What Unions Do Archives | Canadian Labour Congress

Canada’s unions mark May Day by calling on governments to prioritize workers and their families

Tanya — Sat, 01 May 2021 04:00:23 +0000

Canada’s unions are marking May Day by urging the federal government to act quickly to implement its most recent budget promises, which include significant investments in child care, job creation and skills training.

May Day is an annual celebration held every May 1^st during which workers from around the world celebrate the achievements made by trade unions. This year, the pandemic remains a focal point for the concerns of workers and their families.

“Millions of workers around the world have lost their jobs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). “Here in Canada, the federal government recently promised significant investments to help with our recovery. Canada’s political leaders must now work together to pass the budget implementation bill and turn these promises into action.”

The government’s recently announced investments in child care, training and skills development and a $15 federal minimum wage, in addition to a further expansion of emergency benefits would bring much needed relief to workers and their families.

Workers in Canada – and around the world – continue to struggle under the weight of the year-long pandemic. Developed countries have a responsibility to ensure that all workers in developing and under developing nations have access to vaccines to help put an end to this global health crisis.

In the meantime, gaps in the social safety net, both at home and abroad, have become painfully clear. Those gaps include a shameful lack of paid sick leave in most provinces.

“Workers and advocates have been calling for paid sick leave since before the pandemic,” said Yussuff.

“However, COVID-19 has highlighted just how dangerous a lack of paid sick time can be. Being able to stay home when you are sick is fundamental to reducing workplace exposures and illness. Essential workers being forced to choose between going to work sick and putting food on the table puts us all at risk and is prolonging and deepening the impacts of the pandemic. Provincial and territorial governments must act immediately.”

Canada’s unions further remind all levels of government to respect and uphold the collective bargaining rights of workers, even during times of crisis.

“Upholding workers’ rights is integral to the functioning of a free and fair democracy in which there is a counterweight to the unfettered power of employers and monied interests. Collective bargaining ensures a more fair, equitable present and future for all.”

To learn more about what unions are calling for, visit canadianplan.ca.

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Canada’s unions stand with India’s farmers and farm workers

Tanya — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 15:48:32 +0000

Canada’s unions stand in solidarity with farmers and agricultural workers in India as they continue to protest recent reforms to agricultural laws that deregulate the industry and leave farmers and farm workers vulnerable to exploitation by international corporations.

“Deregulating local produce markets will have a devastating impact on farmers, farm workers and food security in India,” said Canadian Labour Congress President, Hassan Yussuff. “We stand with the international labour movement to support workers who are taking to the streets to protest these reforms and fight for their rights.”

India’s central and local governments passed three farm acts in September. Taken together, these acts threaten to impoverish millions of small farmers and leave millions more farm workers unemployed. Farmers’ unions have been protesting since August, escalating to a national general strike on November 26, 2020.

The government of India has also proposed reforms that undermine unions and violate international labour standards that India has ratified as a member of the International Labour Organization.

“The government’s legislation leaves farmers and workers at the mercy of large multinational corporations and global commodity price swings,” said Yussuff. “We deplore the fact that some states in India are also using the coronavirus crisis as an excuse to suspend labour laws and attack workers’ rights. The international community has to stand up.”

The protesting farmers are making several demands, including asking that the new farm laws be repealed; that all repressive measures taken against protesters cease; and that movement leaders who have been arrested be released. Other workers’ unions in the country have joined the protests in support of the farmers.

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A historic step towards greater protections for workers around the world

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 19:20:37 +0000

Canada’s unions join workers everywhere in celebrating today’s historic adoption of a new International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention and Recommendation addressing violence and harassment in the world of work.

After over a year of negotiations with governments, employers, and workers, the Centenary International Labour Conference adopted the new framework at its convention in Geneva.

“It is a historic day,” said CLC’s Secretary-Treasurer Marie Clarke Walker, who served as Worker Vice-Chair for the negotiations. “We set out to draft a standard that would stand the test of time, that would carry us forward into the next century of the ILO, and would meet the challenges of the future world of work.”

The ILO is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social justice and promote decent work by setting international labour standards.

The ILO Convention and Recommendation set out clear policies, grounded in social dialogue and requiring an integrated, gender-responsive approach to the prevention and elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work. The Convention is legally binding, while the Recommendation provides advice.

“I truly believe what you have before you today are texts that we can all be proud of – instruments that are both ground-breaking and visionary, but also practical and actionable,” said Clarke Walker in a speech to delegates at the conference.

“Having a global minimum standard to prevent and address violence and harassment in the world of work will bring hope to millions of workers – hope that a world of work free from violence and harassment is possible,” she added.

Canada’s unions congratulate Clarke Walker and all of the participants in the standard-setting process.

“This is a great achievement,” said Hassan Yussuff, CLC President. “Now that we have secured this ground-breaking convention, we urge Canada to be among the first countries to ratify. We stand ready to ensure its effective implementation, so everyone can fully enjoy the right to work free from violence and harassment.”

Read the full text of the new Convention and Recommendation here.

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Just Transition Task Force report has potential to put people at the heart of climate policy

admin — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 19:57:49 +0000

Canada’s unions welcome the federal government’s release of the final report of the Just Transition Task Force for Canadian Coal Power Workers and Communities, along with the accompanying report: “What We Heard from Canadian Coal Power Workers and Communities”.

“The Task Force worked to put people and communities at the heart of climate policy by developing ten practical and concrete recommendations on how to support affected workers and communities through the transition away from coal-fired electricity, with worker involvement and local decision making at the centre,” said Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

Co-chaired by Yussuff, the Task Force’s mandate was to provide the federal government with recommendations for how to support a just and fair transition for Canadian coal workers and communities, as Canada meets its commitment to transition away from coal-powered electricity by 2030. It has been working since April 2018 and included strong representation from labour, as well as a former employer in the coal-power sector, a councillor from an affected municipality, and experts in workforce transitions and sustainable development.

“I want to thank the workers and community members who met with the Task Force. Learning about their jobs and their communities and hear directly about what they need to make this transition away from coal-fired power a just transition was key to crafting these recommendations,” said Yussuff.

The task force met with workers and federal, provincial and municipal governments and other stakeholders in communities with coal power facilities across the four affected provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

“It has been an honour to serve as a co-chair for this task force and look forward to working with the government to ensure meaningful action on implementing these much needed recommendations,” said Yussuff. “Canada’s unions will be watching next week’s federal budget for signs that the government will support workers and their communities as Canada works to address climate change.”

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UN World AIDS Day: Global efforts to end HIV/AIDS get a boost in Nigeria

admin — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 20:20:02 +0000

Ahead of this year’s UN World AIDS Day, Canada’s unions are pleased to join international efforts to better assess workplace programs aimed at promoting HIV/AIDS awareness, testing, and treatment in Nigeria.

The Canadian Labour Congress is working with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Trade Union Congress-UK to support the National HIV Workplace Assessment in the sub-Saharan nation. Nigeria has the second largest HIV epidemic in the world.

Key stakeholders including the Nigeria Labour Congress, government, and health organizations coordinated the workplace assessment. Based on ILO Recommendation 200, the survey will emphasize the role of trade unions in Nigeria and throughout the continent, by linking Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) programs to HIV and AIDS awareness raising, prevention, testing, and treatment. This important work will help reduce gaps in HIV testing and treatment, and will support global efforts to end AIDS by 2030.

Researchers will use the information to identify any gaps in the current system, to inform national priorities and programs, to plan future workplace interventions and to help secure funding for trade unions to continue this important work.

Significant progress has been made in the AIDS response since the launch of the first UN World AIDS Day in 1988. This year’s theme “Know Your Status” aims to eliminate the stigma around HIV testing by focusing on awareness and encouraging individuals to get tested.

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Canada’s unions stand with trans workers

admin — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 20:09:15 +0000

November 20 is the Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR). Communities around the world hold vigils, rallies and other memorial events on this day to honor two spirit, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people who have been murdered because of their gender identity.

“Trans people face disproportionately high levels of violence and harassment. Ensuring respect and fair treatment for trans workers is a key priority for Canada’s unions,” said CLC Executive Vice-President, Larry Rousseau. “Our workplaces must lead the way in being inclusive spaces for all workers, no matter their gender identity and expression.”

Studies compiled by Egale Canada show that 90 percent of transgender and gender diverse employees report experiencing workplace harassment and/or violence based on their gender identity and expression. Trans people, and in particular trans women of colour, continue to be disproportionately targeted by sexual harassment and violence.

Canada’s unions have long stood with trans people in Canada. We supported private members’ bills and Bill C-16, which amended human rights legislation and the Criminal Code to add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination. While almost all provinces and territories have made trans protection explicit in their human rights legislation, more remains to be done.

Unions continue to improve conditions for trans workers through collective bargaining, by securing rights to access to safe washrooms and change rooms and health benefit coverage for medical transition and hormone therapy. Our education programs and resources help build awareness to support a safer environment for workers to transition. The CLC has collaborated with Our Times labour magazine on a new to-do list for trans inclusion in the workplace. We will also be releasing an updated Workers in Transition guide in early 2019.

“We all have a role to play in promoting fairness, equality, and freedom from violence for trans people in our workplaces and in our communities,” said Rousseau.

