Articles
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Tech Tips & Tools For Change
Katie Arnup at Unifor is the first Canadian unionist I’ve seen, to date (besides me), to use a badge on Facebook: a small logo or other graphic in the corner of a user’s photo. It’s an inexpensive way for union members to show their allegiance to, and play a small but collectively important part in, campaigns such as ... Keep reading…
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Standing Strong In A Precarious World
Retail Workers Keep Their Statutory Holidays
It’s hard to imagine, but a significant public policy campaign launched by retail workers in Canada began with the pages of the right-leaning Toronto Sun newspaper. Keep reading…
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Tribute To Linda Jolley (1945-2013)
In April of next year, a health and safety symposium is being held in Elliot Lake to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Steelworkers’ wildcat strike to protest the conditions in the mines. It’s truly painful that Linda will not be there. Keep reading…
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Meeting Members’ Needs
I suspect I was being baited, as a LabourStart emailer when, out for dinner with some union friends recently, I was treated to an “email is dead” screed. The argument was that email has become so ubiquitous and routine that it gets no real attention. And because so much of what we receive is junk, unless the message is coming from someone we trust, we delete it without even opening it.There’s some truth to that, particularly regarding trusting the sender. To which my response is: get t… Keep reading…
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The Movement And The Message
Okay, close your eyes and think of the Canadian labour movement. What do you see? C’mon, be honest. You’re picturing a middle-aged white guy, sporting a robust beer belly under an XL union t-shirt, likely with placard in hand, defiantly standing on a picket line. Keep reading…
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The Digital Divide Where We Live
I need a list of things that I should be reminded of regularly. Age, or perhaps resilient enthusiasms that fly in the face of reality, are the culprits behind my forgetting. Top of the list is that the digital divide isn’t a Global South vs. Global North thing. It’s a “my neighbourhood” thing.As I was writing this column, my attention was drawn to comments made by some pretty active (online and in meatspace) trade unionists about Canada Post and probable service cuts. Asked to support ... Keep reading…
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Knowing The Words And Your Rights
It’s a rainy evening in late February as men and women enter the British Columbia Federation of Labour building, set on Joyce Street among aging storefronts in a south Vancouver neighbourhood. Heading to a classroom, the group passes a series of framed images lining the hallway, including a photograph of a funeral procession in 1918. Keep reading…
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Workers Who Are Migrants
A Dialogue About Global Labour Migration
“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us walk together.“Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal activistQuick! Tell me what comes to mind when you hear the term “migrant workers.” If you had images or thoughts of pitiful working conditions, cruel treatment and unjust immigration policies, you get five points (okay, make that six). But why not a perfect 10?It seem… Keep reading…
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Bangladesh: Learning The Right Lessons
The deaths of more than 1,000 workers in the Rana Plaza building collapse in April provoked a flurry of activity among campaigning organizations around the world. In particular, the online campaigners - groups like Avaaz, Change.org, and the relatively new SumOfUs.org - rushed to get out campaigns in response. These were all roughly along the same lines: we Western consumers must pres… Keep reading…
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Why So Little Public Response From Labour To Bangladesh’s Giant Tragedy?
Letters to Our Times’ Editor
I am writing on behalf of the Canadian Labour Congress Pensioners’ and Retirees’ Association to protest the weak response from the Canadian labour movement to the factory fires in Bangladesh, and to the recent building collapse there, which killed over 1,100 workers. While there have been quite a few online statements of outrage and solidarity, some fundraising efforts, and support for LabourStart’s onli… Keep reading…
