**Above – an excerpt from She Never Was Afraid: The Biography of Annie Buller, by Louise Watson. Photo: Wikipedia. “Annie Buller, married name Guralnick, political activist, union organizer (b in Ukraine 9 Dec 1895; d at Toronto 19 Jan 1973). Her Jewish parents immigrated to Montréal when she was a child. During WWI she became active in the Socialist Youth…
Now a favourite anthem of the labour movement around the world, James Oppenheim was inspired to write the poem by a slogan “Bread for all, and Roses, too”. When his poem was published again in 1912, the slogan was attributed to women trade unionists – and the association stuck. Oppenheim’s poem was also associated with the 1912 Lawrence textile strike,…
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 solidarity efforts. Premier Ralph Klein could only watch in horror as his budget cuts backfired. Alberta’s Conservative government eliminated tens of thousands of public sector jobs between 1993 and 1994 while…
[[{“fid”:”1463″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:”Cover of Macleans magazine depicting the teacher protest and Premier Mike Harris beside the heading “under siege”.”,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Ontario teachers standing up for fairness in education.”},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“1”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:”Cover of Macleans magazine depicting the teacher protest and Premier Mike Harris beside the heading “under siege”.”,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Ontario teachers standing up for fairness in education.”}},”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“alt”:”Cover of Macleans magazine depicting the teacher protest and Premier Mike Harris beside the…
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 cooperative, the FPU was the first attempt to organize fishers as a political movement along class lines. With a rallying cry of “to each his own”, the FPU sought to win reforms…
Fair pay means that the work women and men do is equally respected and valued. Unfortunately, this is not the reality for many workers in Canada, where there is still a big gap between what women and men earn. Thanks to the labour movement, this pay gap is already much less for women with unions, but income equality for all…
In 1931 the miners of Bienfait Saskatchewan faced down company, government and police when they went on strike to improve their working and living conditions. The miners had joined the Mine Workers’ Union of Canada that same year. The union was an affiliate of the Workers Unity League, a militant labour body founded by the Communist Party of Canada in 1929. The miners…
As Canada moved into the 1970s, workers faced difficult economic times. Work was changing with the early stages of globalization and automation. Workers were losing their jobs as employers adopted new technologies at home and shifted production to lower-paid workers overseas. Inflation was on the rise along with that unemployment. The Canadian dollar lost its value and drastic increases in…
Often called the father of universal healthcare, “Tommy” Thomas Clement Douglas, was a Canadian immigrant from Scotland. He was ill as a boy and was saved from losing a leg thanks to the charity of a doctor who operated for free to save the limb. Years later, Douglas became active in the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a political party formed…