Visit the official TDOR website to learn more about the origin and history of the campaign here.

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Union wins the biggest pay equity payout in history

admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 19:06:42 +0000

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 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 working women is the ultimate goal.

For decades, the labour movement and women’s organizations have pushed for improvements to the federal pay equity system, calling for a shift from a complaints-based approach toward proactive legislation. This was a key demand of the Canadian Women’s March 2000, when thousands of women, trade unions and national women’s organizations mobilized for a comprehensive strategy to end poverty and violence against women.

In 2001, a federal Pay Equity Task Force was appointed, and after an extensive and exhaustive process, made over a hundred important recommendations to address the gender wage gap in Canada. Their 2004 report also recognized that wage discrimination exists for people with disabilities, Indigenous workers and racialized workers.

Canada’s unions have been hard at work to ensure the Task Force recommendations are put in place. They condemned the current Liberal government’s decision to delay any action on pay equity until 2018, despite the lofty campaign promises and publicly stating that having a gender wage gap in Canada today is unacceptable. After two years in power, they have also failed to eliminate the Conservative’s Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act, legislation takes away the right of women federal public servants to equal pay for work of equal value.

Only two provinces – Ontario and Quebec – have proactive pay equity laws covering both public and private sector workers. Under these laws, employers must take active steps to identify and eliminate wage discrimination. Several provinces have no pay equity legislation at all. Unions push for proactive pay equity laws in all jurisdictions to make sure that workers in both the public and private sectors have their rights respected.

Collective bargaining and pay equity measures significantly reduce the wage gap for women. That’s because together, women and their unions negotiate pay that reflects their skills, education and responsibilities. And that fair pay puts more into women’s pockets to spend on their families and in their communities.

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Happy birthday to the “greatest Canadian”

admin — Sat, 20 Oct 2018 19:02:50 +0000

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 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 in reaction to the social and economic conditions of the early 20^th century that culminated in the Great Depression. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1935, where he served before going on to lead the CCF to election victory in Saskatchewan in 1944. As Premier of Saskatchewan, Douglas led North America’s first social-democratic government.

Over the next two decades, Douglas oversaw the formation of social programs that continue today. He established the publicly-owned Saskatchewan Power Corporation , Canada’s first public automobile insurance program, and a number of Crown Corporations to deliver essential services. He passed laws that allowed government workers to unionize and adopted a Saskatchewan Bill of Rights 18 months before the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

But he is most remembered for establishing Canada’s first publicly run Medicare system in Saskatchewan in 1961. In doing so he became the father of universal health care in Canada.

In 1962, Douglas left Saskatchewan politics to become the first leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP), created by a merger of the CCF and the labour movement, led by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). He served as the party’s leader until 1971 and retired from elected politics in 1979.

In 1981 Douglas was appointed to the Order of Canada and in 1985 was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. He died on February 24, 1986 in Ottawa. In a 2004, CBC viewers voted to crown Tommy Douglas the “Greatest Canadian“.

Happy Birthday Tommy! And thanks for making sure all Canadian’s have affordable healthcare!

This is a great legacy for Canada and one many of us are proud of. But there is still work to do. The work of leaders like Tommy Douglas, groups like the Canadian Health Coalition, political parties like the NDP, and Canadian workers through their unions and the labour movement continues with today’s drive to win a universal prescription drug plan that covers all Canadians regardless of their income, age, or where they live.

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Canada’s unions applaud asbestos ban regulations

cstdenis — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 17:55:55 +0000

Canada’s unions applaud the federal government for introducing regulations to ban the import, export, manufacture, sale and use of asbestos and asbestos-containing products. The regulations, announced in December 2016 will come into force on December 30, 2018.

“This is a critical step on the long road to banning asbestos, and will, without a doubt, save lives for generations to come,” said Canadian Labour Congress President, Hassan Yussuff.

The new regulations, under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act 1999 (CEPA), prohibit the import, sale and use of asbestos, the manufacture, import, sale and use of products containing asbestos, as well as the export of asbestos and asbestos-containing products, with a limited number of exceptions. Combined, this is a historic step to protect the health of Canadian workers and the public, and to address Canada’s history as an exporter of this deadly substance. With these regulations, Canada now joins 55 countries that have banned the use of asbestos.

Yussuff said that it will be crucial for protection from exposure to extend to everyone living in Canada, including those living in First Nations housing filled with asbestos-ridden vermiculite insulation.

“Because these diseases have a long latency period, the danger is not over, but this is the beginning of the end. Now we need the provinces and territories to show the same leadership that the federal government has shown and move quickly to take stock of where asbestos is, harmonize regulation around disposal and remediation, and ensure a comprehensive response,” he said.

“We can all breathe easier. The introduction of these regulations in a timely manner is the result of years of advocacy and hard work by people dedicated to safer, healthier workplaces. Today, I celebrate and thank the government for giving the next generation of Canadians a better future, free from the pain and suffering caused by asbestos,” said Yussuff.

A robust enforcement strategy to ensure compliance with these new regulations will be important to a successful implementation and to addressing the legacy of asbestos-contaminated workplaces.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the federal government on the broader whole-of-government strategy to protect Canadians from the harms of asbestos,” added Yussuff.

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The largest labour protest in Canadian history

admin — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 19:01:28 +0000

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 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 the price of oil, caused by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) export quotas, resulted in price shocks that hit consumers hard. Over the 1970s, the price for a barrel of oil jumped from $3 to $40, an increase of over 1300%.

To compensate, workers demanded higher wages while businesses accelerated plans to cut costs while raising prices to satisfy their need for profit. Unemployment and prices continued to rise, while the economy sputtered – a phenomenon economists and politicians labeled “stagflation”.

During the 1974 federal election campaign, the Conservative Party campaigned on a platform to impose legal caps on wages and prices. Seeking re‑election, the Liberal Party, led by Pierre Trudeau, openly ridiculed the idea and presented itself to Canadians as an anti-control party. Working people, fearing the loss of jobs and income, flocked to the Liberals, returning them to power with a majority government.

Just one year later, Trudeau broke his promise. Canadians were outraged.

Wage caps were imposed on workplaces with 500 or more employees, on all federal workers, and on most other public-sector employees. While inflation stood at nearly 11% in 1975, Trudeau’s law limited wage increases over the next three years to 8%, then 6%, and finally 4%. The attack on inflation was, in fact, an attack on workers’ wages as negotiated pay increases and collective agreements were rolled back.

The labour unrest caused by Trudeau’s betrayal resulted in over 11.6 million work days lost to strikes and lockouts in 1976 alone. The CLC, under the leadership of Joe Morris, called for a National Day of Protest on October 14^th that resulted in the largest labour protest in the country’s history. Over a million Canadians took part – walking off the job, marching in the streets, and voicing their opposition to Trudeau’s unfairness.

Despite the sacrifice imposed on millions of Canadian workers, their families and their communities, inflation had declined by just 1.7% when wage-and-price controls ended in 1978. Trudeau’s Liberals were defeated in the next federal election.

Today, Canada’s unions continue to push back against unfairness. Government austerity – cuts to programs and services, wage and hiring freezes, privatization, the selling of public assets, etc. – shifts the burden onto those who can least afford to pay. “From each according to their means, to each according to their needs” remains the golden rule.

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Striking workers shot and killed while marching with their families

admin — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 18:57:18 +0000

On September 29, 1931, coal miners from nearby Bienfait gathered with their families, along with several hundred other miners and their families, to parade through the streets of Estevan in order to draw attention to their strike. The RCMP confronted them, attempting to block and break up the procession, then opened fire on the crowd. Three miners were killed and many others were injured and arrested. The Black Tuesday Riot is remembered to this day as a pivotal moment in Saskatchewan’s labour history.

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 wanted set daily working hours, better working conditions, the end of the company store monopoly, and a wage increase. The mining company refused to recognize either their union or their demands, so the workers went on strike on September 7.

To gain public support for their cause, the miners and their union organized a solidarity parade in the nearby town of Estevan. The mayor and town council quickly declared the march illegal and called in the RCMP to reinforce the local police.

On September 29, several hundred coal miners gathered, along with their families, for the parade. Waving the Union Jack and carrying banners that read “We will not work for starvation wages”, “We want houses, not piano boxes” and “Down with the company store”, they slowly drove from Bienfait into Estevan. They were met by a line of police, backed by the RCMP and a firetruck. Words were exchanged and a scuffle broke out. The police fired, at first to frighten the marchers, but they soon turned their weapons toward the crowd that included women and children. Within minutes, three of the striking miners were dead with more people injured.

The next morning 90 RCMP descended on the homes of the miners, arresting 13 strikers on charges of rioting. Others were arrested in the days that followed. A number of workers, including the leaders of the unions, were put on trial and sentenced to hard labour. The police who killed the three men were never charged.

The riot, police violence and murder of three men – Peter Markunas, Nick Nargan and Julian Gryshko – hardened public opinion and only grew support for the labour movement across the Prairies.

By October 6, the mine owners finally agreed to implement an eight-hour day, a minimum wage of $4 a day, reduce the rent for miners’ houses and end the company store monopoly – but they would not recognize the union (and didn’t until the Second World War).

