Articles
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Split Shifts And Spinning Solidarity
LIBRARY WORKERS IN THE REAL WORLD
Kamikaze politicians. That’s my label for North America’s growing cohort of public administrators who seem to reject the ideas of both “the public” and “administration,” while inserting themselves into the governments and services they condemn. Keep reading…
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Time for Union Renewal
Starting the Conversation: Part Two
Unions need to reach out to their own members and the many others whom the economy is not adequately serving, and develop a short list of common objectives that place improved security, well-being and community development at the forefront of the new kind of conversation Canada so desperately needs. Keep reading…
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Webwork: Leadnow’s Great (internet) Leap Forward
Leadnow.ca is a youth-led pro-democracy NGO with some interesting folks, including Judy Rebick, on their advisory board. Until recently, they were known mostly (at least, by me) for their attempts to organize younger folks to vote. In early June, they organized actions at the constituency offices of over 80 MPs, demanding that they commit to breaking up Bill C-38, the budget implementation bill, to allow for proper debate on the… Keep reading…
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Making Workers’ Health A Public Concern
Canadian workers and their families gave up their right to sue employers for workplace-related injury, illness or death many decades ago. In exchange, they agreed to the transfer of the power and resources to maintain healthy and safe worksites, and to provide just compensation for workplace deaths and injuries, to various provincial and federal bodies in an implied social contract. That social contract no longer works. Keep reading…
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Webwork: Smartphones And Workers
Last issue you were treated (?!) to a rant. This time I’m giving you a bunch of shorter items, leaving less room for my opinions. Mebbe.At LabourStart, we recently made an effort to track the ways that work best for getting the word out about our campaigns. It’s difficult for a volunteer organization of people with wildly varied tech expertise to be consistent, so our little survey was definitely not scientific. But it might be instructive, even so. The results aren’t at all surprising… Keep reading…
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Beating The Corporate Campaign To Privatize Water
We’ve all heard that water is the new gold. Global water shortages, combined with the thirst of multinational corporations to profit from a resource that is essential for all human, plant and animal life, has created a gold rush. And Canada, which has seven per cent of the world’s renewable freshwater, is the new frontier. Keep reading…
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Why And How Unions Need To Use Film And Videos
An Interview with Teresa Marshall
Teresa Marshall specializes in using creative arts and media to connect grassroots issues with international movements for change. A former Canadian television journalist turned labour organizer, she currently serves as communications coordinator for the global union federation Public Services International, based in France. I recently spoke to her for an article for Our Times magazine on unions making and using films and videos, called “Lights… Keep reading…
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Retail Workers Make History
People often see retail work as destined to be temporary, low paid, erratic, and without benefits. Some think that retail workers should simply accept whatever demands are made on them by managers and corporate chains, and not expect to have many rights or protections. But several young women and men are determined to change these perceptions, and the realities of retail work. On October 6, 2011, workers at the trendy fashion chain H&M in Mississauga’s Square One mall, in Toronto, vote… Keep reading…
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Webwork: New Model Website
In the last edition of WebWork I mentioned how employers were using workers, often union members, to project a positive corporate image on platforms like Facebook - a process that could be described as organizing an army of online supporters. The theme for this column came to me as I was listening in on preparations for the rally in London, Ontario, on January 21, in support of the locked-out workers at Electro-Motive Diesel, owned by Caterpillar. Like it or not, we do fall into using terms l… Keep reading…
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Justice For Aboriginal Peoples
It’s Time
“We want our kids to grow up to become whatever they want to be; to have fulfilling lives and not to be disadvantaged from the beginning,” says Mike Ballard, who works as a fishery officer field supervisor for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in Campbell River, B.C. A Métis, Ballard is speaking of the reasons behind the union campaign called “Justice for Aboriginal Peoples — It’s Time.” Keep reading…
