Articles
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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…
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Why We Should Boycott Caterpillar
When Caterpillar locked out over 400 employees in London, Ontario on New Year’s Day 2012, it did not do so because it was unprofitable. In January 2012, Caterpillar reported a 58 per cent rise in quarterly earnings. Its retiring CEO received compensation in 2012 of $22.5 million and the new CEO in 2011 was paid $10.4 million. Caterpillar locked out its employees to show its power, and its unyielding opposition to unions and collective bargaining. It is setting up in Georgia in a non-union pla… Keep reading…
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Webwork: Facebook’s Making Money
Some days it feels like Facebook is taking over the world. Many more days like the one on which I put this column together and it’ll be hard to conclude it hasn’t.It’s always worth a bit of time to check in with the opposition to see what they’re doing and perhaps learn a few things in the process. What corporations are doing with platforms like Facebook is more than a little instructive, even if you don’t face them across the table. Take the “web volunteers” network, for example. Many… Keep reading…
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Social (justice!) Media
The week I start trying to speak with labour movement folks using social media in their work, no one is taking my calls. I try not to take it personally. After all, the Occupy Wall Street movement has just begun fanning out across Canada and my social media experts are very, very busy. Keep reading…
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What’s Wrong With Caterpillar?
Local 27 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union were locked out on New Year’s Day by Caterpillar Inc.‘s Electro-Motive Diesel in a callous display of corporate might, by a company that may be intending to leave Canada. The 465 CAW members in London, Ontario, voted by 97 per cent on December 30 for strike action and, 24 hours later, just as they were returning to jobs on New Year’s Eve following a holiday shutdown, they were locked out. Paul Bruder has worked at Electro-Motive… Keep reading…