Today, in the northwest corner of the Bienfait cemetery, there stands a single grave that holds the remains of the three murdered strikers. The tombstone reads “Least We Forget. Murdered in Estevan Sept 29 1931 by RCMP”. Over the years it has been vandalized by removing “RCMP” which was always repainted by those who remember their history.

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Industrial workers of the world (iww) declared illegal in Canada

admin — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:56:11 +0000

On September 24, 1918, the Canadian government made membership in the Industrial Workers of the World illegal. The maximum sentence for membership in the IWW was five years to be served in one of 24 internment camps.

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 August 1914, Canada’s parliament passed the War Measures Act. In 1916, the press censorship was introduced by an Order-In-Council. In total of the 253 publications banned during the war, 164 were in a language other than French or English. But it was the 1917 Russian Revolution, and its withdrawal from the war, that caused the Canadian government to crack down harder on any social dissent.

By Order-in-Council PC2384, the federal government outlawed political and labour groups, focusing on German, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish speakers. It banned freedom of association, assembly, and speech for many Canadians.

One of the labour groups banned was the radical Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or as they were known “Wobblies”. This industrial union organization had been founded in 1905 in Chicago and quickly spread across North America. By 1906, the first Canadian chapters had been formed in B.C.

The IWW espoused the idea that workers should all be in one union as opposed to the tradition of Trades. It organized all workers including women and workers of colour. It organized unskilled laborers, the poor, and recent immigrants, all who were often on the margins of society. The IWW believed in “revolutionary syndicalism” where, once organized, workers would initiate a general strike and replace capitalism with a society run by workers. The Wobblies also opposed the First World War and the price paid by working people and, as a result, became an enemy of Prime Minister Robert Borden and the Canadian government.

On September 24, 1918, Borden’s government made membership in the Industrial Workers of the World and thirteen other (primarily ethnic radical political organizations) illegal. The maximum sentence for membership in the IWW, or affiliation with the banned organizations, was five years to be served in one of 24 internment camps.

The ideas of the Wobblies were harder to stop, however. When western Canadian workers formed an organization called the One Big Union (OBU) in 1919, its ideas were closely aligned with those of the IWW. Today every time “Solidarity Forever” is sung on a picket line or at a union convention the IWW spirit lives on because that was their song!

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How a 99-day strike in 1945 changed labour relations in Canada

admin — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 18:54:34 +0000

The 1945 strike by 11,000 workers at a Ford plant in Windsor, Ontario was a turning point in Canadian labour relations. The 99-day labour dispute spread to include another 25 plants as workers walked off the job in solidarity with Ford workers. It resulted in a 3-day, worker-lead blockade of the Ford plant to stop police from moving in to break the strike – which forced the federal government to take action. It ended the strike and appointed Justice Ivan Rand to arbitrate a settlement that set the standard for union security and union representation that remains to this day.

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 though it had agreed to a similar arrangement with its American workers.

The issue of “union security” quickly became the issue in the labour dispute, because the union knew that it needed the financial security of an automatic dues checkoff system to effectively represent its members. Without it, the union steward was required to approach each worker to seek payment of union dues, and then hand out pins for them to wear to show they were members in good standing.

Negotiations stalled and, on September 12, the 11,000 workers at Ford’s Windsor plant went on strike. And the workers dug in. The thousands of soldiers who were returning to Canada and re-entering the workforce wanted a better world after sacrificing so much. They weren’t going to give up easily.

The strike closed the company’s powerhouse and shut off the heating system for the plant. As winter approached, the company grew desperate. It convinced the city and the province to mobilize hundreds of police officers to help break up the strike. In response, on November 5, 8,000 union workers from 25 plants walked off the job in solidarity with the Ford workers (and stayed out for a month without strike pay to support their families).

The next day, workers showed up with their cars and trucks and formed a blockade that stopped all traffic within 20 blocks of the Ford plant. It lasted for three days, effectively preventing a confrontation with the police force. The union’s show of strength forced the federal government to step forward with a proposal to end the strike by binding arbitration on the union membership and dues checkoff issues.

The arbitrator, Mr. Justice Ivan Rand, came up with a compromise. He provided for the dues checkoff, but not for the closed shop. All workers who benefited from the collective agreement had to pay dues to support it, but were not required to join the union. In return, the union would support all workers in enforcing the collective agreement and its benefits.

This uniquely Canadian compromise known as the “Rand Formula” eventually spread across the country, bringing with it union security and establishing the legitimacy of unions in workplaces from coast, to coast, to coast.

Since its enactment in 1946, the Rand Formula’s has come under attack many times, including a challenge based on the “freedom of expression” and “freedom of association” guarantees in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that went all the way to the Supreme Court (which unanimously ruled against the challenge).

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Labour day – a holiday born in Canada

admin — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 18:52:52 +0000

The first Monday in September has been an official holiday in Canada since 1894, and in the United States since 1892. But the origin of Labour Day came 20 years before that, when unions started holding parades and rallies in Toronto and Ottawa to celebrate the successful 1872 Toronto printers’ strike – the original “fight for fairness” that won major changes including the decriminalization of unions in Canada.

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 case with most holidays, the origins of Labour Day come from the struggles of working people and the demand for fairness. In this case, it was the movement to establish a 9-hour work day (the standard was a 12-hour work day and a 6-day work week) and a strike by printers in Toronto in the spring of 1872 to get it.

It’s the same old story: the callous and violent response of the printers’ employers – police were called in, union leaders were jailed, livelihoods were destroyed, reputations ruined – turned public opinion against the status-quo. Sensing a political opportunity to win support among Canada’s growing industrial working class (just months ahead of a federal election), Prime Minister John A. Macdonald passed the Trade Union Act, which legalized and protected union activity in Canada.

The strike ended shortly afterward. While it didn’t achieve its goal of a 9-hour work day, its legacy was long-lasting. Unions – now legal – began to demand fair wages, working hours and safer workplaces. The political class recognized that working people, as voters, were interested in issues that impacted their lives. The parades held in support of the Nine Hour Movement and the printers’ strike became annual events Toronto and Ottawa.

In 1882, an American labour leader witnessed the annual May “labour day” festivities in Toronto which inspired him to organize the first American “labor day” on September 5 that same year. The popularity of the event spread across the country. By the time President Grover Cleveland declared the first Monday of September as an official federal holiday in 1894, 30 states were already celebrating Labor Day.

In Canada, pressure had been mounting to declare a national labour holiday. On July 23, 1894 the government of Prime Minister John Thompson passed a law making Labour Day official. A huge parade took place in Winnipeg that year and the tradition of a Labour Day celebration quickly spread across Canada.

Today, hundreds of communities across Canada and the United States hold picnics, parades, concerts and marches to mark the day. Unions also keep the tradition of using Labour Day to advance workers’ rights and advocate for changes to improve the lives of working people and their families.

In Canada, this year, that tradition continues with the call for a national, publicly-administered, universal prescription drug plan – Pharmacare – for every Canadian and in every province and territory.

Join the call for a universal prescription drug plan at aplanforeveryone.ca.

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Canada’s unions step up pharmacare campaign this Labour Day

cstdenis — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 18:24:29 +0000

This Labour Day, Canada’s unions are calling on the federal government to get it right on pharmacare by creating a single-payer, universal prescription drug program for Canada.

Labour Day offers Canadians an important opportunity to reflect on the legacy of unions, to take stock of our progress and to commit ourselves to working together for a fairer future. Canada’s unions work to raise the standards for every worker, from higher wages and pensions, to better safety standards. This year, unions are working to improve the health of everyone in Canada by campaigning for universal pharmacare.

Since launching a national campaign on pharmacare last year, the Canadian Labour Congress has seen significant progress, including the creation of the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare by the federal government last spring.

“We’ve gained incredible momentum on pharmacare,” said Hassan Yussuff, CLC President. “We’ve been working closely with health coalitions, nurses unions, business groups, and a variety of medical professionals to start this overdue conversation in cities and towns right across the country. What we’ve heard time and again from Canadians is that pharmacare is the unfinished business of health care and it’s about time we get this done.”

Yussuff said that proposals by the insurance industry and Big Pharma won’t save Canadians, businesses or government money, but they will help increase those companies’ already high profits.

“More than 100,000 people across Canada have taken action to support universal pharmacare, and those numbers are growing daily,” said Yussuff. “We’ve said all along that patchwork coverage that varies from one province to another isn’t working for people in Canada, and a fill-in-the-gaps approach to pharmacare just isn’t good enough.”

The Advisory Council has launched both online and public consultations on pharmacare, and Canadians should take the opportunity to send their feedback to the government. Studies have consistently shown a majority of Canadians are struggling to afford to pay for their prescription medications, or worry about being able to afford it in the future.

“We’ve made great strides towards universal pharmacare in Canada. The government is listening, so now is our chance to get it right,” said Yussuff. “The right way forward – the only way that pharmacare will really work in Canada – is with a single-payer, universal program that covers everyone with a health card and delivers savings through bulk-buying.”

National pharmacare is both sound economic and social policy, that will have a positive impact on our communities,” Yussuff added.

For more information on the campaign visit aplanforeveryone.ca.

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First “gay rights” demonstration on Parliament Hill

admin — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 18:50:35 +0000

On August 28, 1971 demonstrators presented a manifesto entitled “We Demand” that outlined a series of demands for equal rights for gays and lesbians. This was the first public march of its kind on Parliament Hill.

