What the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike teaches every working person
May 15, 2019
By Hassan Yussuff, as published in the Winnipeg Free Press and in the Toronto Star. The year 1919 was fraught with discontent. Workers in Canada were struggling to make ends meet and inflation had risen by 65% over a six-year span. Men who had just returned from a horrific war in Europe could not find employment; factories were shutting down…
On December 1, 1911, The American Magazine published a poem with the title “Bread and Roses” for the very first time. Over the next few years, it would become an anthem of the trade union movement, linked to the struggle for social justice and equality. Now a favourite anthem of the labour movement around the world, James Oppenheim was inspired to write…
Ralph Klein blinks – conservative plans to slash budgets and privatize health services thwarted by Calgary laundry workers.
November 14, 2018
On November 14, 1995, laundry workers at the Calgary General Hospital called in sick to protest the outsourcing of their jobs. Enough was enough. It was time to take a stand. Within ten days, about 2,500 workers in six hospitals and nine nursing homes were on wildcat strikes and hundreds of other health care workers joined work-to-rule and other worker…
In 1983, labour and activist organizations alike across the province, including unions, environmental, religious, social justice and women’s rights groups, came together over the course of several weeks through escalating actions in what would effectively become the largest political protest in BC’s history. (Source: BC Labour Heritage Centre) In the spring of 1983, British Columbians re-elected the Social Credit Party, headed by William (Bill)…
After 2 weeks in the streets, Ontario teachers end their historic mass protest.
November 10, 2018
On November 10, 1997, Ontario’s teachers returned to work after staging a two-week walkout to protest the radical, anti-democratic changes imposed by the Conservative government of Mike Harris. While the protest failed to stop Bill 160 from becoming law, it was a defeat for Harris and his so-called “common sense revolution” (CSR) in both public opinion and the courts. Mike…
On November 3, 1908, Newfoundland’s first class-based union and political party was founded. The Fishermen’s Protective Union (FPU) became a dynamic social, economic and political force unlike anything previously witnessed on the island. Founded by the charismatic William Coaker, the FPU worked to provide fishers and their families with a greater share of the wealth that their labour produced. Democratic, and…
Union wins the biggest pay equity payout in history
October 29, 2018
On October 29, 1999 the federal government announced its plan to implement what stands as the biggest pay equity pay out in history. It was sweet victory for the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which filed the original complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission on behalf of its members in 1984. Fair pay means that the work women…
On October 20, 1904 the leader of Canada’s first social democratic government and the father of Medicare – Tommy Douglas – was born in Camelon, Scotland. A Baptist minister by calling, Douglas would serve as one of Canada’s first CCF Members of Parliament, Premier of Saskatchewan and the first leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. Often called the…
On October 14, 1976 over a million workers walked off the job across Canada as part of a General Strike called by the Canadian Labour Congress to protest the federal government’s plans to impose wage and price control legislation – a broken campaign promise and betrayal of workers by the Trudeau Liberal government. As Canada moved into the 1970s, workers…