Summer is the time for Pride events and marches in Canada. But while these celebrations are now somewhat commonplace in many cities across the country, just over 45 years ago a small brave group of people marched on Parliament Hill to demand what was then referred to as “gay rights” in a manifesto entitled “We Demand”.

The labour movement in Canada has been, and continues to be, a strong ally and voice for LGBTQ2SI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, 2-spirited, Intersex) rights and in fighting homophobia and transphobia in Canada – in the workplace and beyond. This includes:

Hosting committees and working groups to fight against homophobia, transphobia and harassment. Many unions have changed their own constitution to reflect this.
Negotiating a range of clauses in collective agreements that protect the rights of LGBTQ2SI workers above and beyond the law.
Bringing to court violations of LGBTQ2SI rights such as individual grievances and provisions such as marriage leave, leaves of absence, spousal benefits, and pensions plan benefits.
Mobilizing and lobbying to change laws including the Canadian Human Rights Act, equal benefits, employment equity, equal marriage and gender identity and gender expression.
Collaborating with civil society organizations, within Canada and internationally, to fight for LGBTQ2SI rights through awareness campaigns and active participation in events.

Some of the work being done by unions and the labour movement:

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Heron bridge collapse: Ontario’s worst workplace disaster

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 18:44:55 +0000

On the afternoon of August 10, 1966, a 160-foot span of a new bridge being built over the Rideau River and Canal gave way, dropping hundreds of tons of half set concrete about 60 feet into the river valley. Nine workers were killed and another 55 injured in the disaster – Ontario’s worst workplace “accident”

It’s not listed among the top tourist destinations in Ottawa, but if you are visiting the National Capital Region this summer (as many Canadians do), you may wish to pay your respects to the nine workers who went to work that day and never got to go home, and the other 55 whose lives were forever changed.

An official inquest into the disaster laid blame on the engineers, the use of green lumber and the lack of diagonal bracing on the wooden support forms, which caused them to collapse as concrete was being poured to form the bridge deck.

The consequences for those responsible – the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario suspended two of its members, reprimanded a third, and the construction company, O.J. Gaffney Limited of Stratford, Ontario, was fined $5,000 (the maximum penalty under the Construction Safety Act).

Ontario’s construction safety standards were rewritten following this incident.

In 1987, the Canadian Labour Congress placed its National Monument to Workers Killed and Injured Each Year at Work in Ottawa’s Vincent Massey Park, within sight of the bridge. It is here that the Canadian Labour Congress, the Ottawa & District Labour Council, and local unions hold their ceremony each year on April 28 to mark the National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job.

Occupational “accidents” and work-related diseases kill more than 2.3 million workers around the world each year. According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety:

“The most recent statistics from the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC) tell us that in 2016, 904 workplace deaths were recorded in Canada. Among those dead were 5 young workers aged fifteen to nineteen years; and another 20 workers aged twenty to twenty-four years.

Add to these fatalities the 240,682 claims accepted for lost time due to a work-related injury or disease, including 7,562 from young workers aged fifteen to nineteen, and the fact that these statistics only include what is reported and accepted by the compensation boards, and it is safe to say that the total number of workers impacted is even higher.

What these numbers don’t show is just how many people are directly affected by these workplace tragedies. Each workers death impacts the loved ones, families, friends and coworkers they leave behind, changing all of their lives forever.”

Ottawa Citizen:
The Ottawa bridge collapse that shocked the world

Collapse recalled on eve of Heron Road bridge renaming

Reporter Bruce Deachman on the Heron Road Bridge collapse

Picture of human error emerges from inquest into collapse of bridge (1966)

CBC-Ottawa:
‘Never be forgotten’: Heron Road Bridge renamed 50 years after deadly collapse

Families remember Heron Road Bridge disaster

Today in Ottawa’s History:
The Heron Road Bridge Disaster

Other Resources:

Canadian Labour Congress:

Health & Safety

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety

The National Day of Mourning – April 28

Huffington Post:

National Day Of Mourning: This Is How Many Canadians Die At Work

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Passage of the unemployment insurance act

admin — Sun, 05 Aug 2018 18:42:32 +0000

On August 5, 1940, the federal government passed the Unemployment Insurance Act, establishing a fundamental pillar of Canada’s social safety net. Years of political pressure from unions, social groups and the CCF (which became the NDP) forced the Liberal government to take action, even though the constitution had to be amended.

More than 75 years later, the program has been expanded and adapted to changing times – even renamed for political reasons – but today it is badly frayed by successive cuts. A few key changes would restore EI and its ability to meet the needs of employers, workers and the economy as a whole.

THIS BRIEF HISTORY SHOWS THE RISE AND FALL OF UI/EI IN CANADA.

1918 – Faced with the integration of returning soldiers back into the workforce, the Employment Officers Co-ordination Act is introduced in which the federal government subsidized provincial employment offices. The federal government also created the department of Employment Services, mandated to provide employment data and advice.

In 1919, the Government of Canada signed a draft document which recommended public unemployment insurance at the first International Labour Conference. In the same year, the federal government also appointed a Royal Commission on Industrial Relations. The Commission recommended the implementation of a national scheme of social insurance for workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

1930s – In response to high rates of unemployment caused by the Great Depression, various levels of government set up a system of “relief”. This was often limited to vouchers not cash and tied to providing labour to public works or in work camps.

March 1935 – Failed first attempt – Employment and Social Insurance Act passed third reading in Prime Minister Bennett’s Conservative government.

June – July 1935 – Dire conditions in work camps on the West Coast prompt the On To Ottawa Trek, which ends in a police instigated riot in Regina on July 1^st. Relief camps are shut down, and the incident highlights the need for a social insurance system in Canada.

October 1935 – With Bennett’s government defeated, the Employment and Social Insurance Act is never implemented. It is deemed unconstitutional the following year, because employment falls under provincial jurisdiction.

Between 1935 and 1940 – Growing pressure from unions, social groups and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF was the forerunner of the NDP) forced the Liberal government of W.L.M. King to take action.

1940 – The effects of the depression so deeply marked Canadians that the provinces unanimously agreed to change the constitution. Prime Minister King finally gets British approval and unanimous provincial support to allow UI to fall under federal jurisdiction, and the Unemployment Insurance Act passes. Only 40% of labour force covered, as seasonal workers, public servants, and others excluded. Workers are required to show they are unemployed, available for suitable work, and have contributed to the program for 180 days over the past two years. Benefits last between 6 to 52 weeks.

1955 – Under Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, an extensive overhaul of program extends benefits to approximately 75 percent of the Canadian labour force and changes benefit duration to 15 – 36 weeks.

1971 – Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau passes a new Unemployment Insurance Act that covers 96% of wage/salary-earning workers. People need 8 weeks of work over past year to qualify, with a minimum of 20 hours per week. The maximum benefit duration is raised to 50 weeks, but calculated on a complicated formula based on labour force attachment, the national and regional unemployment rate. Benefits for illness, maternity, and retirement are added.

1977 – The Trudeau government simplifies the benefit duration formula, but adds a variable entrance requirement based on the unemployment rate in the region where someone lives. Workers who live in a low unemployment region must work twice as long to qualify for benefits as workers living in a high unemployment region.

1978 – Trudeau’s government increases the number of UI regions from 16 to 48.

1990 – Prime Minister Brian Mulroney ends federal (tax dollar) contributions to the program, making UI entirely financed by worker and employer contributions. The number of UI Regions is increased to 62 and a single benefit duration schedule is introduced based on weeks of insurable earnings and the regional unemployment rate.

1990 – 1996 – Successive Conservative and Liberal governments make a number of changes that reduce the benefit amount paid to recipients, reduce the duration of benefits, and increase the weeks needed to qualify in some regions.

1996 – Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s government introduces major reforms, changing the program’s name to Employment Insurance (EI). The entrance requirement is increased substantially. In the lowest unemployment regions, for example, it increases by 240% from 20 weeks at 15 hours/week (300 hours) to 720 hours of work.

1996 – 2006 – Under successive Liberal governments, the reduced ability of unemployed workers to quality for EI benefits builds up a massive surplus of $57-billion. Rather than save the money for future employment needs, the money is taken out of the fund, and used to balance federal budgets that offer substantive tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy.

2008 – Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government establishes a new Board to govern Employment Insurance financing (Canadian Employment Insurance Financing Board), wipes out the $57B “borrowed” by the federal government and reboots the program with only $2B in EI fund. Unions take the government to court, asking for the $57B to be repaid, but the Supreme Court sides with federal government. Later that year, the Great Recession hits.

2012 – Harper’s government changes the definition of “suitable employment” so that all EI claimants are compelled to accept job offers at wages lower than their previous job – between 10% and 30% depending on previous EI usage and length of time on current claim. The appeals process is also changed from face-to-face hearings with a three member Board of Appeals to mostly written submissions decided by a single member of the Social Security Tribunal.

2013 – 2017 – see “Resources”

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Canadian postal workers go on strike for maternity leave – and win big!

admin — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 18:34:41 +0000

On June 30, 1981, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers led its members into a strike to win improved maternity leave benefits. The strike lasted 42 days and changed everything. It won 17 weeks of paid maternity leave and set a new standard for parental benefits that all workers would soon access.

In 1981 after a 42-day strike, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) won postal workers across Canada 17 weeks of paid maternity leave. The concept of longer periods of paid maternity leave than was available through unemployment insurance benefits soon became mainstream and expanded across the country.

Paid maternity leave benefits – a guaranteed period for new mothers to be away from the workplace and then return to their job – had only been established a decade earlier. Before that, a new mother had to quit her job or return to work quickly if her family depended on her income.

Work leave for new mothers was first introduced in Canada when BC introduced the Maternity Protection Act of 1921. This legislation enabled women to take a limited leave of absence before and after giving birth and made it unlawful to dismiss women for these absences. She was also permitted thirty minutes twice a day to nurse her child while at work. Employers not abiding by the legislation were subject to hefty fines.

It does not sound very progressive, but at the time, it really was. It was the only legislation of its kind in Canada at that time, and for many years afterward.

In 1940, the Unemployment Insurance Act was introduced in Canada. It did not cover maternity leave in its early decades. Maternity leave, as we currently understand it, was first introduced in BC in 1966. Five years later, the federal government followed suit, amending the Canada Labour Code.

Under the 1971 provisions, mothers with at least 20 weeks of insurable earnings could claim up to 15 weeks of benefits through the Unemployment Insurance system. It was more than a touch controversial to cover expectant and new mothers under a program intended for the unemployed, and it represented a departure from provincially administered maternity leave to a federally regulated system, as we know it today.

At the beginning of the 1960s, just over 30% of women aged 20 to 30 participated in the Canadian labour force. By the end of the 1970s, the proportion of working women had doubled to just over 60%. Today, over 70% of mothers with children under five years of age are working.

Canada’s unions soon pushed for changes to make maternity leave more accessible, not only in legislation, but also by bargaining for better maternity leave for their members. They negotiated with employers for longer leave times with higher benefits that topped up the portion of the salary paid by UI benefits. Unions also won guarantees that women could return to the jobs they held before their maternity leave, as well as expanded parental leave for new fathers and leave for parents of newly adopted children.

In 1979, Quebec’s Common Front, representing government, education and health workers negotiated 20 weeks of fully paid maternity leave, 10 weeks leave when parents adopted a child, and five days of paternity leave.

But the 1981 strike by postal workers, lead by the CUPW, proved to be the tipping point. The trend was clear: workers and their unions were demanding expanded maternity benefits and they were prepared to strike in order to get them. The following year, federal clerks, members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), and Bell telephone workers, members of the Communications Workers of Canada (CWC), negotiated paid maternity leave.

Unions didn’t stop at maternity leave. Adoption leave, paternity leave, and parental leave – available to either parent – were routinely negotiated with employers. In response, the federal government has continually improved the maternity and parental benefits offered through its employment insurance program.

Today, unions continue to advocate for improved access to parental benefits through expanded access to employment insurance benefits overall and through better access to quality and affordable childcare for all workers. Access to childcare and early childhood education provide economic benefits beyond families with young children. Allowing parents to return to the workforce and to participate fully boosts productivity and delivers proven economic benefits overall.

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Quebec women march for “bread and roses”

admin — Sat, 26 May 2018 18:32:35 +0000

The first Bread and Roses March, an initiative of the Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ), began on May 26, 1995. Over the course of 10 days, more than 800 Québécoise demonstrators set off from Montréal, Longueuil and Rivière-du-Loup and converged on Québec City with nine demands of the government to combat poverty.

In 1994, Françoise David took the helm of the Québec Women’s Federation (FFQ) with a mission to advance the fight against poverty and social exclusion.

To put pressure on the newly elected government of Jacques Parizeau, David organized a mass march, branded “Bread and Roses”. Bread symbolizing work and better economic conditions and roses symbolizing a better quality of life – the theme was a deliberate tribute to the 1912 textile workers’ strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts that was lead by women and inspired generations of union and social justice organizers.

David’s plan was to use the march to build public support for a list of demands that included increasing the minimum wage, pay equity laws, freezing tuition fees, greater social supports and improved collection of support payments.

Starting May 26, 1995, women from across Québec spent ten days marching to the provincial capital. They marched through 57 villages and followed three routes from Montréal, Longueil and Rivière-du-Loup. More than 800 women joined the march for more than one day, including 525 women who marched the 250 km from Montréal to Québec City. They converged at a rally on June 4 outside the province’s National Assembly.

The government agreed to most of the marchers’ demands, in one form or another, and put Québec well ahead of other provinces on many issues from pay equity, to child care.

The theme song of the march, Du pain et des roses, composed by Hélène Pedneault and Marie-Claire Séguin remains an anthem of the labour movements of Quebec and Canada.

The solidarity of the march inspired the 2000 “World March of Women” that continues to this day as an international project aimed at improving the lives of women around the world. Its focus on ending poverty and violence against women built solidarity and laid the foundation for work that many of Canada’s unions continue today.

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Mourn the dead: fight for the living.

admin — Wed, 09 May 2018 18:29:34 +0000

On May 9, 1992, just eight months after opening with federal and provincial government support, an underground methane explosion killed all 26 miners working in the Westray coal mine. An official inquiry into the disaster discovered profound “stupidity and neglect” on the part of the owners, but all attempts to prosecute the company and its officials failed. It took 11 years to finally change the law and make employers criminally responsible when workers are killed.

Early in the morning beneath the small town of Plymouth, Nova Scotia, a methane gas leak into the Westray mine shaft from the Foord coal seam mixed with coal dust and caused in an explosion. The sky lit up with a blue flash and homes more than a kilometer away shook with the force of blast. Within seconds 26 miners working underground on that shift were killed.

In little over an hour a team of men was down the mine on foot to attempt a rescue. They were soon joined by rescue teams from mines in Cape Breton, Pugwash and Bathurst as is the tradition of miners rushing in to help their fellow miners. But there were no survivors of this explosion.

When the explosion happened, the Westray mine was the only working underground coal mine in Pictou County, Nova Scotia’s coalfield. The coal seam there had been mined for 200 years with a long history of explosions. The nearby Allan mine, which closed in 1951, experienced eight methane explosions in its 40-years of operations.

The Westray death toll was Canada’s worst mining disaster since the 1958 “bump” in the Springhill coal mine that claimed the lives of 75 miners. Coal mining has always been dangerous work. Between 1838 and 1950, 246 Pictou County miners were killed in similar methane and coal-dust explosions. Many of them were mining the Foord seam that the Westray mine was working. Between 1866 and 1972, another 330 miners were killed in other mine related accidents. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics a worker in the coal mining industry is six times more likely to die of a job-related issue than in any other private industry on earth.

Despite these dangers, it turns out the Westray mine was an accident waiting to happen. Before the mine opened, concerns had been raised about its safety. During its construction, in July 1991, a letter was sent to the provincial Labour Minister from MLA Bernie Boudreau warning that the new coal mine “is potentially one of the most dangerous in the world.” The promise of new jobs, rich profits and political reward left those warnings and others unheeded.

Following the disaster, a provincial inquiry lead by Justice Peter Richard found “The Westray story is a complex mosaic of actions, omissions, mistakes, incompetence, apathy, cynicism, stupidity and neglect.” (The Westray Story: A Predictable Path to Disaster.) Yet, all attempts to prosecute the company and its officials for actions that lead to the deaths of 26 men failed.

Canada’s unions responded with a campaign to change the Criminal Code so corporate managers and directors who fail to take steps to protect the lives of their employees could be held criminally liable in the event of workplace deaths. Private members’ bills were introduced in Parliament only to fail until, on the fifth attempt, in 2003, the federal government enacted what would come to be known as the “Westray Bill” that provided a new framework for corporate liability in Canada.

The Westray mine site was razed in 1998 and the mine shaft sealed entombing the bodies of 11 miners. A memorial was built in a park in nearby New Glasgow approximately at the location above ground where the remaining miners were trapped. The memorial’s central monument, engraved with the names and ages of the twenty-six men who lost their lives in the disaster, states, “Their light shall always shine.” The memorial lands were protected by the Nova Scotia government and further mineral exploration is prohibited within the park.

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Unions become legal in canada (but picketing is outlawed).

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 18:28:07 +0000

On April 18, 1872, the federal government of John A. Macdonald introduced the Trade Unions Act, Canada’s first labour law, which gave workers the legal right to associate in trade unions. It was a direct response to the arrest and criminal prosecution of 24 leaders of the Toronto printers strike by Macdonald’s political opponents – aimed at garnering votes but also in recognition of the growing power of the country’s trade union movement.

Whether it is workers’ rights, working conditions, human rights or social justice, laws get changed if people stand together in solidarity. Today, unions legally fight for worker’s rights and for good jobs.

In April of 1872, unionized printers striking for the 9-hour day are arrested in Toronto and jailed. Their demand was a decrease in their work days to nine-hours at a time when some workers were expected to work for as long as 12 hours. The printers paraded with union supporters to Queen’s Park where a crowd of 10,000 strong rallied on their side. The following day employers, led by Liberal George Brown of the “Globe”, had 24 strike leaders arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy. They could do this because it was not legal for workers to use their collective action as union members to strike their employers.

Capitalizing on the political folly of Brown’s action, and growing outrage, Conservative Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald introduced and passed the Trade Unions Act, effectively making union membership legal. He further undermined Brown by removing union members from “criminal conspiracy” for taking strike action.

A shameless political manoeuvre, it won Macdonald the key support heading into a federal election. In Ottawa, union members marched to the Prime Minister’s home in celebration of the move and paraded him through the streets by torch light. It is worth noting that as it gave workers the right to join a union, Macdonald’s government simultaneously passed another act that made picketing illegal.

In the years following this “first”, unions came to realize that governments could take away rights as easily as they could be bestowed. Legal strikes, even the freedom to hold union meetings were declared criminal acts as governments saw fit.

Today, the right to belong to a union as well as the right to strike are protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as fundamental rights. Canada’s unions won these rights after years of struggle and legal arguments in the face of back-to-work legislation and collective agreements being rewritten by legal statute.

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Quebec’s working class unites with union members in a “common front” for fairness.

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 18:21:23 +0000

On April 11, 1972, over 200,000 public workers walked off the job in a province-wide general strike to demand an 8% raise to match inflation, a $100-per-week minimum wage, better job security and working conditions, and equal pay for equal work regardless of region, sector or gender.

Unions exist to help working people get organized and stand together to win a better deal for their families and their communities. Workers know that fairness is won through unity – with one another in their union local and with other locals in their union. They also need to support workers in other unions through solidarity. Often this means respecting and joining picket lines, boycotts and other actions aimed at pressuring employers. But sometimes it means joining the strike.

The origins of the Common Front can be traced back to the 1971 La Presse strike. In response to draconian anti-worker measures on the part of the Quebec government and Paul Desmarais, the new owner of La Presse, workers from several different unions joined in solidarity with the striking La Presse workers. A march of 12,000 demonstrators in support of the strikers was brutally suppressed by police, leading to riots that wounded many and resulted in the killing of Michele Gauthier, a student activist. The shared experience of the police riot created common ground for the coming together of normally competitive and divided unions.

The Common Front of 1972 was an alliance between the Confederation of National Trade Unions, the Quebec Federation of Labour, and the Quebec Teachers Corporation, as well as several smaller unions to present a united set of demands during negotiations with the provincial government. It represented 210,000 out of 250,000 public employees (84%) and demanded: an 8% increase in wages, job security, increased control over working conditions to better service provision, and a $100 per week minimum wage regardless of race, sex, religion, or job sector. When the government was unwilling to cede to these demands, the Common Front struck, and on April 11, 1972, 210 000 workers walked off the job.

The government of Robert Bourassa had ridden the swelling wave of change that was sweeping Quebec society to win power in the 1970 election. Faced with economic turmoil and the new political threat of the nationalist Parti Québecois, Bourassa’s Liberals (and the political establishment they represented) feared being scuttled. The wave needed breaking.

The province targeted its hospital workers, obtaining 61 injunctions, which the workers ignored. The response was harsh: 13 low-paid workers were jailed for 6 months and fined $5000 each (about a year’s pay) and their union was fined $70,600. Overall, 103 workers were sentenced to a total of 24 years and fined half a million dollars during a few days.

On April 21, the provincial government passed Bill 19. The new law forced unionized workers back to work and banned all fundamental trade union rights for two years. When the leaders of the Common Front – Louis Laberge, Marcel Pépin and Yvon Charbonneau – urged workers to defy the law, they were arrested, and each was sentenced to a year in jail.

“That’s the justice system,” said Brother Laberge, “while big corporations are fined $75 or $500 for polluting our rivers, killing people or breaking the law, we – the criminals – must got to jail for exercising a right – the right to strike.”

The profound unfairness of sending the three men to jail triggered popular outrage across Quebec’s working class. Over the month of May, work stoppages broke out across the province in public and private workplaces – construction and metal workers, miners, machinists, auto and textile workers, salespeople, print-shop employees, the staff of major news media, teachers and some hospital workers.

In towns like Sept-Îles, Thedford, Sorel and Joliette, the strike was profound, with people talking about the strikers “occupying” and “being in control of” workplaces. Radio and television stations were occupied by the union members, who broadcast their messages.

The massive scale of the public revolt forced the government to back down. The labour leaders were released from jail after serving four months and many of the Common Front’s demands were agreed to during negotiations. Employers across Quebec had also heard the message from their workers loud and clear and were reserved in their demands for years to come. This solidarity among Quebec’s working class would last for a generation and is one reason why union density in that province remains among the highest in the country.

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Edmonton lab worker fired for being gay wins new charter protections for all canadians.

admin — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 18:17:26 +0000

On April 1, 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned a lower court ruling and ruled that it was illegal for Canadians to face discrimination based on their sexual orientation. It was a landmark ruling that expanded the Charter of Rights and Freedoms into new territory and offered legal protection for Canada’s LBGTQ2SI community.

Canada’s unions have a long history of standing up for fairness. This includes standing up for the rights of workers in the face of homophobia and discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

In 1991, Delwin Vriend worked in Edmonton as a full-time chemistry laboratory coordinator at The King’s College, a school affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church. Openly gay and equally open about his same-sex relationship, his supervisor ordered him to “quit or be fired” after the college adopted a statement of religious belief that targeted workers like him. Vriend refused and the college fired him.

Wronged, he contacted the Alberta Human Rights Commission to file a discrimination complaint but was refused because sexual orientation was not written into the Alberta Human Rights Code and, therefore, not protected. Denied justice, he sued the provincial government and the Human Rights Commission.

In 1994, an Alberta court ruled in Vriend’s favour. Echoing previous court rulings on the matter, the judge ruled that sexual orientation should be “written in” as a protected class under human rights law. The province’s Conservative government appealed, and in 1996, the Alberta Court of Appeal overruled the decision.

Vriend appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, joined by the Canadian Labour Congress as one of the intervening parties. He won his case. The Court ruled on Vriend v. Alberta that provincial governments could not exclude protection of individuals from human rights legislation based on sexual orientation. It found no legal basis for drawing a distinction of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms between a positive act and an omission in the law – a controversial ruling because neither Alberta’s Human Rights Code nor the Charter made specific reference to sexual orientation.

With its decision, the Supreme Court read-in sexual orientation as a prohibited ground for discrimination. In response, a few religious groups and Alberta Conservative MLAs called on the governments of Alberta and Canada to invoke the “notwithstanding clause” to overrule the Court’s ruling. But the writing was on the wall and Conservative Premier Ralph Klein declined to take up the cause, even going so far as to suggest that public protests against the ruling were hateful.

The Vriend decision was one of many court challenges that saw interventions from Canada’s unions and the Canadian Labour Congress. Unions had been standing up for the rights of workers in same-sex relationships at the bargaining with employers, before legislative committees, in the courts and on the streets for years. Today, same-sex families and LGBTQ2SI workers can count on greater equality, access to the same pay, benefits and opportunities thanks to the work of unions.

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The “1000-mile picket line”.

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 18:13:21 +0000

On March 27, 1912, more than 8,000 construction workers walked off their jobs to protest the unbearable living conditions in work camps spread over 650 km of territory. Their union, the IWW, organized picket lines across the United States and Canada at employment offices to stop their employer, the Canadian Northern Railway, from recruiting scabs to undermine their strike.

By February 1912, IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) membership on the CN (Canadian Northern Railway) stood at 8,000. The government ignored the demand for adequate sanitation and an end to piece-rate or “gypo” wages. (The term “gypo” was a slang term for a logger working by the piece, or by the thousand board feet, for a wage or any other type of piece-rate work.)

On March 27, no longer able to tolerate the unbearable living conditions in the work camps, the 8,000 “dynos and dirthands” walked out. The strike extended over 400 miles of territory, but the IWW established a “1,000-mile picket line” as Wobs (short for “Wobblies” as members of the IWW began to be called that year)picketed employment offices in Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, San Francisco, and Minneapolis to halt recruitment of scabs.

Meanwhile, the strike camps were so well run and disciplined that the press began calling the Yale camp in particular a “miniature socialist republic.” While not going that far, the west coast IWW weekly, Industrial Worker, proudly pointed to this example of working class solidarity in which Canadians, Americans, Italians, Austrians, Swedes, Norwegians, French and other countrymen – one huge melting pot into which creed, colour, flag, religion, language and all other differences had been flung -were welded together in common effort. Even “demon rum” was proscribed, which alone indicates the seriousness of the strikers.

Authorities arrested the strikers by the thousands for “unlawful assemblage” and vagrancy. Many were forcibly deported, forcibly at gunpoint. But the picket lines held. In August they were joined by 3,000 construction workers on the Grand Trunk Pacific in BC and Alberta. The entire action, better known as the Fraser River Railway Strike, was popularized in song by Joe Hill‘s “Where the Fraser River Flows.” The strike also spawned the nickname Wobbly. A Chinese restaurant keeper who fed strikers reputedly mispronounced “IWW” in asking customers “Are you eye wobble wobble?” and the name stuck.

The CN strike lasted until the fall of 1912, when exhausted strikers settled for a few minor improvements: better sanitary conditions and a temporary end to the gypo system. The BC Grand Trunk strike was called off in January 1913 after the Dominion government promised to enforce sanitation laws. A greater gain was development of the “camp delegate” system in which the IWW secretary in town delegated a worker to represent him in the field – a method later refined into the permanent “Job Delegate” system of the roving Agricultural Workers.

Other unique features of the strike are worth mentioning. One, used again in the 20’s on the Northern Railway strike in Washington, was to “scab on the job” by sending convert Wobs into scab camps to bring the workers out on strike. Another came in response to the “free” transportation offered scabs by the Railways on condition a man’s luggage was impounded until such time as his strike breaking wages repaid the fare. Large Wob contingents signed on, leaving the Railways with cheap suitcases stuffed with bricks and gunnysacks, and then deserted en route.

_{Excerpt (edited for language and to include hyperlinks) from THE IWW IN CANADA, by G. Jewell 1975, IWW General Administration/Chicago

http://www.spunk.org/texts/groups/iww/sp000476.txt}

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The hogg’s hollow disaster killed five workers, galvanized a community, and changed workplace health and safety laws for the better.

admin — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 18:11:54 +0000

On March 17, 1960 five Italian-born workers were killed while building a Toronto water main tunnel under the Don River. The deaths of these five immigrant workers shocked their community, mobilized unions and resulted in badly-needed changes to workplace health and safety laws.

Working conditions on today’s construction sites and factory floors, in schools, office buildings, warehouses, restaurants – any workplace, really – are often taken for granted. We see fire extinguishers and sprinklers, first aid stations and emergency exits. We see the safety barriers, the hard hats, and the labels that warn of explosives, poisons and burns. We know they are there to keep us safe, but forget how they got there in the first place.

In 1960, work on the Hogg’s Hollow water main was in full swing. Built under the Don River to connect a pumping station with the water distribution on the other side, the work was done mostly by hand, in cramped and confined quarters 10 meters underground. It was also nearly a year behind schedule, the result of a failed contractor, faulty equipment and other delays. Pressure to finish the work resulted in corners being cut with disastrous consequences.

The underground workers that build tunnels for city water works and subways are known as “sandhogs”, and their working conditions were often more reminiscent of the 19th century than a modern, post-war Canadian city.

Workers later testified that the tunnels lacked fire extinguishers and resuscitators, the timber supports were not strong enough, grout was not used on the floor of the tunnel to keep out sand and silt, and there were no extra air compressors. They didn’t even have flashlights. In spite of these issues, the site had been deemed to meet the safety standards of the day.

Late on Thursday March 17, hours after work should have stopped, a dozen workers were still underground welding steel plating in a compression chamber west of Yonge Street when a fire started and smoke began to fill the main tunnel. A valve that would have allowed the smoke to blow out of the tunnel would not open.

Firefighters arrived quickly, but were told to wait at least 30 minutes before watering the tunnel for fear it would collapse. While half of the workers had managed to escape down the tunnel to the east, the rest were trapped inside with riding temperatures, toxic smoke and rising levels of sand, silt and water. Two workers tried to get down to the trapped men and thought they heard at least three voices moaning, but were forced back by the intense heat. The next day Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Carriglio, Giovanni Fusillo, and brothers Alessandro and Guido Mantella were dead – poisoned by carbon monoxide and drowned.

A coroner’s jury later ruled that the deaths were preventable, “the inevitable result of the failure to implement and enforce regulations.” The resulting media coverage, community outrage and demands from unions forced the Ontario government to call a Royal Commission, which led to new regulations on fire protection, worker safety in tunnels and the first overhaul of the province’s labour laws in nearly 40 years. It also spurred the organization of more construction workers and more immigrant workers into unions, so they could stand up for their rights, health and safety.

Disasters like the tragedy at Hogg’s Hollow, the Heron Road Bridge collapse in Ottawa, and the Westray Mine cave in years later all changed workplace health and safety laws by shining a light on the unsafe and, in the case of the five immigrant workers killed at Hogg’s Hollow, unfair conditions faced too often by many working people. In 1984, the Canadian Labour Congress established a National Day of Mourning for workers killed and injured on the job to keep pressure on employers and politicians.

Today, unions continue to stand up for fairness, safety and the health of workers with winning campaigns to ban asbestos, prevent workplace harassment and violence, win supports for workers experiencing domestic violence, and help working people struggling with mental illness.

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A day rooted in women’s ongoing struggle for fairness, economic equality and social justice.

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 19:11:19 +0000

March 8, 1975 marked the first declaration of International Women’s Day (IWD) by the United Nations, but its roots trace back to a 1909 protest in support of women garment workers in New York City. Unions have been key to changing the lives of working women – from the bread and roses movement, to bargaining (and striking) to win parental and family benefits, pay equity and breaking the silence around sexual harassment and domestic violence.

Celebrated on March 8 every year, International Women’s Day (IWD) is fundamentally a political protest about conditions in the workplace and society. The day has moved around over the past century finally settling on March 8^th in 1975. Its roots go back to a 1909 protest organized by the Socialist Party of America in New York in honour of the women garment workers’ strike held the year before. Protest continues in the coming years on the last Sunday in February calling for improved working conditions and equal rights.

The idea for a formal day of action belongs to Luise Zietz, who initially championed the cause at the 1910 International Women’s Conference in Copenhagen, organized to precede a general meeting of the Second International. Delegates from 17 countries agreed to promote equal rights and voting rights for women on an annual basis. On March 19^th, 1911, protests in Germany, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland marked the first truly international day. Over 1 million women and men rallied to demand the right to vote, the right to work, to vocational training and to end workplace discrimination.

During World War I, women in Europe protested on March 8^th, 1914, calling for an end to war and to express worker solidarity. In 1917, Russian women called for a “Bread and Peace” strike on the last Sunday in February, which fell on March 8^th in the Gregorian calendar – an event that marks the start of the Russian Revolution.

The day was finally entrenched on March 8^th in 1975, when the United Nations declared International Women’s Year (IWY). In Canada, IWD and IWY have been platforms to demand equal citizenship, voting rights, pay equity, reproductive rights, Indigenous rights, childcare, equality and justice.

Today, unions work with community groups, national organizations and international partners to win a better deal for women and their families including: comprehensive pay equity, a national public child care program, workplace support for victims of domestic violence, and ending the culture of discrimination and harassment.

Women and their unions are #donewaiting and working together for fairness from employers and governments.

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Rideau canal workers riot in the streets to protest poor wages and working conditions

admin — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 19:07:45 +0000

On March 2, 1829, hundreds of canal workers threw down their tools and took to the streets of the country’s future capital to protest low wages and brutal working conditions. In an era before workers had unions, the only means available for them to protest unfairness was to riot in the streets. Today, the rights to union membership, collective bargaining and, when all else fails, to strike give millions of workers in Canada a better way to stand up for fairness.

In the early days of colonial settlement into “the Canadas”, some of the largest construction projects were the building of canals to secure safe routes for the movement of people and the trade of goods. The 1820s saw major undertakings across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River regions including the Lachine Canal at Montréal, the Welland Canal to connect Lakes Erie and Ontario, and the Rideau Canal to connect Montreal with Kingston by way of the Ottawa, Rideau and Cataraqui Rivers.

Work in canal construction was hard and done by hand using small tools, picks and shovels. There was little use of animals, so the rocks and soil the workers dug was hauled away by wheelbarrow. A canal “Navvie”, short term for navigator, worked 14 to 16 hour days, 6 days a week.

Working conditions were often deplorable. During construction of the Rideau Canal, around 1000 workers lost their lives to worksite injuries or disease. Some died during the blasting of rock, others drowned in rivers or swamps, but most died from diseases like “Ague” or “swamp fever”, a form of malaria carried by mosquitos. Today, the canal is dotted with monuments and memorials to the men and women who toiled and died along its length.

Workers were also vulnerable to exploitation. The money earned by workers was vulnerable as the men who hired them also acted as sellers of food, shelter, whiskey and tobacco – an early “company store”. In winter, there was often little other work available to support a family. Often, workers found themselves pitted against one another in a struggle for limited work – protestant workers vs catholic workers, French-speaking workers vs English-speaking workers – all to the advantage of employers.

However, some of the early struggles at Bytown managed to unite all workers. The March 2, 1829 riot was not the first time workers had risen up to protest poor pay and working conditions. Work on the Rideau Canal stopped three times in 1827 because of worker protests.

Throughout history, workers have found power when they came together and worked for the common good. In 1167 BC, there is recorded history of organized work-action during the building of the pyramids in Egypt. Angry about poor treatment and food rations, workers downed their tools until the Pharaoh conceded to their demands. Craft guilds formed in medieval Europe as a means for skilled workers to control the quality of their craft and the value of their labour. The trade and industrial unions of the 19th and 20th centuries transformed society, taking the working-class out of the world written about by Dickens and into the prosperity of the middle class.

Today, where workers have rights to unions, collective bargaining and to legally strike, it is rare for them to riot over working conditions. However, working people do still take to the streets when it is time to demand fairness – often with the help of the labour movement and union members. The “fight for 15 and fairness” and public campaigns to expand public pensions, pharmacare, and ban asbestos are recent examples of how unions help working people make a difference.

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Workers in the federal public service win the right to collective bargaining, including the right to strike

admin — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 19:05:42 +0000

On February 23, 1967 the Public Service Staff Relations Act (Bill C-170) received royal assent after two long years of making its way through Parliament. The new law gave bargaining rights to workers in the federal public service – including the right to arbitration and the right to strike.

Workers in the federal public service were organizing themselves into unions for over 75 years before finally winning the same labour rights enjoyed by other Canadians. The first union, formed in 1891, was the Federated Association of Letter Carriers. In 1918, FALC lead postal workers in the very first countrywide strike of federal government employees, which, while illegal, won fairer wages and work hours for its members.

Unions were not legally recognized within the federal public service even in 1965, when another postal union, the Canadian Postal Employees Association, (the forerunner of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers), who represented inside workers went on a national ‘wildcat’ strike to protest poor working conditions and the lack of union recognition.

The early 1960s was a time of militancy and organizing for workers in the federal public sector, driven by the authoritarian management style of civil service managers and the lack of staff input into their wages and working conditions. The cancellation of wage increases –twice – by the Conservative government of the day was the final straw for many. Postal workers turned to the recently formed Canadian Labour Congress, which trained hundreds of new organizers within their ranks. This training was put to good use in the coming years.

The election of a new minority Liberal government in 1963, which had promised to bring collective bargaining rights to federal employees gave hope and spurred on organizing efforts. The Civil Service Association of Canada and Civil Service Federation along with the Professional Institute called for collective bargaining rights. Postal workers also wanted the right to strike, but the Federation was content to have disputes go to arbitration.

The Liberals, meanwhile, dragged their feet until July 22, 1965 when postal workers started an illegal strike that forced the government into action. It introduced C-170, the Public Service Staff Relations Act later that year. While there was widespread support for giving bargaining rights to federal employees, there was sharp division over giving them the right to strike.

Organizing and advocacy on the part of workers won the day, bringing significant changes to labour relations between the federal government and, eventually, provincial and territorial governments and their workers. On February 23, 1967 Canada became just the third country, joining Sweden and France, to allow its public sector workers to go on strike.

Federal government employees responded by joining unions in record numbers. The Civil Service Association of Canada and Civil Service Federation joined forces to create the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). Between them, they had majority support in most job categories of the federal government, which allowed them for the first time to address many issues for their members.

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The asbestos miners’ strike begins

admin — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 19:03:09 +0000

On midnight February 14, 1949, workers at four Quebec asbestos mines walked off the job and with that action started a major political and cultural shift not only in that province but the history of Canada. It was, as Pierre Trudeau later wrote, “a violent announcement that a new era had begun.”

“What I found [at Asbestos]… was a Quebec I did not know, that of workers exploited by management, denounced by government, clubbed by police, and yet burning with a fervent militancy. I was later to describe the strike . . . as a “turning point in the entire religious, political, social and economic history of the province of Quebec.”

_{P. E. Trudeau, Approaches to Politics. 2010}

The conservative Union Nationale was the government of Quebec. The Premier, Maurice Duplessis, was known as “Le Chef,” ruling the province with a strong hand. Supporters benefited from patronage, those in opposition were punished. His time in office has been called La Grande Noirceur (“The Great Darkness”). He championed a rural Quebec working with the Catholic Church to protect the population from the evils of Communism and militant Unions that would jeopardise American industrial investment.

In 1937 his government enacted the “La loi du cadenas” / “Loi protégeant la province contre la propagande communiste”, (Act to protect the Province Against Communistic Propaganda or as it was known the ‘Padlock Law’). This act made it illegal to use a dwelling to propagate Communism or Bolshevism. A violation would allow the Attorney General to padlock the building for up to one year. A person guilty of involvement in prohibited activities could be jailed for thirteen months. (In 1957 the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the law.) So when the miners struck their employers they also were taking on the right wing provincial government of Duplessis.

The miners wanted a wage of $1 per hour, union security, a pension, and action to check the spread of lung choking ‘silicosis’ caused by exposure to asbestos. They did not have to wait long for premier to respond to their demands. On February 23 their strike was declared illegal and Duplessis dispatched a battalion of provincial police to the small town of Asbestos. For over two months calm in the community was preserved with almost a holiday atmosphere as people strolled about with music entertainment for the workers and their families but all that was soon to change.

Quebec supplied 85% of the world’s asbestos and the American Johns Manville Company began to hire replacement workers. The police supported them by intimidation and threatening the miners, breaking up their picket lines, even padlocking a church to prevent the miners from meeting there. The strikers fought back setting up roadblocks to prevent the “scabs” from entering the town. On March 14 someone set off an explosion on the railway track leading into the plant and a company official was beaten by the workers.

Duplessis called the strikes “saboteurs” and “subversives.” At the picket lines the police attacked the strikers with tear gas and fired warning shots into the air. Strikers responded by dragging police from their cars and beat them. On May 6 a heavily armed provincial police force arrived arresting several strikers and beating them in the process. However, now there was a photographer for Time magazine as a witness making the strike worldwide news and the brutality of the police the central issue. Journalist Gérard Pelletier labelled them “Hitler’s elite troops.”

The culture that had allowed the Union Nationale to rule with an iron fist was cracking. Young intellectuals like future Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau came from Montreal to the support of the miners. The traditionally conservative union movement of the “Canadian Catholic Confederation of Labour (CCCL),” originally set up by the church to keep workers away from communist and radical unions, was itself fighting back against their employers and the government. Workers cheered militant union leader Jean Marchand when he spoke. Even the traditionally conservative Catholic Church found it was in sympathy with the strikers raising support to sustain the miner’s families.

The strike ended on July 1^st with Archbishop Roy mediating a settlement. While Quebec was starting its Quiet Revolution the workers would have to wait. Many were not rehired, those that were continued to work in one of the most dangerous workplaces in the world. Trudeau, Marchand and Pelletier, would go on to play profound roles in shaping the political developments of Quebec and Canada. As for asbestos the health and safety struggles of 1949 continue to play out as it has taken Canada until this year to start banning it proposing the prohibition of the use, sale, import and export of asbestos and products containing the hazardous material.

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Jean-Claude Parrot, President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, is sent to prison for defying a back-to-work law

admin — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 18:33:49 +0000

On January 29, 1980, Jean-Claude Parrot started serving a three-month prison term for defying Parliament after it imposed back-to-work legislation on his members, who had walked off the job in frustration after 18 months of fruitless bargaining and employer shenanigans.

Labour relations between Canada Post and the workers who sort and deliver the mail for people have rarely been good. Between 1965 and 1978, there were seven strikes. A number of those strikes were illegal. In 1974, for example, an illegal strike was what it took to get fair wages for women who operated coder machines, a job dominated by women classified as low pay.

In 1977, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) was ready to negotiate a new collective agreement and was seeking to address a number of issues: the conversion of part-time and overtime hours into full-time jobs, the impact of technological change, working hours and maternity leave. The employer (the federal government), rather than negotiate in good faith, responded with political interference, misinformation and confrontation.

Remember: at this time, Canada Post operated as a department of the federal government, controlled by Parliament and, more directly, by Cabinet and the Minister responsible (the Postmaster-General). It was not until 1981 that it became a Crown Corporation – another longstanding demand of the CUPW – and governed by the Canada Labour Code.

In the summer of 1977, leaked government documents revealed the Trudeau government was working hard to subvert the union by dealing with postal workers directly (divide and conquer!). Workplace union meetings and the distribution of union literature – as allowed in the collective agreement – were banned (the ban was later overturned by an arbitration ruling). Antiquated public sector bargaining rules were reinstated to remove issues from bargaining, including items already in the collective agreement. Under a system where the employer had the power to make, change, and enforce the rules as it pleased, Canada’s postal workers became very frustrated and jaded about their chances of reaching a fair and just collective agreement.

Finally, on October 17, 1978, after 18 months of frustrated negotiations, postal workers across the country walked off the job to start a legal strike. The federal government responded by introducing and passing back-to-work legislation in the House of Commons that same day, ordering an end to the strike. When the law received Royal Assent the following afternoon, the workers refused to comply. CUPW’s president, Jean-Claude Parrot, and the union’s national executive chose to ignore what they saw as an unjust law and refused to order an end to the strike.

Within a week, on October 25, while the union was in meetings with the federal Minister of Labour, the RCMP conducted a raid on CUPW’s offices. Canada Post then declared that it would fire workers who did not return to their jobs, arguing they had abandoned their posts. In order to protect the jobs of its members, the union ended the strike that day, telling workers to return with their heads held high, as negotiations would continue.

Nevertheless, the government had other plans. Two days later, they rounded up the entire CUPW national executive and placed them under arrest. Bail conditions set for Parrot included requiring him to declare an end to the strike that had already ended. In March 1979, a new collective agreement was imposed on postal workers. The next month, after a seven-day trial, a federally appointed judge sentenced Jean-Claude Parrot to three months in jail and 18 months’ probation for defying Parliament.

Parrot reported to jail the following January to begin serving his time – missing the federal election that saw the politicians responsible for his fate returned to power, after having been defeated at the polls shortly after he was sentenced. In jail, Parrot received more than a thousand letters of support from all across Canada, some written by children.

Years later, Parrot would become an Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress, representing Canadian workers nationally and internationally as a representative to the International Labour Organization. Since his retirement in 2002, Parrot continues to stand up for the rights of working people. He published his memoires, My Union, My Life, in 2005.

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